Smart Home Blog

Lats month Lenovo released its new IdeaCentre Q180 home theater PC. The skinny box sports a 2.13GHz Intel Atom dual-core CPU with Radeon HD 6450A graphics and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM. It’s enough for 1080p playback smoothly. Additionally it can have a 750GB HDD or a 128GB SSD and Blu-ray drive. To hook up displays and peripheries HDMI, VGA, and S/PDIF output can be used together with USB 3.0 ports. Wireless connectivity is performed via Bluetooth or 802.11b/g/n WiFi. Also the IdeaCentre Q180 comes with compact wireless keyboard. It includes QWERTY keyboard, trackball and keys for media control.

The price for Lenovo IdeaCentre Q180 HTPC starts from $349. So, if you’re thinking about your own media center based on PC then new product of Lenovo can be your choice.

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.