The below picture is of something called a “Vulkano,” which I imagine is pronounced kind of like a cross between Vulcan and Volcano. What that “k” is doing there though is anybody’s guess.
The device is the latest attempt on the part of Monsoon Multimedia (the makers of HAVA) to really bring place-shifting into our homes… or on the road… or plane… or just about anywhere. The Vulkano is a DVR (although it does need to be hooked up to a tuner) that will send stuff out to your various multimedia devices (laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc.) once it’s done recording. The big questions are clearly about the quality of recording and the ease of transfer, because if it’s simple and fast it could change the way a lot of people watch TV.
Place-shifting has been around for a while, but has never really hit the mainstream. If the Vulkano works as well as promised – and if Monsoon can convince consumers that place-shifting is easy and worthwhile – the device could prove incredibly popular. Blogcritics will, fingers crossed, have one in hand pretty soon and will deliver our findings as soon as possible.