The Google TV set top box, Asus Qube, looks set to launch on April 23, a month after the Taiwanese company’s Q1 2013 projection.
First seen at CES 2013, Asus has confirmed with GTV Source that the Asus Qube will officially launch on April 23 sporting a $129 (£84) price tag in the US.
The Asus Qube is the first Google TV set top box to be produced by the company, but with the only other Google TV player taking the form of the Sony NSZ-GS7 Internet Player, the little box doesn’t have much competition.
From what was seen at CES, the square-shaped Asus Qube has speedy custom interface with quick content loading times. The UI mimics the Qube’s design, presenting everything on screen via a rotating cube of content that users can navigate using the complex remote control.
Users can opt to download the Asus Qube software soon to become available via the Google Play Store for the Google Nexus 7 instead of using the remote control. The remote has a full QWERTY keyboard on the back, a microphone for voice control, a trackpad area that functions as a mouse-like controller and a selection of playback buttons including a dedicated Netflix button. Also sporting a built-in accelerometer, the remote also supports motion control.
Sporting Google TV 3.0, under the hood the Asus Qube is powered by an Armada 1500 processor with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal Flash storage. The Google TV set top box also has two USB sockets and an HDMI port for TV connectivity.
Asus will also provide Asus Qube owners with 50GB cloud storage through its WebStorage service alongside the internal 4GB.
Launching on April 23 in the US, there hasn’t been any word on an eventual UK availability or pricing announced by Asus for the Asus Qube.
Via: PHAndroid
