RASPBERRY PI

ProjectsSHOWCASEHTPCs are nothing new forRaspberry Pi, but they all use oldways of thinking for the UXBARAN BAYGANA Turkish mobile developer who worksfor a number of high-profile clients onmobile apps and SAP solutions. He alsolikes to watch TV.kudutime.comA simple interface anyone canuse: play what you like! It’ssimilar to the Netflix library viewControlling Kudu with yourphone is more than just a simpleremote application: you geta full view of everythingQuickFacts> The projecttook aboutfour months> This is Baran’sfirst Pi project> Previously,Baran used afull-scale PCfor media> Baran worriedthe Pi wouldoverheatwhile playing1080p video> After running itfor weeks withno problems,he was happyKUDUA new solution to the home theatre PC that uses the Raspberry Pi,but what does it do that Kodi can’t?While many folks had grandplans for their RaspberryPi when they first gotit, a significant number endedup using it as a home theatre PC(HTPC). Still, the Pi is really goodfor that job, for all the reasons thatmake it so attractive for educationpurposes or maker projects: it’ssmall, has low power consumption,and is easy to customise. For BaranBaygan, though, the standardsolutions for HTPCs weren’t quitegood enough for his needs.“I have tried several mediacentre approaches like OpenELEC,XBMC etc.,” Baran tells us. “Theproblem with those is that theyare mainly for geeks. My father ormy mother, for instance, couldn’tuse OpenELEC. It is unnecessarilycomplicated. They are trying tosolve too many problems. It makestheir UX too complicated.”There are further issues withtraditional solutions, as well,according to Baran: “Anotherproblem is that no media centre isusing the full potential of mobiledevices. Mobile devices are goingto replace remote controls. Remotecontrols with hard buttons arehistory. Content browsing can bedone, and should be done, in mobiledevices with soft controls. Mostmedia centres still follow the oldparadigm to browse the contenton a TV screen. Using the remotecontrol to move a cursor on the TV,or trying to select a tile with arrowkeys, is very difficult. Browsingcontent on a mobile device is, onthe other hand, very easy.”The final product is a lot morethan just a modification forOpenELEC or Kodi. An entirelynew app was developed by Baranfor the Raspberry Pi itself, runningon Raspbian.“Once I was convinced thatthe Raspberry Pi could handlethe workload, I had to move onto mobile app development,the remote control app,” Baranexplains to us. “Because I amworking alone on the project, Ihad to pick either iOS or Androidto start with. And because I usean iPhone, I started with the iOSversion. The day I had the mobile32 August 2015raspberrypi.org/magpi