While I certainly applaud any and all efforts to create nice, livingroom friendly, XBMC capable boxes...
especially ones that have any sort of sATA interface (which are not that plentiful, yet), and while I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, there are a few things about the online description of this box that, unfortunately, I have to say, are troubling.
1) Price. The online description says "...expected retail price of $299". Somebody on the development team for this thing needs to hop on over the Newegg and look at the various barebones/booksized systems that are
already on sale there
today (not five months from now). I'm seeing at least three systems available there
today (Foxconn, Zotac, and Intel NUC) each for under $140. Granted, to each of those one would need to add at least some memory (e.g. 2GB)... perhaps for another $30... and then (to match this new box) a 1TB 2.5" drive, but those can be had for 60. So, for maybe $230 you can get a box with basically the same functionality
today for perhaps $230, with the advantage that you get more USB ports (and 3.0 ports in the case of the Foxconn). For the alternatives I've mentioned, you also would have to add a USB wirless dongle (in order to match the EzeeCube), but that's also going to set you back less than $20, so we are still only up to $250. Admittedly, for all this the user doesn't get the EzeeCube fancy schmancy stacking feature, but I'm not convinced that this is quite such a selling point as the developers seem to think it is.
2) Availability. I've already stressed this above. Other options are available right now... not November. By November or December this new box may perhaps be shipping in volume, but by then the prices of these other boxes may have come down further also.
3) Hard drive replace-ability. The online description of EzeeCube says "EzeeCube is just like any other appliance in your home, it would last as long as its not destroyed by act of God or is physically damaged by force." No, I'm not making this up! Anyway, that is quite obviously absurd, and is arguably false advertising...
if we make the seemingly reasonable assumption that the 1TB drive that will ship with this thing is in fact spinning media, and not an SSD. If it spins, it will die, most probably within 2-5 years, and
not due to any special
act of God. So what does the owner of the EzeeCube do then? Will there be screws on the outside of the case, covered with little stickers that say "Breaking this seal voids your warranty. No user-servicable components inside." ? In fact, a hard drive, pre-installed and shipped with this thing ought to be
an option, not something that the vendor is choosing for me.
They are undoubetedly going to ship this with a WD Blue or equivalent, i.e. the dirt cheapest 1TB drive. I personally
never purchase such drives. I perfer the 5-year-warranty
WD Black drives, thank you very much. Spending money on a drive (e.g. WD Blue) which even the manufacturer expects to die in 2-3 years is a false economy in my view.
4) No IR receiver. What the bleep am I supposed to do with this EzeeCube thing if my TV's CEC isn't working, or if I just want to use the box to listen to music through my A/V Receiver
without firing up my power-hungry big screen plasma? They should have put an IR receiver on the front of the thing. Failure to do so was a
colossal mistake IMHO. (And I mean seriously... geeezzz. How much additional would that have cost in volume production? An extra $0.25 per unit?)
5) Port placement. The SD card slot and the full-sized USB port should have been placed on the
front of the box. With these in back, I'm going to have to reach into my A/V cabinent and drag this thing all the way out (so that I can get at the SD slot) every time I want to look at any photos or videos from my digital camera. Dumb. Likewise, if somebody at work gives me a copy of their home movies on a USB stick...
P.S. My apologies if I seem overly kvetchy about this new box. Like I said, I applaud all such efforts, and the time, skill, patience and courage of all those who undertake to build such things. But I'm a perfectionist, and I'm patiently waiting and hoping that someday in the not-too-distant future somebody will build the ideal XBMC box. I've spent some time thinking about what that would look like exactly, and it would look a lot like this new EzeeCube box
except that the front of the thing would have four things that this box doesn't have (on the front), i.e. (1) an IR receiver, and (2) an SD card slot, and (3) a single USB "A" socket, and last but quite definitely not least (4) a flap/door where one could easly insert one's choice of 2.5" sATA drive... sort of vaguely like the one on this item:
http://kingwin.com/products/cate/mobile/...252_bk.asp
but just for a 2.5" drive... not for a 3.5" drive like the above item.
I really do hope that someday somebody will build something like that...
and then sell it at a competitive price point.
P.P.S. One last thing... The alternatives that are available right now and that cost less than than this EzeeCube is projected to retail for give you one other advantage that may or may not come in handy someday, i.e.
x86 compatability. Maybe that will ultimately be worth nothing in the context of a dedicated XBMC box, but I'd rather have it than not have it, particularly if I can get it for free, or as actually seems to be the case currently, if I can actually
save money by choosing x86 over the available ARM-based alternatives.