ZAGGBox Media Aggregator

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You can find digital media aggregator boxes anywhere, but this new one from ZAGG looks nice. It can record video, and playback video, audio and images. It can even send your media anywhere you want, via the web, including your iPhone. It also has an internal 1TB hard drive.

The team at ZAGG, on the website makes the comparison that the ZAGGBox is a AppleTV, Slingbox and TiVo all rolled into one. It offers media playback, like the AppleTV and TiVo, but also can ‘sling’ media like the Slingbox and can record content like the TiVo. Also, like the AppleTV, they can transcode your content for playback on an iPhone or iPod.

The transcoding for the mobile device is said to be automatic. In fact, the website promises that when the ZAGGbox first encounters a new piece of media, it transcodes it for playback on a TV and another for playback on a mobile device.

For the media placeshifting technology, the ZAGGbox can do it either via UPnP or the box can act as its own web server. The ZAGGbox includes a universal remote, as well, that is optimized for control of your entire media setup – they say.

The real treat here is the iPhone/iPod Touch (and one day, iPad) app. In a pinch, the iPhone can act as a remote control for your ZAGGbox, but also it can playback any media you have stored on the device. They’re now taking preorders for the device for $799 (but it’ll be $999 after launch) and it’ll ship sometime in Q2 2010.