Microsoft Announces the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
by Brandon Chester on September 23, 2014 12:17 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Tablets
- miracast
Today Microsoft introduced their new Miracast-based wireless streaming device for HDMI monitors and televisions. Its lengthy name is the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter and it's Microsoft's take on an HDMI streaming dongle. One of the most popular devices in this category is Google's Chromecast, and there are many similarities between the two devices. Like the Chromecast, the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter is a small adapter that plugs into an HDMI port on your television and uses a USB port for power. From the photos Microsoft has provided, the USB connector seems to be wired directly into the adapter which could pose a problem depending on your television's arrangement of ports as the cord does not look very lengthy.
The adapter allows streaming and display mirroring from any device with support for Miracast screencasting. Because of this, the adapter is able to work with a variety of devices running on different operating systems, rather than being a device limited to devices that run Windows or Windows Phone 8.
At $59.95 USD, the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter is around $25 more expensive than Google's Chromecast. It is available for pre-order now on Microsoft's online store, and it will ship in October 2014.
Source: Windows Blog
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Mark_gb - Wednesday, October 1, 2014 - link
Are you old enough to remember the Pet Rocks?'nuf said.
yhselp - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
Can't see what's wrong with Microsoft naming - it's not misleading or romanticized in any way; it's straight to the point and very intentional in my opinion. Chromecast or any such type of branding sounds cool, but it's not self-explanatory, and, accessories at least, can use a bit of down-to-Earth-naming.Gigaplex - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
It's extremely generic and poorly optimised for search engines.inighthawki - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
It's verbose at best. Just did a search and it was the first result.Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - link
What's wrong with a device that does exactly what it says on the box?ZelphX - Thursday, September 25, 2014 - link
From a former Apple drone... I would name it the iDON'TGIVEASHITWHATITISCALLEDASLONGASITWORKS.SpartanJet - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
25 dollars is a small price to pay for my personal information to not be whored out or to be subjected to Ads. Ive been waiting for a non Ad company streaming dongle.savagemike - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
No ads, ey? I guess you've never used Windows Metro - or whatever they've decided to call it.I'm not sure why you've been waiting as this appears to be just a miracst dongle. You could have purchased any number of them over the past couple years.
SirPerro - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
So this is just a Miracast device? Chromecast less used feature is probably screen mirroring. Microsoft fails to propose an alternative to chromecast, which is more and more awesome every day.Being able to stream something to the TV without the gadget running out of battery or dropping frames is what makes chromecast amazing.
jeffkibuule - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
Miracast and Chromecast are similar, but not the same. You are going to get some lag if you try to use Chromecast for display mirroring, which is what Miracast is for (specifically presentations).