Yes, it`s yet another service claiming to be capable to take the Web - the total Web, including Hulu and other streaming video sites - to the HDTV in your den, all with a shot of your wrist and the aid of an iPhone, iPad, or a laptop.
The serve is called Snapstick, and for now, it`s alone in private beta. I`ve yet to see Snapstick up closely and personal (although the techies at CNET snagged an in-person demo), and it`s not clear when the help will be made usable to the public.
What is Snapstick? A new TV set-top box, like Apple TV or the Boxee Box? Not exactly. Instead, Snapstick is billing itself more as software that would be built into Wi-Fi-enabled set-top boxes, HDTVs, Blu-ray players, or game consoles from third-party manufacturers. In an e-mailed statement, Snapstick says it`s "in negotiation" with "multiple" hardware makers, although it didn`t specify which ones. (The party went forward and reinforced its own set-top boxes for the purposes of the private beta.)
OK, so how does it work? Here`s the deal: Say you`re watching TV in your living room and browse the Web on your iPhone at the same time (as one often does), and you get across a video that you need to see on the big screen.
Using the Snapstick client, you`d simply "grab" the picture to your TV - either with a tap on the iPhone display, or by flicking your handset at the set (with your iPhone`s accelerometer detecting your flicking motion, as CNET notes). Don`t make an iPhone or iPad? Snapstick will also go with other smartphones, or your laptop.
Snapstick promises nothing less than "full, unrestricted Web" on your TV, including video sites like Hulu, Fox, ABC and MTV that are currently blocking their videos from Google TV (as well as from and other set-top boxes with Web browsers).
How will Snapstick succeed where Google TV has failed? According to NewTeeVee, the Linux-based Snapstick software will use a standard Firefox browser that won`t have the hallmarks of a TV set-top box - meaning sites like Hulu shouldn`t be capable to discover and block Snapstick-enabled devices.
That`s the theory, in any case. Even if Snapstick does oversee the magic of browsing normally off-limits streaming video sites undetected, I doubt broadcasters will sit back and let it happen. Guess we`ll get out.
If the mind behind Snapstick sounds horribly familiar, perhaps you`re thought of "AirPlay," Apple`s new iOS feature that lets iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users stream videos to the Apple TV. But while AirPlay only lets you stream specific videos to Apple TV (like those that you hire or buy from iTunes), Snapstick is promising the total Web, on your TV screen.
It`s also sounds like you`re not really streaming Web videos directly from your iPhone, iPad, or laptop to your Snapstick-enabled TV; instead, once you "crack" a picture to your set, the system "offloads the Internet connection to the existing Wi-Fi network in your home" - meaning, essentially, that your iPhone or laptop is acting more like a "visual" (as Snapstick puts it), URL-flinging remote control than an actual streaming device.
Alright, but how will Flash-based Web videos appear on Snapstick-embedded devices? Will the Snapstick software be capable to cull enough processing power from an HDTV or a Blu-ray player to render HD video?
Hopefully we`ll get some answers next month at CES, where Snapstick is slated to shew off its latest progress and perhaps denote a hardware partner or two.
And when can we ask the first Snapstick devices to arrive? Think second quarter next year, the caller says.
So, does Snapstick sound like it`s for real? Could it compete with Apple TV and Google TV? Let me know what you think.
- Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
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