Lund, Sweden — (media advisory excerpt) — For a number of years, there has been a big buzz about the convergence of Internet and TV. Words like Interactive TV, IP-TV, and Video-on-Demand have been on everyone's lips. So far, there has been little sign of any real products outside of powerpoint presentations. Blokks AB expects Bokks, which was initially demonstrated at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany last March, to become the first portable broadband media-player box to actually reach the market.

Bokks will be released early next year, but already today everyone is welcome to try it out at the Blokks AB office in Lund, Sweden — all you have to do is give Blokks AB a call in advance to book a time for a demonstration.

Bokks is a truly portable media-player. You connect it to any broadband network, which may be DSL, cable, or optical fiber. Plug it into your TV and surf the Internet, send and receive email, and use other popular Internet services. Plug Bokks into any Ethernet network and simply drag and drop the files from your computer to Bokks. Store movies, music or other files on Bokks; carry them around and view or listen to them whenever you are near a TV, stereo, or computer. Bokks is 100% stand-alone, so you are not dependent on streaming servers, Video-on-Demand servers, etc., from your Broadband Service Provider to be able to use Bokks.

Bokks movie player
Summary of features and specs . . .

• CPU: 266 MHz NSC SC1200 x86/MMX compatible CPU — includes on-chip I/O, graphics controller, Northbridge, and Southbridge
  
• Operating System: Linux 2.4
  
• Boot source: boots from network using PXE (BOOTP)
  
• Browser: Espial Escape — HTML 4.0, Java 2.0, Javascript compliant
  
• MPEG Decoder: Hardware decoder — MPEG 1 & 2
  
• Filesharing: Windows FS, Unix/Linux NFS, FTP
  
• Video output: SCART, S-Video output, TV Composite (PAL)
  
• Audio output: RCA analog stereo
  
• Network connectivity: Ethernet 10/100, DHCP
  
• Other interfaces: USB port
  
• Video streams: Supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 Program and Transport streams
  
• Audio streams: Supports MP3 audio streams
  
• Media formats (from hard disk): *.vob, *.mpg, *.mpeg, *.mp3, *.sid
  
• Housing: 260 x 160 x 30 mm, sheet metal and rubber
  
• Storage: internal 20GB hard disk (up to 320 hours of music, 10 hours DVD-quality film, or 20 hours of VHS-quality film)
  
• Power supply: External (110-230 V) 10W
  
• Control Device: IR remote control, wireless keyboard (optional)
  
• Accessories: carrying bag, docking station

Bokks keyboard and remote
Why Linux?

According to Jens Sörvik, Bokks business development manager, “we wanted a full OS with low license costs. With its diverse application and support availability and our demand for stability in embedded environments, Linux was the obvious choice. We believe Linux is going to be huge within the embedded market. Linux' scalability makes it an excellent OS when you're developing your own hardware, and has simplified a lot of our own hardware testing and development. We are planning to use Linux within other [future] products,” added Sörvik.

“Coming soon”

We are very proud of Bokks, and we hope the launch of it will push content providers forward so that they start launching attractive download video and music services A.S.A.P., as we are sure it will be a great success.

Orders are currently being accepted online, at a price of US $399, for delivery in early 2002.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.