As computers become a commodity, there’s a full range of fresh use cases that have started emerging. One of the most interesting devices to have emerged lately is the Intel® compute stick. Clarke’s law*** suggests that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Just like the original flash drives or pen drives appeared to be a miraculous alternative to CDs, the compute stick too appears to be the harbinger of a computing revolution.
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We’ve spoken in-depth about potential use cases for regular consumers and even for business travellers but what if you want to do more? A thumb drive sized computer has the potential to be used in multiple ways that you couldn’t have imagined earlier. Let’s talk about a few of those then.
For a small or medium-sized business owner, the Intel® compute stick brings with it the potential to completely change the way business operates. Case in point, digital signage. You can now enable smarter advertising for cheap and use Intel® compute stick with a display to show high quality graphic elements and adverts.
Want to take it a step ahead? How about creating an interactive display using a touch screen. The quad-core Intel® Atom™ Z3735F processor has more than enough power to enable this. Perhaps you are still using a gigantic computer that just takes up space and doesn’t really help much with the aesthetics, you could consider moving to a Intel® Compute Stick powered POS (Point of Sale) terminal.
Not all of us run businesses though. A few of us like to invest in them and follow their progress. The traditional way to follow stock updates for most has been to tune in to a business news channel and watch closely. Today, you can head over a stock tracking website, add in your stock info and get fresh results but what if you want realtime information? Enter the personal dashboard! While our primary example is for someone following the stock market, a personal dashboard is a tool than can be infinitely useful to anyone who needs real-time updates on data sets as varied as a company’s social graph, server status or even a to do list. Applications running Cyfe on Intel® Compute Stick can enable this in a tiny form factor as they turn regular televisions into smart computers*. One step further, the ability to transport your dashboard with you irrespective of where you might be traveling means that your productivity never drops.
Life isn’t all about work though. After a long day at the office, you just want to sit back and relax and perhaps enjoy some old school Mario? As a small form factor computer, the Intel® compute stick is understandably not built to run high-end games but it manages retro emulators with aplomb. Load up your favourite 8 or 16bit emulator, connect a wireless controller and voila, you’re ready to enjoy some old school gaming fun on your large screen television** made smart by using Intel® compute stick.
The possibilities are endless when you’ve got a computer sitting in your hand. The ability to transform any display into a smart computer capable of running almost anything you can think off has the potential to transform human- computer interactions in more ways than one. While we’ve talked about a few of these, what else can you think of? Let us know in the comments.
Do check out the Intel® links below for more information regarding the Compute Stick!
(Sources) : Intel
Footnotes:
* Compute stick supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n as well as Bluetooth 4.0
** Compute Stick has a male HDMI 1.4a port that can be used to connect to any monitor or a TV with a female HDMI socket
***Clarke’s law source: Wikipedia
Disclaimer: This story is a sponsored content.