Smart Home Blog

Samsung released in Korea a quite interesting set – a 55-inch LED baclkit LCD TV and a brand new 7-inch touchscreen tablet. The tablet does not just perform the function of smart remote control for TV and home theater. It receives over 802.11n EPG, including video previews of TV shows, and allows access to media stored on a PC. But the most interesting feature is ability to stream live TV and Blu-ray content from the home theater to the tablet. So, you can have a mobile multi-room system easily. See the new Samsung set in action in the demo video below.

There is no world about availability and the price of that set in Europe or US.
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Philips showed its new compact remote control which looks like mobile slider but without screen. The most often usable buttons are placed on the top panel – navigation, playback control etc. The numeric, letter and a few service keys are put on the slide part. So, they are hide if you don’t need them.

Actually there is nothing revolutionary but remote looks nice and handy. The demo video is available after jump.
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Toshiba presented its new device – JournE Touch Tablet. That 7-inch screen touch webpad uses ARM processor and runs Windows CE 6.0 Pro. It has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g adapter, 1GB Nand Flash internal memory, built-in two 0.5W speakers and SD*, MMC, MS and MS Pro, xD memory card slot. The docking station offers HDMI TV out and charging. Device should be released in Q4 2009 for estimated price €249.00.

Well, the JournE Touch Tablet looks very nice. Personally, I’m not going to use it to serf Internet of watch video. In my mind the latest Nokia’s Internet tablet N900 is much much better for that purpose as well as N810. But the JournE Touch Tablet seems the best option for control panel of home automation systems such LinuxMCE. Currently the LinuxMCE users can use used WebDT 366 with custom image and Linux-based Orbiter as a main control panel. But JournE Touch Tablet is a cheaper option and it’s new! Sure the LinuxMCE Orbiter for Win CE should be updated to be run Windows CE 6.0 or maybe the device cab be re-flashed with Linux image. Will see how it’ll be when the JournE Touch Tablet will be released.

Demo video of the JournE Touch Tablet and quick spec can be found after jump.
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Squeezebox Touch

Squeezebox Radio

The success Logitech’s lineup of networked audio players Squeezebox was expanded by two new devices – Squeezebox Radio and Squeezebox Touch.

The Squeezebox Radio allows to listen free Internet stations, subscription music services like Rhapsody, Napster, Pandora, Sirius, LastFM and audio files from the network shares including DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads. It sports integrated amplifier, speakers (woofers and tweeters), 2.4-inch 24-bit color display to show album art, track and station information and photos. The radio supports both wired (10/100 Mbps) and wireless (802.11g) connections. Additionally it’s equiped with auxiliary input to connect iPod or any MP3 player. The Logitech Squeezebox Radio Accessory Pack which includes a battery pack and IR remote will be available separately. Using battery pack you can easily move the Squeezebox Radio in any place you want. Even without power cable. The Squeezebox Radio will be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning in September for a suggested retail price of $199.99. The Accessory Pack should be available later, on November for $49.99.
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Digium recently released the final version of the module for integration Skype and Asterisk. The implementation is done as an add-on channel driver. The module allows to Skype-to-Skype calls as well as supporting SkypeIn and SkypeOut. Additionally it offers set and retrieve online status, trunk calls between Asterisk servers over Skype, make and receive multiple concurrent Skype calls from the same Skype account. The price of Skype module for Asterisk is $66.00 per channel.

Personally I don’t see a big advantages of Skype over the SIP gates for voice calls. The SIP gates are cheaper and they give better voice quality. But the Skype module for Asterisk can be very useful in case of calling directly to the Skype accounts since Skype is a standard de-facto for business communications. In any case it’s good to have more choices for VoIP calls!