Smart Home Blog

Aspalis SAS together with Navicom presents the Pulse – controller for home automation. It’s based on Intel® IXP420 Network Processor, which offers a scaleable solution while keeping energy consumption and heat dissipation to a minimum. As OS the Pulse uses Microsoft® Windows® Embedded CE 5.0 (not Linux, unfortunatelly), which can be managed and updated remotely.

The controller includes an integrated KNX/EIB bus connector. Additionaly, it supports Z-Wave protocol.Multiple serial ports offer RS232/422/435 connections to systems such as alarm panels, access control systems, irrigation controllers, etc. The controllers also features two USB 2.0 ports and dual 10/100 Ethernet ports which enable the controller to connect to both WAN and LAN connections.

There are varius devices which can be used as the Pulse control console: smartphones, PDA, Tablet or ordinary PC. They should be based on Windows – Mobile, Embedded or XP with .NET Compact Framework v2.0.

There is not any information about availability and cost of the Pulse.
[via Engadget]

Australian company Swann offers the cool way to make surveillance – Digital Private Eye. Basically it’s a small video camera placed in a case which looks like an alarm passive infra-red device. So, nobody knows that everything under your control.

The camera comes with a built-in motion detector that starts taking shots each time it is triggered, storing up to 30,000 images on a single 1GB SD card. It can be powered by a 9V battery or a power cable for 24-hour surveillance. You can view camera’s shapshots by connecting it in USB port of your PC or read them directly from SD card. The Digital Private Eye may use mostly as stand alone spy recorder and not as part of real time surveillance system. You can be a lucky owner of this spycam just for $199.00.

[via Ubergizmo]

Snapalarm offers the easiest way to be notified about any wafts of smoke in the event of a fire. To install the elegant smoke detector is extremely easy. You can get it just for £27.99. The Snapalarm is available in back and white colors which should be suitable for most of cases.

Unfortunatelly, I didn’t find any useful information about internal structure and possibility to integrate the detector with home automation system.
[via Ubergizmo]

I’ve setup a Smart Search engine which already includes more than 30 sites. This number will be increased as new intersting sites about smarthome technologies will be found. If you’re an owner of good site/blog about smarthomes or just know some, please, contact me and I’ll add it to the Smart Search.

MyTVPal.com, the world’s first 1080P high definition streaming Video on Demand (“VOD”) and IPTV service for PC Player and IPTV receiver set top box (STB) clients will be launching this week.

The service to start, will offer over 700 free IPTV channels from over 70 countries, including standard definition and high definition channels to any broadband user with 1.5mbps speed or higher. A wide range of video on demand titles will be offered for a low monthly cost in the months to come with new TV channels and VOD titles being added each month.

User uploaded content and DVR features will be available as a software upgrade for PC and STB clients in 2007. MyTVPal.com is planning to release 100,000 MatrixStream IPTV 1080p set top box (http://www.matrixstream.com/presskit.cfm) in the first year of launch.

The PC Player and STB also offers targeted advertising opportunities for those advertisers who are contracted with MyTVPal.com. MyTVPal.com is targeting 10 million users over the next 5 years and is currently making its PC Player available for a free trial for those that register at www.MyTVPal.com. MatrixStream Technologies, Inc., an IPTV end-to-end solution provider based in the San Francisco Bay Area, powers MyTVPal.com’s IPTV platform.

About MyTVPal.com

MyTVPal.com, operated by BB Entertainment Inc., is a leading edge content aggregator focused on IPTV platform with over 15,000 hours of content. MyTVpal.com mission is to create an enhanced television experience by delivering high quality video entertainment with video quality that meet or exceed the quality of satellite or cable over the broadband network.

About MatrixStream

MatrixStream Technologies, Inc. offers a complete end-to-end VOD and IPTV platform solution, utilizing patent pending MatrixCast technology that delivers DVD and HDTV quality videos over any broadband IP network to the viewing audience. Currently, MatrixStream is working with 25 major broadband service providers around the world. For more information please visit www.matrixstream.com.