AC Ryan Veolo review

A.C. Ryan's Veolo is a unique media streamer that runs Android and includes a remote control with a full QWERTY keyboard that also doubles as a wireless mouse. You press a button on the remote to control the on-screen cursor, and press another button to click. It works fantastically well and saves you having to plug a mouse in, so you can use the spare USB slot to attach a hard disk, for example.

Until a recent update, the Veolo didn't have access to the Android Market, making it rather basic. Thankfully, the Market was installed in a recent patch, bringing with it access to countless useful apps, including YouTube, BBC iPlayer, last.fm, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Aupeo. In addition, most services you'll find on other media streamers are available in the Android Market, plus many more that you won't find elsewhere.

As well as media apps, you can add email, calendar and even document editing apps, turning the Veolo into a mini-PC attached to your HDTV. It's not all smooth sailing, however: in GMail, we could see our mailboxes but not the list of emails itself, while in BBC iPlayer, we could see the menu headings across the top of the page, or choose the Channels, Categories or Live TV options, but despite a spinning icon indicating activity, no videos actually appeared in the lists. Hopefully these bugs - no doubt caused by Android 2.2's limitations with screen sizes - will be fixed in a future firmware update.

Both USB mice and keyboards are supported by the Veolo, and you can have both plugged in at once, provided you don't need either of the USB ports for an external drive. The keyboard defaults to a US layout, however, but there are only a few keys you'll need to remember to swap as you type (the @ and " symbols, for example). The mouse's right button acts like Android's Back button, while pressing the middle mouse button brings up the menu.