BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Excito is an AppleTV-a-like puck which hooks up to your home network and lets you stream TV, music and movies to any stereo or screen in the house.
So what, right? The Apple TV already does that? The difference is that the Excito only uses your phone as a remote, and streams the content either direct from the internet, or from your own local media server. Oh, and it costs around half the price if the already-cheap Apple TV.
The little Excito runs on Android 4.0, and can be updated over the internet with new features and updates – adding new streaming services, for example. It is currently controllable only with an Android app, but an iPhone app is coming in April, closely followed by versions for the iPad and other tablets.
The box is currently available in Sweden, supplied by your TV provider. You can browse available content regardless of channel, and stream anything from the Excito NAS box (around $250 for 2GB, and you can plug in more storage via the network or USB). Once the music or movies are running, you can walk away – the music isn’t coming from your phone.
You can also check what is being sent to other boxes on your network. Say you’re in the bath, listening to some Brian Eno whilst smoking a fine Cuban cigar and sipping a pre-embargo rum. Pull out your phone and you can quickly make sure that the kids are in fact watching Saving Private Ryan and not Shaving Ryan’s Privates.
If you’re Swedish, or at least living in Sweden, then you already have access. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for your telco to pick it up.
Source: Excito
