Mozilla is working on a small stick that you can plug into a TV to stream internet videos or other content while using the Firefox web browser on your phone or other device as a remote. Sound familiar? That’s because this is basically Mozilla’s answer to Google’s Chromecast.

But it could actually be much more than that.

Mozilla Evangelist Christan Heilmann posted a photo of the “open TV casting prototype device” on Twitter recently, saying that it’s running Firefox OS and features an open bootloader. Meanwhile GigaOm’s digital media specialist Janko Roettgers says he’s been following the project for a while, and has a video of an early prototype.

Mozilla already includes support for streaming videos from an Android phone running the Firefox web browser to a Roku set-top-box. So unlike Google’s Chromecast software, Mozilla isn’t limiting its media streaming to a single device.

The Firefox OS stick also supports some apps that are designed to work with Chromecast. Roettgers shows the YouTube app sending video to a TV using the Mozilla device. He says it also works with Google Play Music, but many other Chromecast-capable apps don’t yet work.

It’s not clear when Mozilla’s streaming stick will be available, what name or band it will have by the time it hits the streets, or how much it will cost. But for the right price, it could be an interesting alternative to the Chromecast… especially for folks interested in a more open platform.

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