[RockerC]

First of all I'm not sure if if should have posted this under the Android or Hardware forum instead as it belongs in both, yet is really belong in neither at the same time.


Anyway, still interesting news I think for the XBMC community as read that Rippl-TV is a new UtilOS" ecosystem" that is both a new fork of Android and a fork of XBMC for Android, read more in these three articles here:

http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/08/06/r...nd-center/
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/11/05/r...mc-tv-box/
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/11/01/u...ia-player/

No idea yet who exactly are behind Rippl-TV but looks like they plan on it competing with Pivos TOFU and their XIOS DS/XS boxes boxes primarily, including offering OEM and ODM services, same as Pivos.

http://www.rippl-tv.com/#!oemodm-services/c1ba9

That is, they claim to not only plan on releasing their own reference hardware but also aim to license their software platform and developer support as a service to third-parties for re-branding.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Wcm1T...wikXw84L6w

More links from the above articles:
http://www.rippl-tv.com
https://www.facebook.com/rippltv
http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?1...-TV-M8-box

One rumour is that Matricom is behind this Ripple-TV project, while some other reports hint that it is Shenzhen Tomato (sztomato) that are behind the Rippl-TV hardware, just speculations but it might be that either one are only the box resellers and/or manufacturers of the first Ripple-TV reference hardware, (which internals just look to be a modified Matricom G-Box MX2 or Tomato TM8 media player, both being Amlogic S802 using the same "M8" reference board as the first Ripple TV reference hardware).

Shenzhen Tomato is in any case now selling the same hardware but without the Ripple-TV firmware as Tomato "TS8" OEM box:
http://www.sztomato.cn/product/189206708...V_Box.html


Off topic but funnily enough "RippleTV" (ripple.tv) was a company back in 2007-2009 with very different goals, since however bought up and re-branded by TargetCast Networks (TCN)
http://venturebeat.com/2007/07/09/ripple...aises-10m/
https://gigaom.com/2009/09/23/419-target...ripple-tv/
http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ripple-tv

[PatK]

Everyone and everyone's uncle are making 'smart' boxes, most off the back of XBMC-Kodi developers. Unless there's some miraculous value hardware, this will have the same limitations as most of the others.

Better posted in hardware or not at all... akin to spam.

[Hedda]

Unless there's some miraculous value hardware, this will have the same limitations as most of the others.

I guess what makes Ripple-TV unique compared to most others that simply ship stock XBMC is that their "UtilOS" follows the same computer appliance concept as Pivos's TOFU Media OS.

http://global.pivosgroup.com/what-is-tofu/

Pivos XIOS XS with TOFU Media OS boots directly to TOFU Media Center, and other that the fact that it runs Android apps you wouldn't know that is was based on Android or XBMC.

With their TOFU platform concept Pivos are using a forked and rebranded version of XBMC as launcher that include all settings needed, completely hiding Android.

So you see, it is not about the hardware at all, it is only about the software, or at least the part that is of any interest here.


EDIT: Good definition description of an computer appliance on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_appliance
and I guess that can compare their Android forks as that of CyanogenMod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod

[Kib]

This was moved to general discussion.

[RockerC]

Review of first media player box with Rippl-TV, and the reviewer says that he was very impressed by the stability and usability improvements over plain XBMC/Kodi on standard Android.

http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/11/05/r...mc-tv-box/

He does however go on noting that it came "fully loaded" with pre-installed addons of questionably legality that may be for piracy or at least may not be 100% legal in all countries.

So because of that now suspicions are if not the same people that are behind XBMCHUB or Xunity and their illegal addons might not actually also be the people behind Rippl-TV?