Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD Wireless Media Streamer Even Works With iTunes Music

Apple haters or people who want a little more out-of-the-box file type compatibility than what the Apple TV offers should look at the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD. It’s a wireless (802.11g) media streamer like Apple’s latest endeavor, but it’s a little more versatile.

Like the Apple TV, it’ll wirelessly stream your music, videos and photos from your PC to a TV. Since it’s not 802.11n, don’t expect to be able to stream bandwidth-hungry 1080p too effectively. The rest is as you’d expect: a decent product that does what it advertises. Only there’s something more interesting going on here.

While LAPTOP magazine said the device doesn’t stream iTunes-purchased music, CNET’s Crave, you know, tested it out, and found that it does, indeed, work. (It’s just a little slower and only works for Windows users is all.) Good ol’ Engadget said back in January that it supported 802.11n, which it doesn’t. (“This thing rocks the draft 802.11n WiFi” Oops!) The moral of the story? People should be extra careful in obtaining and reporting accurate information rather than racing to be first in order to “scoop” the competition. But what do I know?

Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD plays DRM-encoded songs purchased from the iTunes Store [Crave]