Akimbo AP1200 Video on Demand Player
Major Potential
When you buy an Akimbo you buy it because you are an early adopter. This company created a new method for content distribution that earned it the \\"Best of CES Show\\" and \\"Best of What's New\\" from Popular Science. It works. It's good. And there's no $10 a month fee yet, despite what some users are saying. (The \\"free-for-all\\" offering is decent.) Though the content may not yet be available, there's a bunch of new stuff coming. I was able to beta test a unit and I can say that, from an inside source, there are quite a few partners that are going to sign on with Akimbo in the future. No, this isn't an HD box, but if you think about that amount of data that would have to be downloaded over a high-speed connection, this is unrealistic for this type of technology. The Akimbo unit has come a long way from the one I first tested and it doesn't crash or break when you use it! This is like a Mac for PVR (Personal Video Recording) technology. (It's Windows based though, using WMV9...) It's designed for people that want an easy to use interface, but it's powerful enough for the more advanced user, too!<br /><br />This is the PERFECT gift for college students (or high school boarding school students), especially ones that live in dorm rooms. This is because you can't upgrade your cable service in on-campus housing, and with the Akimbo you can watch what you want. When I was in boarding school we didn't even have cable/sat TV, so this would have been great in high school! (We did have high-speed hookups in the dorms.) I'm giving it four stars for the technology that is there; there's room to improve to five stars when the content is available. If you're an early adopter, then the Akimbo is for you.