Smart Home Blog

Network media tank Popcorn hour doesn’t stop make its fans happy. The last main update is possibility to use a 802.11n for network connection with USB adaptor WN-100. That means that you can get rid of annoying wires.

WN-100 supports all Popcorn hour models including A-100. It supports 64/128 bit strength WEP encryptions, as well as WPA/WPA2 and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK encryptions and mechanisms and adopts CCA technology which automatically avoids channel conflicts using its channel selection feature.

WN-100 is available standalone for $37.00 and as part of bundle together with A-110 for $250.00 and it’s another good reason to try Popcorn hour.

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NAS for the SOHO is not so expensive now. So, to make access to the various files from different PCs much easier it’s better to add it to your home network. But if you already have some USB connected hard drive you can transform it to NAS using NASU2 NAS adapter.

It’s equiped with a USB 2.0/1.1 and an Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection. Additionally NASU2 provides an ability to power most 2.5″ USB hard drives or any low powered USB storage device.

For uses NASU2 offers both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols. So, it’s doesn’t matter which OS runs on client PC - MS Windows, MacOS X or Linux. It always will have access to the data on the storage. To access to the storage outside the LAN NASU2 provides FTP connection. Additionally you can use that adaptor as print-server or Torrent client. Not bad for the 50 bucks device, isn’t it?

[via Business Wire]

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Australian Control4 announced integration with XBMC - open source cross-platform media center software. Using a web interface provided by XBMC Control4 users can control media playback from touchscreen panels, ZigBee remove control and keypads.

You can see that integration after jump.
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I already wrote about building a new LinuxMCE core/hybrid. But it was just plans. Now all parts (except new motherboard) are bought. Moreover yesterday I tried to assemble and test them. But without luck. The PC started: funs whirled and optical drive initialized. But there was not video signal. Even keyboard leads were not blinking. I connected speaker to understand what was the problem. But it kept silence. I decided to check how processor was installed. I removed cooler and when I tried to open socket it cracked. I assembled at least 5 - 7 PCs before but such situation happened the first time.

Well maybe I press to strongly when I installed cooler. But I suspect that the material of the socket was very weak. The motherboard - ASROCK ALIVENF7G-FULLHD R3.0 is not expensive. It’s just €42. So, the material is also not so good. I chose it because it has HDM_SPDIF header which allows to pass audio though HDMI out of external video card and offers possibility to get audio on the embedded DVI. But unfortunately the quality of that board very bad. I replaced it by Asus M3N78-EM AM2 GF8300 mATX. It should be delivered on Monday only. So, will idle during weekend.

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LinuxMCE development team announced 0810 alpha1. That build is done from the 0810 SVN branch and it’s the first community release. The installation procedure is the same as for previous alpha0 but a bit improved and stable.

Do not upgrade your 0710 installation because it’ll beak your system. But it’ll help a lot if you install it on the test machine or on the different partition, play a bit with it and report about working and not working parts.

Personally I’m waiting two things: a new motherboard for my core/hybrid and setup of Internet connection in my new flat. Hope that both will be done next week.

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