Tiny Ouya Console Has Big Media Center Aspirations, Partners with XBMC, TuneIn

Ouya's developers started off with a relatively simple concept: build an inexpensive Android console for the living room funded by $950,000 in pledges on Kickstarter. Well, here are with less than 40 hours to go before Ouya's Kickstarter campaign comes to a close, and the project has generated more than $7 million from over 53,000 backers. Will it be worth it?

That's the $7 million question that has yet to be answered, and in the meantime, Ouya's team keeps upping the ante. The latest development is that Ouya will be more than a low priced console, it will also be a full fledged media center courtesy of a partnership with XBMC.

Small Ouya Console

"That’s right. The award-winning, open source media player and entertainment hub is coming to Ouya. We’ve heard many of you buzzing about a potential Ouya-XBMC partnership since Day One of launch (something of a match made in open source heaven!). Now, with a few hours left in our drive, we’re delivering," Ouya announced in a Kickstarter update.

Nearly a third of XBMC's team members are Ouya backers, so they're invested in this project in more ways than one. It's not just XBMC that sees potential, either. Ouya also managed to partner up with TuneIn, a free service that lets users listen to music, sports radio, and news from over 70,000 stations and 2 million on-demand programs. This is all in addition to existing partnership with the likes of iHeartRadio and VEVO.

Things appear to be shaping up, and speaking of shape, new images of the Ouya console reveal a much smaller design than previously hinted. So small, in fact, that it looks like you fit it in the palm of your hand.