It surely can't be too long before we see an all-in-one electronic device to suit every need. It will play DVDs of any standard, record one or more television programs simultaneously (and decrypt pay-TV), stream across the home network to a notebook or projector or, via the integrated Web server, connect to the Internet, the integrated audio and video database, allow remote control from your smartphone via WLAN or Bluetooth, have countless interfaces and memory card readers.....just to mention a few of the possibilities.
Creating such a multi-purpose device will take a good deal of hard work from committed manufacturers. Before this can happen, however, a number of conditions will have to be already fulfilled. VIA has been developing several products based on its own Mini ITX format creation. There are certainly a number of areas where miniature PCs could provide a valuable service right now, whether in the shape of hi-fi components or as the nerve center of an in-car multimedia system.
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