EzeeCube is an open-source media hub that plays Genesis and SNES cartridges

There are plenty of media hubs out there for purchase that allow you to play media files off of flash drives, SD cards, and even stream them from your PC to your TV.

EzeeCube does pretty much all of this, but has two cool features: an innovative stackable design, and the ability to play old-school SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges. Past, meet the present, with a little bit of hacktastic goodness sprinkled on top.

EzeeCube’s philosophy is a simple one: make it so easy to use, that anyone can figure it out. The cube will sync all of your media content across multiple platforms: OSX, Windows, iOS, and Android included. There’s a painless start-up that’ll guide you through accessing your content from wherever you are, and an untethered, cable-less means of expanding your hub that’ll let you make the cube four stacks high.

What do the stacks do? Well let’s say you want to add a blu-ray drive to the EzeeCube? Not a problem, just slap it on the stack like a game of reverse Jenga. TV Tuner? Extra hard-drive? Genesis/SNES expansion? Just stack them right on top of the cube and you’ll be good to go.

In addition to the simplistic set-up, the EzeeCube is a pretty sexy looking device with some decent tech specs for a media hub: a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 4GB flash storage (the device’s software is Linux-based) a 2.5” 5,400 RPM 1TB hard drive and it comes complete with an SD card slot, USB 2.0, micro-USB, HDMI 1.4, ethernet, and optical audio ports. It also packs WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0,and DLNA plus AirPlay, so you’ll be able to stream wirelessly to the hub.

The really interesting part about the EzeeCube is the device’s open-source nature. Ashok Jaiswal, one of the architects behind the cube has a positive future planned for the cube and thinks that there are tons of possibilities for hackers and tinkerers to really get creative with what the device can do. Qi wireless charging pads being added to the device, along with beefed-up hard drives, are expected to be available almost out of the gate with the EzeeCube.

The ease of setting up the cube was paramount in Jaiswal’s mind; he wanted to make sure that it was such a painless process to use it that even his mother-in-law, who is not exceptionally tech-savvy, would be able to do so. He tested the Linux-based software on her, with positive results. The mobile syncing application shares the same design interface cues as the EzeeCube’s TV interface, which helps to avoid any confusion and should put the user right at home. You register with your mobile phone number through the cube’s mobile app, which also serves as the hub’s remote controller.

The EzeeCube should launch in Q2 of 2015, which is a ways off, but if it interests you, you can put down as little as $229 to ensure you’ll get one of the first 500 units upon its release; you’ll just have to fork over the cash before December. It’ll retail for $299 after the end of this year, so if you’re sure you’re going to get one, it may be worth saving the extra $70 by paying for the cube early.

Source | Via