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Multimedia - Home Servers

Kickstarting the "Truly Universal Remote"

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Kickstarting the

Convergence Technologies has plans for what it claims is "the first, truly universal household remote"-- the Bridge, compatible with not only standard TVs and STBs, but also PCs and game consoles.

Looking like a games controller, the Bridge combines a QWERTY keyboard, an analog stick handling mouse control and x4 shoulder buttons.

Control signals come via IR and RF4CE protocol, meaning it is compatible with around 95% of TVs from the last 3 years, as well as the Playstation 3 console (Wii and Continue reading...

Western Digital Media Player Series Gets Wifi

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Western Digital  Media Player Series Gets Wifi

Western Digital announces the 5th generation of its networked media player series-- the WD TV Live Plus, the first with built-in wifi support.

It comes with support for most online video and music services, including the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Dailymotion and Spotify (also a first for WD).

Connections come through HDMI and Composite A/V, with ethernet port and 802.11n wifi support handling online functionality and x2 USB ports for external HDDs.

It also handles virtually every video, Continue reading...

Logitech Uses Smartphones, Tablets as Universal Remotes

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Logitech Uses Smartphones, Tablets as Universal Remotes

Logitech enters the smartphone/tablet as universal remote arena with the Logitech Harmony Link-- a wifi-enabed IR device and app combination working with both Android and iOS devices.

One connects the hockey puck-sized Harmony Link to the TV before installing the app on their devices-- without the need for attaching any dongles to smartphones or tablets.

Users can use iPads with the app as a full entertainment control system (complete with personalised program guides) while smartphones get universal Continue reading...

A Kaleidescape of Classic Movie Moments

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A Kaleidescape of Classic Movie Moments

Feel like rewatching a favourite scene from, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark, but can't watch the entire film? Kaleidescape might just have the solution with the Kaleidescape Scenes.

Available as an automatic update for every Kaleidescape system, Scenes consists of more than 4000 classic moments from 700 films-- entertainment "snacks," as the company calls them.

It appears to be not only a new way for users to experience their favourites, but also a simple and well organised means to create a demo Continue reading...

Excito's Private Cloud Update

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Excito's Private Cloud Update

Excito updates its Bubba TWO with the B3-- beefing up its hardware and software to make it more powerful and energy efficient while having it act as a personal cloud.

It carries a 1.2GHz ARM processor together with 512MB of RAM, while Excito says power consumption is as low as 5W. The device can handle up to 4TB of file sharing and storage.

The company also claims installation is a fairly simple 3-step process, thanks to a web-based interface providing access to all of the B3's functions-- whcih Continue reading...

Can IEEE P1905 Unite Home Networking?

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Can IEEE P1905 Unite Home Networking?

IEEE is developing a standard called P1905, an abstraction layer allowing devices and services to work over any of the four main extent home networking technologies — HomePlug AV over power lines, MoCA over coaxial cable, Ethernet over Cat 5 twisted pair cable and Wi-Fi for wireless.

Paul Houzé of France Telecom-Orange, the Chair of IEEE P1905.1 Working Group, says  “Creating a bridge between the world’s most popular wired and wireless technologies will bring much-needed synergy, making home networ Continue reading...

ReQuest's Next Media Server Generation

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ReQuest's Next Media Server Generation

ReQuest launches the F3, packing its multi-zone Serious Play server technology into a new compact chassis.

For clients more serious about their music it plays 96kHz/24-bit HD audio (as well as conventional mp3 files), together with streaming radio, NetSync for iTunes and Pandora support. It also carries out automatic dual encoding.

The MediaPlayer (or IMC) allows for HD media playback, with support for online video services (YouTube, Hulu, Netflix), archived DVDs and blu-ray changer control (via Continue reading...

NAS Market to Experience Explosion

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NAS Market to Experience Explosion

Instat forecasts the WW Network-Attached Storage (NAS) market will soon experience something of an explosion as consumers demand centralised storage to access from all their portable CE and devices.

This demand will lead to NAS shipments to reach over 11m units in 2015 according the analyst's report, at an annual growth rate of 36.4%.

WW revenue for consumer NAS in 2010 totals $678.4m, with 30.3% Y-o-Y growth.

Originally an enterprise concept, the need centralised storage is becoming more apparent Continue reading...

"Global" Launch for Sony Music Streaming

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Sony launches its cloud-based music streaming service, "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity"-- starting  off with the UK and Ireland.

Music lovers will have initial access to 6 million songs from labels like Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI and a number of indipendent labels.

Other European countries should have the service sometime in 2011. So far mentioned are Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Unsurprisingly, no mention of other European countries yet.

Through the service customers can play their Continue reading...

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