Stick PCs - computers contained in a system no bigger than a USB key and which, when mated with a monitor, develop into full desktop PCs - have been round for a while. However, they have not too long ago began to achieve extra visibility, primarily due to their extremely-portability, minimal energy/area wants and ease of use. They will not be very helpful for issues like airline flights, but they open the way in which for carrying around presentations, creating public kiosks and permitting you to make use of another’s laptop with out needing to entry their information (or allowing them to by accident entry yours). While there have been different stick PCs available on the market, the class has gained extra visibility with the imminent introduction of Intel’s new Compute Stick. I checked out a pre-production model of the Compute Flixy Stick official and was impressed by its skill to turn a display right into a mild-responsibility deskbound pc. The $150 Compute Stick is all about miniaturization and packaging.
Its black plastic and metal case bears the "Intel Inside" brand, weighs simply 1.9 oz. and measures 0.4 x 1.5 x 4.5 in., solely a bit of larger than a car’s key fob. If the Flixy TV Stick blocks any other ports on the monitor, you should utilize it with the included 7.5-in. HDMI extension cable, which is able to keep it out of the way. The Stick also comes with a micro-SD card slot so that it might add up to 128GB of extra storage capacity. There's an on/off button and a blue LED that glows when the Flixy TV Stick is running. It operates using 802.11n Wi-Fi (observe that the Flixy TV Stick operates solely within the 2.4GHz band). It also uses Bluetooth 4.0, so you can connect peripherals similar to a keyboard and mouse. While it’s working, the processor makes use of 2.2 watts, making it one of the crucial power-environment friendly Atom CPUs out there. Despite that, the Stick wants a small fan (which places out an annoying high-pitched whine) to stop it from overheating - and the case nonetheless will get scorching to the touch.
The Flixy TV Stick’s configuration consists of 2GB of 1.3GHz single-channel DDR3L RAM and 32GB of eMMC flash storage