Any of us who have purchased a TV in the last couple of years will have some kind of internet based streaming service either built in to or attached as a device to their TV such as Netflix, Roku or Amazon Fire TV but this is something else... Intel have announced a complete PC running Windows on something the size of a USB stick.

The Intel Compute Stick connects to a HDMI port and needs powered by an additional USB port (which most TVs these days have) and from that you get a basic Intel Atom based PC that can be connected with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to turn your large screen device, projector or TV into a desktop PC for $150 as it was announced at CES this week.

Base specification of the Intel Compute Stick is as follows:

1.33GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor
2GB DDR3 RAM
32GB internal storage
MicroSD slot (up to 128GB)
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
Full-size USB port
HDMI 1.4
Windows 8.1 Bing

So imagine a PC connected to the TV in your house or setup in a company reception area running the latest corporate PowerPoint message or used in an information kiosk or in a workshop area where space and working areas are limited. It really does sound like a good idea but the proof will be how well it operates. The processor is Intel Atom based so there won't be a lot of Adobe Photoshop work going on but it should, based on the specification suggested deliver reasonable performance for web browsing, streaming and general application usage in Microsoft Office which is probably the market it's aimed at.

For more information on the Compute Stick visit the Intel website: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html