Smart Home Blog

On the last boxee NYC meetup the new (and maybe last) alpha version was presented. With supporting of Pandora it offers listening of quickmix, favorite stations and creation of new stations. Additionally with RadioTime it’s possible to listen to over 100,000 radio stations from around the world.

Both apps were built using a new boxee API. It allows developers to build apps using XML pages and Python scripts. So, using it you’ll able to add support of new services or control the data and metadata around the media easily. See BoxeeHQ to find available plugins, apps and hacks or place your stuff there.

Boxee development team announced yesterday a new alpha version. It’s gonna be public since now for Mac, Ubuntu and Apple users. Windows folks should stay on private version.

There is a few new features in the new alpha such support of BBC iPlayer (UK users only), Joost and MTV Music as well as several bug fixes.

For developers who want to develop their applications for Boxee the developer guide was created. The real example of using Boxee API is a support of photo sharing service Pikeo implemented by Orange Labs (from the France Telecom group).

All folks who built Boxee for other Linux distributions such as SlackeWare or Fedora may be interested to know that Boxee source was also updated. Now it’s 0.9.7.4826.

The Wireless Illuminated Super Tiny Keyboard can be good Christmas present for all HTPC owners. That 56 keys low keycap notebook keyboard is extremely compact and portable. The illumination feature allows to use it in a low-light environment (when movie is played, for example). That keyboard works on 2.4GHz radio frequency with operation distance in 10 meters. It should be enough even for open air home cinema in your yard.

The Wireless Illuminated Super Tiny Keyboard is available on the USB.BRANDO.COM.HK for $47.00 with free worldwide shipping. So, I’m thinking to buy it as the Christmas present for myself

Recently I found a good example of DIY HTPC. The 9 yeas old music center AIWA NSX-430 was used as a base. All its functions were saved except cassette player (in any case it’s not so important in our digital century). For HTPC are used following parts:

• Motherboard: Shuttle FN85 with NVIDIA nForce3 Pro 150
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with ZALMAN CNPS7700-AlCu
• RAM: 2×512 Kingston DDR-533
• Video: nVidia GeForce 6600 GT AGP
• HDD: Samsung SATA II HD350HJ – 350GB
• Optical drive: Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7170S SATA
• PSU: Shuttle SB75G2, 220 W

Using AUX input sound comes from HTPC to music center speakers. Moreover, it’s possible to use built-in NSX-430 equalizer and DSP.

The article is on Russian. But there is a lot of photos which cover all stages of assembly. As result the old music center can be used as HTPC as well.

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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