The last we had heard about Microsoft’s Xbox Music service, rumors were circulating that it would launch on October 26 along with free ad-supported streaming. Turns out, those rumors were sort of right. Xbox Music launches today on the Xbox 360 alongside a dashboard update. The dashboard update will also bring the Xbox UI more in line with the Windows 8 […]
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With XBMC adding Raspberry Pi support, there has never been a better time for DIYers to try their hand at building their own SoC-based HTPC/extender. How fortunate then that the diminutive hardware kit continues to improve. The Rasperry Pi is available as a Model A or Model B variant with 128MB and 256MB of RAM respectively. With RAM prices in […]
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It can be difficult to spend time on the Internet these days without running into the phrases “Post-PC Era” and “app economy”, usually in the same sentence. TiVo may not necessarily be “Post-PC”, but the company has long understood the potential for apps to differentiate a platform. Unfortunately, though TiVo started adding apps to its platfom for thrid-party services relatively […]
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It is no secret that October tends to be a big month for those interested in technology. With companies gearing up for the holiday shopping season and jockeying to one-up the competition in pursuit of the dollars destined to stream out of our wallets, October tends to be a poor month to take a vacation if you spend your free […]
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Intel’s third generation Core integrated processor graphics (IPG) chip, aka Ivy Bridge (IVB), got off to a slow start for us with a set of high-end CPUs not really intended for the home theater PC (HTPC). We still do not have one of the low power Core i3/i5 with HD4000 graphics on hand; now that they are available, H77 based […]
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Anyone already in Ceton’s Echo Windows Media Center Extender beta program found out this morning that they will start shipping the units in the next few days. Taken on its own this is less news than continued taunt aimed at those unlucky enough to be left out, but we did find out something very interesting in the mailer – the […]
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In an HDMI A/V environment, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is the glue that ties components together into a cohesive unit–able to be controlled by a single remote without the hassle, or expense, of a normal universal as well as removing infrared’s (IR) line-of-site requirement for playback devices. Where there can be problems with the protocol, most often the root cause […]
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Cablevision has been feeling a bit left out of the whole TV Anywhere concept that has been bringing streaming versions of network offerings to subscription TV customers. As one of the smaller cable providers, Cablevision has lagged in signing deals with major broadcasters to offer streaming versions to customers, but the company picked up a big win this week by […]
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I know only one other person who has a home server and a fleeting few more who have a NAS device in their homes, but all of these people do so specifically to accomodate the increasingly massive amounts of media that they not only want to store, but pipe around the house. Intel thinks there is a growing market here […]
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Our own Andrew van Til recently scoffed at the notion of debating the merits of OLED vs 4K TVs and trying to decide which one is more worthy of holding out for. It would appear that the folks at IHS iSuppli Research would probably agree. IHS is predicting that 4K TVs will represent an exceedingly small part of the market […]
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