Surprise, surprise, surprise: Cisco demos Apple TV-like device

20 years ago

“Cisco Systems Inc. is getting ready to give the Apple Inc. iTV a run for its money,” Phil Harvey reports for Light Reading. “At CES this week the company was selectively, somewhat secretly, demonstrating a ‘home media adapter’ that serves up all photos, videos, and music from all the PCs, phones, MP3 players, and other storage devices connected to the home network.”

Harvey reports, “Cisco’s upcoming media adapter is in trials with some consumers. But the hardware design is being perfected by industrial designers, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the device, which was demo’ed from behind a black curtain in a suite at the Bellagio on Wednesday.”

“This device, sure to be the workhorse in Cisco’s connected home strategy, will aggregate and serve any media from any device in the home. It will also allow for purchasing video, audio, and other entertainment without requiring a set-top box,” Harvey reports. “In the Bellagio demo, Cisco’s content included movies from CinemaNow , a firm in which Cisco has invested.”

Harvey reports, “The Cisco media adapter will be available before the end of 2007. As with other Linksys gear, Cisco will sell it through service providers that want to offer it, in addition to having it available from major consumer electronics retailers.”

“In the meantime, however, the company is about to debut a new generation of its networked DVD player, called the KiSS DP-1600, in Europe,” Harvey reports. “The device will allow users access to walled-garden content in addition to allowing them to view content on their TVs from any networked device in the home. Oh, and the thing plays DVDs, too.”

Harvey reports, “On the back are connections for composite video, S-Video, component video, HDMI, optical audio, and Ethernet. The box also sports two 802.11 b/g wireless antennas. While it’s not clear when the device will come to the U.S., Sohl says the DP-1600 will be available in Europe this Spring.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “sj” for the heads up.]
Okay, who called Jim Cramer nuts? See: Jim Cramer: Why Cisco really sued Apple – January 11, 2007.