Smart Home Blog

LinuxMCE development team recently announced a new version of its Web Orbiter. A new Web Orbiter 2.0 is based on Ajax technology and offers more convenient way to control system from the web browser. The previous version refreshed page every couple of minutes to display updated statuses of devices. Using Ajax technology allows update the changed only elements without refreshing the page.

The new Web Orbiter 2.0 works on any PC with web browser Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Midori or IE. Also it supports mobile browser versions such OperaMini, OperaMobile 10 and S60 browser. So, using it you can setup iPhone, iPad (see the photo above – custom version of UI1) or some another smartphone or webpad as LinuxMCE control panel just adjusting the size of the Orbiter via admin site.

You can get the Web Orbiter 2.0 with the latest update of LinuxMCE 0810.

Korean producer DignLab announced Atom based all-in-one nettop AIO A1. It has 19” LCD touchscreen display with resolution 1280×1024 and response time in 5ms, the Mini-ITX motherboard, unspecified Atom CPU and 3.5-inch hard-drive and run Windows XP. Additionally it ’s equiped with integrated 5W stereo speakers, two USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out and a custom 170W power supply. The DignLab AIO A1 is priced at the equivalent of $300 in Korea.

That device is amazing. A couple years ago I made a search of Windows touch panel for Plutohome Orbiter. The best variant was 12″ TableKiosk Sahara priced by $1700. The AIO A1 looks very attractive to use it as LinuxMCE Orbiter or control panel for some other home automation system. Hope DignLab will sell its device worldwide. So, home automation professionals and enthusiasts will have a chance to get a big touchscreen control panel for their systems.

[via SlashGear].

After mobile Orbiter based on Java was announced I thought that Symbian Orbiter was dead. JavaMO works fine and it doesn’t need specific platform. The mobile phone just should support Java applications. There are some issues with JavaMO, but it looks much better then S60 Orbiter.

But I was wrong. Thanks to Hari, who started JavaMO development, owners of S60 v.3 smartphones can run native Orbiter on their devices. The updated version of Symbian mobile Orbiter can be downloaded here, demo video – here. Feel free to install it, test and submit found bugs and suggestions here.

UPDATE: There is the newest version of the S60 v3 Orbiter. You can find it here. The changes include hardcoded resolution to 240×320, used by many smartphones, local cache for the screens and some bugfixes.

Touchscreen PC WebDT 366 was suggested as WinCE Orbiter for Plutohome and LinuxMCE. But it was too expensive (about $1500 – $2000). But now the situation has been changed. There are a lot of touchscreen UMPC on the market and the WebDT 366 was discontinued. As result, its price (for used devices) was decreased and now it can be even budget control panel for the LinuxMCE installation.

One of the LinuxMCE developers Tom aka tschak909 created a micro-distribution of Debian (based on Lenny), which contains the Linux based Orbiter. So, you can find WebDT 366 and flash it by yourself by Tom’s image or you can buy already preconfigured device ($250) or/and bootable LMCE webpad orbiter installation USB stick ($25).

In any case with Linux image WebDT 366 got a new life. So, don’t miss opportunity to add inexpensive and stable 8.4” touchscreen Orbiter to your LinuxMCE installation.

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]