Mohu Channels wants to give cord-cutters a unified menu

Not interested in paying a cable bill? You’ve certainly got options — but between disparate streaming services, set-top boxes and your over-the-air digital antenna, managing all your content can be a bit of a hassle. Mohu is trying to fix that. The company is traditionally known for its paper-thin Leaf antennas, but it also recently funded a Kickstarter for Mohu Channels: a internet-connected tuner designed specifically for cord-cutters.

On the surface, Mohu Channels is a program guide for OTA TV, scanning your area for local stations and filling out a schedule based on what it finds. A good antenna can net you plenty of content, sure, but there’s so much more online — which is why Mohu is designed to convert any website into a channel. Naturally, the device will offer native apps for services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, YouTube and more. Channels, apps or websites can be added, dropped or customized by users, who will be able to control the entire setup with both their smartphone and a keyboard-equipped remote. The device’s Kickstarter is already funded, but the final product should be ready in June. Need an antenna to get started? No worries, Mohu announced the Leaf Metro today: a half-sized addition to its thin-antenna line with a 25 mile range. Check it (and the Mohu Channels Kickstarter) at the source links below.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Kickstarter, Mohu

Intel dives into the Internet of Things, but still has a weak PC market to deal with

If you set foot in Intel’s CES booth this winter, you probably sensed a theme: the company is deeply, almost manically, focused on The Internet of Things. Sure, Chipzilla was showing off some tablets and phones, along with a shelf full of Ultrabooks, but the highlights of the show were all a little more unusual. Think: a light-up “smart mug,” headphones that can monitor your heart rate. An internet-connected baby onesie, for crying out loud. It was obvious the company was a bit obsessed, and now it’s clear why: the Internet of Things is currently the most promising piece of Intel’s business.

Take the company’s first-quarter earnings, for example, which just came out today. Intel’s revenue from PCs, normally its biggest money maker, dipped 1 percent. At best, you could say the computer business is flat but really, “decline” is the more accurate word — the PC industry faced its steepest-ever drop last year. Meanwhile, revenue for mobile products (read: phone and tablet chips) plummeted 61 percent. Yikes.

But The Internet of Things — now that’s a bright spot. Sales there were up 32 percent from the year-earlier period. We know, we know: that’s partly because the Internet of Things simply wasn’t, uh, a thing last year. But the numbers do suggest that where there’s demand for some sort of “smart” object, Intel has a strong chance of getting one of its chips inside. That’s good news for Intel, but maybe not good enough: even with a booming smart coffee-mug market, connected objects still account for just 3.8 percent of Intel’s overall sales last quarter. How long will it take smart baby onesies to catch up before Intel doesn’t have to use PCs as a crutch? And what’s the deal with that tanking mobile business, anyway? We’ll let you chew on that while we wait for Intel to host a conference call. We’ll update this post if we glean any new details.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Household, Tablets, Intel

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Source: Intel