Google TV Fling. Snapstick. Snapstick Tosses Web Content to the TV with Phone Gestures. “It’s like magic!” Says the demo video for Snapstick, a new web video solution for your television. On Wednesday we looked at Peel, an IR solution that turns an iPhone into a TV remote. Snapstick has the same goal, but accomplishes it in an even stranger way--the phone interfaces via Wi-Fi to a web streaming box connected to the TV over HDMI.
And when you flick your wrist towards the TV, it automatically loads whatever web content you have pulled up on your phone! That almost does sound like magic. But we won’t be fooled--it’s all technology. We dig the gesture control, but there’s not much else here. Snapstick takes on Apple TV, Google TV | Crave. A startup called Snapstick is introducing its spin on Internet TV today that it hopes will compete heavily with Apple TV, Google TV, and other set-top boxes. If you believe the demo video, a person holding an iPhone can "flick" the content toward a TV screen, which will suddenly begins playing the same content.
But how? Snapstick doesn't miraculously siphon videos from the iPhone to the TV. At this early, private beta stage, it's a software platform that can help your TV display streaming Web content--like those jealously protected Hulu videos--on its screen. Although that iPhone--or any other Web-enabled device--is important in the equation, it's only in the role of a convenient, familiar controller for browsing and selecting the Web content you want to see on the big screen. The iPhone, or Android phone, or laptop takes the place of a remote or keyboard necessary to control Roku set-top boxes and Google TV for example. Snapstick's real argument is the software. AirPlay.