Smart Home Blog

As you may see on the picture the Boxee Box remote control will include QWERTY keyboard. The initial design was simple and clean like 6-button AppleTV remote. But to give users more handy and rich way to control their Boxee Box designers decided to add keyboard on the bottom of remote. It’ll be nice but I think keys can be pressed accidentally if there won’t some block. Maybe slide form-factor

Lenovo offers a great alternative to Logitech diNovo Mini for HTPC users. Its mini wireless keyboard with track ball has palm size and gives an easy and handy way to control you media center. It uses 2.4GHz radio frequency and lets 10 meters control distance.

The price of the Lenovo Multimedia Remote is $59.99 which is nearly three times cheaper then diNovo Mini ($149.99)! Good deal isn’t it? That remote is compatible
with Windows® 2000 Windows® XP & Windows Vista® & Windows® 7. It’d be great to know how it works under Linux. Theoretically it should be supported.

By the way personally I still prefer old school IR remote control. Because it controls not only HTPC but TV, satellite and audio receiver, and much more.

With new major update of Philips ProntoEdit Professional software Pronto TSU9600 WiFi Remote can control Sonos zoned music system. It works nice – automatic search of players, playback control etc. Only search of desired track takes too much time.

The module to control Sonos is based on UPnP/DLNA engine incorporated into the Pronto platform. Using it you can implement similar module to control any UPnP/DLNA system.

Check the demo after jump.
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Recently announced Boxee widget for Mac OS Dashboard looks cool to control your Boxee box from laptop. But what should do Linux and Windows users? Wait till somebody port it? No, you can run the widget even now using Kludgets – cross-platform open source widget engine. Except Mac OS Dashboard widgets it supports Yahoo’s Widget Engine, Microsoft Gadget, and Google Desktop, and Opera Widgets (with its excellent Twitter client!). So, just install the Kludgets (there is version for Linux and Windows on its site) and add Boxee Mac OS X widget there as well as other desired ones.

[via Lifehacker]

The USB Wireless Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad looks like a substitute for ordinary remote control. It has a 48 keys QWERTY compact keyboard with backlight and 2.8″ touchpad with left and right mouse buttons. Using those it’d be easy to search movies in the media library or control playback. I just would like to have dedicated arrow and Ok buttons.

The device uses 2.4GHz radio frequency. So it allows to use it up to 30 feet effective working range. It has built-in rechargeable battery (I don’t like that) and possibility to switch device off to save energy. It’s supported by Windows as well as by Linux. The price of the USB Wireless Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad is $62.

UDPATE: That Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad can be also purchased from EFO web site just for $40, plus $5 shipping to any country. Also they promise that device is compatible with Mac OS, Linux, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Window 7 as well as with Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Wii. Probably I’ll order it.

See the device in action in demo video below.
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