Smart Home Blog

Good example of using used EEE netbook is demonstrated by German folk sidekickx81. He created a media PC for his kitchen. It allows to him watch DVB-T TV, video from online services or network shares, listen music, check receipts or weather forecast. In standby mode it can be used as digital photo frame.

The kitchen PC is controlled by touchscreen added with USB touchscreen set because original EEE doesn’t have that feature. It’s connected to LAN via WiFi. So, no additional wiring is needed. Moreover, thanks to netbook battery it can work a few hours after power cutting.

Nice idea, implementation and … music in video clip 🙂

The latest ASUS Eee 206 with HDMI output can be viewed in action in Hannover. In my opinion it’s the best option for the LinuxMCE media director or media client for the Boxee, XBMC or some other multiroom media system. More photos can be found here.

I already wrote about using ASUS Eee Desktop as LinuxMCE media director. It’s compact, cheap and has enough power to playback HD content. But with fresh announcement about adding HDMI out to the next generation of Eee desktop B204 and B206. Both models are equiped by Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) and ATI Radeon HD 3400 graphics. Additionally ASUS Eee will get S/PDIF audio out.

There are no any words about price and availability of ASUS Eee Desktop HD version. But in any case it seems that it’ll be the best candidate to use as LinuxMCE media director or as a client for other media systems such VDR, MythTV etc.

[via Engadget]

A new ASUS all-in-one touchscreen PC is ready for pre-order on the UK online shop. It sports 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 15.6-inch touchscreen LCD, a 1.3-megapixel camera, built-in stereo speakers, WiFi (802.11b/g/n) адаптер and gigabit LAN and runs Windows XP Home. The release date is set for November 20th, but now you can pre-order it for £399.99 ($685)!

The all-in-one ASUS PC looks really amazing! Till that time the most appropriate solution for big, WinXP-based touchscreen control panel for LinuxMCE, called Orbiter, was Sahara i400. But new all-in-one Eee provides better configuration for the half price (Sahara i400 is tagged at $1700.00)! A big respect to ASUS for its amazing line Eee!

[via Engadget]

Finally ASUS announced specification, prices and availability of its new Eee B202 Desktop PC. Its price starts from $269.00. So, as you can see B202 looks very attractive in design, productivity and price points.

I like ASUS Eee B202 Desktop PC and I’d like to try it as LinuxMCE media client (media director). It uses Intel graphical chip which supports UI2 but without transparency yet. The B202 can be mounted behind TV. It’s compact, noiseless and has enough power to play video (not sure about HDTV). Well, let’s wait till it’ll be available in Europe. I think it can be good competitor for aOpen miniPC.

Full specification after jump.
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