Smart Home Blog

A new MSI product – MS-9A08 looks very interesting. It’s a compact (just 18×18×4.4cm) but really power. The MS-9A08 supports Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo processors. It’s equiped by integrated Intel GMAX4500 HD graphics to provide even Full HD playback with hardware acceleration. HDMI or DVI outputs can be used to connect device to TV, projector or monitor. Also the MS-9A08 supports both IDE and SATA II interfaces for storage and provides one PCI and one PCIe expansion slots for Mini Card. Additionally it sports 4 COM ports, 6 USB ports, two gigabite Ethernet adaptors, analog audio output.

As I can see the MS-9A08 is good candidate for home automation controller or LInuxMCE core/hybrid. It supports Full HD playback, provides enough communication interfaces – COM and USB ports and has two network adapters. Two expansion slots can be use to add TV tuner or DVB card. Also tt’s quiet and compact. So, it’d be interesting to know its price and date of availability.

The new alpha of LinuxMCE 0810 was released yesterday. The third one. The installation procedure is not changed. You still should have the Kubuntu 8.10 installed on your PC. Then alpha2 installer will download and install LinuxMCE 0810. Just follow that simple instructions.

According to 0810 alpha wiki page a lot of bugs was fixed since alpha 1 and 2. So, if you’d like participate to LinuxMCE by fixing bugs or just submitting bugreports fell free to install Alpha3. But note that this is still alpha version and it can be unstable. So, do not use it in production systems!

I already wrote about using compact keyboard with mouse pad Logitech diNovo with MythTV. Now it’s time to use it to control your LinuxMCE core/hybrid or media director. Media buttons work out of the box. But to activate mouse pad just add following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/options:
options usbhid quirks=0x046d:0xc71f:0x00080000

After reboot enjoy that cool keyboard!

After mobile Orbiter based on Java was announced I thought that Symbian Orbiter was dead. JavaMO works fine and it doesn’t need specific platform. The mobile phone just should support Java applications. There are some issues with JavaMO, but it looks much better then S60 Orbiter.

But I was wrong. Thanks to Hari, who started JavaMO development, owners of S60 v.3 smartphones can run native Orbiter on their devices. The updated version of Symbian mobile Orbiter can be downloaded here, demo video – here. Feel free to install it, test and submit found bugs and suggestions here.

UPDATE: There is the newest version of the S60 v3 Orbiter. You can find it here. The changes include hardcoded resolution to 240×320, used by many smartphones, local cache for the screens and some bugfixes.

Convergent Home Technologies based in England announced its new home automation system Dianemo. The Dianemo is based on the opensource smarthome system LinuxMCE with well tested hardware and some customizations. There is a few demo videos on the web site demonstrated all Dianemo features.

The Convergent Home Technologies engineers help a lot to grow up LinuxMCE. Full featured VDR integration, KNX/EIB interface, participation with new Z-Wave interface, sharing experience with hardware – all of this come from the Convergent Home Technologies. As result the LinuxMCE users can use that stuff for free.

I wish good like to Convergent Home Technologies with its Dianemo. Hope its customers will be happy with the system!