The opening month of this year has seen lots of new gadgets and projects come out of some of the most successful, and some newcomer, companies in the tech industry. From explosions over at the SpaceX landing site to miniature full computer chips being announced over at Intel, it seems like the tech trade is moving away from more traditional fields of laptop and cell phone – indeed, things are on their way up, but also in some ways being scaled down.
In another big gadget announcement following their taunting of Samsung and Apple over their mobile phones, Xiaomi have announced that they will be re-entering the media streaming game in a small capacity – not with a small plan but with a small product. The company’s new Mi Box Mini media streaming device is apparently ready for sale, priced up to hit stores.
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The device is a wee one – measuring in at just a quarter of the size of the existing Mi box, small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. However things are not always as they seem these days, and in true modern tech style the Mi box mini packs a serious punch for its size on the hardware front.
With a quad core 1.3GHz Cortex A7 processor from MediaTek and 1GB of RAM on board, the device is able to get the job done pretty well, and on top of that has its own dedicated 4GB of storage space for files – although you may want to invest in slightly more if you plan on saving your shows. Of course, to get online you’ll also need the tools – an operating system and an antennae. The Mi Box Mini comes equipped with Android and dual band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
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The Mi Box Mini plugs straight into the wall, amazingly, and, with included HDMI cable, plumb it into a television in order to get hold of all your streaming shows and other services. It is awesome, but strangely enough Xiaomi have shrewdly withheld info on whether the device will show up outside China for the time being. Maybe it’s for a good reason though, as if the $30 device does hit US soil it’ll be up against some heavy hitters such as Chromecast and other media streamers.
So, for now, we can only bring you the info on the Mi Box Mini, and not any info on pricing and availability. The device is admittedly really cool – it plugs straight into the wall and is about the size of a universal travel adapter. However, you might not see it leaving China quite yet.
Via: Engadget
Via: Techspot