Intel’s Compute Stick Brings Windows 8.1 Or Linux In A Chromecast-Sized Package

In 2014, HDMI-streaming sticks like Google Chromecast Comes To India With Price Tag Of Rs. 2999/-, Roku's Roku's Streaming Stick To Take On Google's Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick sold like hot cakes owing to their compact form factor and dirt cheap prices. While customers were happy to stream content wirelessly to their HDTV’s, they wished that these HDMI sticks could do more than that. Intel has taken these requests in consideration while building the Intel Compute Stick. While the chipmaker is keeping some details of the Compute Stick under wraps, it teased some of its features at CES 2015. There shall be two variants of the Intel Compute Stick. The first variant runs Windows 8.1 with Bing on a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel #-Link-Snipped-# with 2GB of RAM. The internal memory of the Windows Compute Stick is 32GB and you get a microSD card slot to expand the storage. Other connectivity options include a full-sized USB port, a micro USB port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and of course HDMI.


The other variant of the Intel Compute runs Linux (as of now we are not sure which one). It has weaker specs as compared to the Windows variant. While the processor remains the same, the RAM is halved (just 1 GB of RAM) and the internal memory sits at a paltry 8GB. Connectivity options and other specs remain the same. There is a huge difference between the prices of these two variants. The Intel Compute Stick with Windows 8.1 costs $149 and the Linux version costs $89. Both of them will arrive in stores sometime in spring 2015.

Intel has outlined some of the ways customers will be able to use the Intel Compute Stick. The average consumer will be able to browse the internet, work on Microsoft Office, play simple games and stream content from Hulu or Netflix. The Intel Compute Stick will enable thin-client solutions for small-to-medium enterprises. Employees will be able to carry with them a full computing system with plug-and-play simplicity. Developers can use the Intel Compute Stick as a low-power computing device to power digital kiosks. The only thing that bugs us about the Intel Compute Stick is that it still cannot be powered by the HDMI port alone and it needs another power source aka microUSB.

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