UPDATE: The M Cubed has a new name, the Motorola Media Mover.
Tucked away in a quiet corner of Motorola’s CES stand is the M Cubed, a tiny USB-powered box intent on unsettling Slingbox’s grip on place-shifting. We took it for a spin. Read on to see what Sling has to worry about.
The M Cubed box is tiny. It’s small enough to slip into a pocket and makes even the smallest Slingbox look gargantuan. It’s also able to stream live TV to devices in the local area using Wi-Fi and even Bluetooth, without hooking up to any extra adapters or routers, both things the Slingbox is unable to do.
M Cubed also packs an SD card slot, and can quickly transcode programmes from a DVR or computer and copy them to a memory card for viewing on a mobile phone on the move.
So far, so good. But there’s a snag. At the moment, it’ll only work with Motorola’s own set top boxes, which themselves need an ethernet connection to send shows over the internet for true remote viewing.
Motorola says it’ll improve compatibility, however, and will soon have M Cubed working with other telly boxes. M Cubed stands for Motorola Media Mobility. But does Slingbox have anything to fear?
Potentially, yes, but Motorola’s product it’s ready for the big time yet. Until it works out its compatibility issues there’s little here to tempt the majority of telly fans. What it does point out is that there’s still plenty of features Sling could be adding. We liked the ultra-fast encoding to SD card without the need for a PC, and the M Cubed size certainly makes Slingboxes look bulky.
Out 2009 | £TBC | Motorola
