DeviceGuru

Boxee has quietly moved its long awaited Beta release onto its public download site. The new version of this free Internet — and local — A/V-streaming player currently supports PCs running Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Ubuntu OSes, with an Apple TV version coming soon.
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Following closely on the heels of the December announcement of D-Link’s BoxeeBox, Syabas Technology today said it will ship a $129 Internet-based A/V streaming set-top box (STB) in March. Both new gadgets have the potential to give Roku’s popular Netflix-streaming STB a run for its money.
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Hey, we just discovered that our very own DIY BoxeeBox has made LifeHacker.com’s list of the “Most Popular DIY Projects of 2009.” This certainly shows the popularity of Internet-based multimedia streaming to the big screen in the family room — and of Boxee’s free, easy-to-use multimedia access platform. Check out LifeHacker’s article, and be sure to cast your vote for our BoxeeBox!

D-Link unveiled its soon-to-be-released “Boxee Box” at Boxee’s preview of Boxee Beta in New York last night. Few details have been disclosed other than that it runs Boxee on Linux, provides HDMI and both analog and digital audio outputs, and hooks up to the Internet via either WiFi or Ethernet.
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Shipments of Ultra-Mobile Devices (UMDs), including a range of emerging devices such as UMPCs (Ultra-Mobile PCs), netbooks, and MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices), are expected to grow to 385 million units annually within five years. Their main obstacle will be smartphones, such as the iPhone and various Android models.
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A 20-page downloadable whitepaper compares 10 free media center applications, with an eye toward discovering their potential synergies. The study, from the Telematics Freedom Foundation’s “Freedom Box Project,” aims to standardize and promote open, free, and user-friendly web-based TV media center platforms.
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Lantronix has introduced what it claims is the “World’s Smallest Linux Networking Server.” Within an elongated RJ45 Ethernet LAN connector, the XPort Pro packs a 32-bit RISC CPU, 8MB SDRAM, 16MB flash storage, and a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN port.
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After losing patience with waiting for Netflix video streaming to come to the Linux version of Boxee, and needing to relocate my Roku Netflix Player to the garage’s fitness equipment zone, I decided to add a Windows partition to the BoxeeBox (my DIY media center STB) so we could continue to enjoy instant Netflix downloads on our family-room TV.
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In another sign of these tumultuous times, Intel announced that it plans to acquire embedded software market leader Wind River for around $884 million. Wind River’s renowned VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) is found in myriad consumer gadgets such as LinkSys wireless routers.
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The Linux version of Boxee’s eponymously-named multimedia platform has finally been updated to include several new features introduced into the OS X and Windows versions over the past few months. Key additions include an “App Box” and restored support for Hulu.
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Boxee has restored support for Hulu to its free media center platform for PCs and Macs. The support, a hack to Boxee’s RSS feed functionality, has a DIY aspect to it.
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Having recently constructed the BoxeeBox, I naturally was eager to check out Neuros Technology’s somewhat similar IP-TV set-top box. Though currently at a “gamma” release, the Neuros “Link” shows great promise.
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With the Debian Linux project officially designating “Lenny” as its new “stable” distribution, I decided to install it on an old Thinkpad to see how well it performed on a low-end machine. Without doubt, the results surpassed my wildest expectations!
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Inspired by Roku’s awesome Netflix video download box and impressed with Boxee’s free A/V media center platform, it was merely a matter of time before I’d create the BoxeeBox, an Ubuntu-powered HTPC that I call my “one box to rule them all.” Here’s how it’s done.
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Myka, which recently began shipping an IPTV set-top box (STB), is offering a $100 discount to entice developers to roll up their sleeves and contribute to its device’s open-source, Linux-based software stack.
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Embedded Linux has now been around for a decade and consistently ranks as one of the top OS choices for device development. But, does it still have its mojo?
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OpenSource World — the successor to LinuxWorld — is soliciting presentations for its Mobile Open Source sub-conference. The conference will take place Aug. 10-13, 2009 in San Francisco.
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After recently reviewing the gOS Gadgets Ubuntu-remix, I decided to try adding Mozilla Prism, Google Gadgets, and a Wbar animated application-launch icon dock to standard Ubuntu. Here’s how to do that.
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A robot project reportedly has won the first monthly design contest sponsored by BeagleBoard.org. The site promotes the Beagle Board, a low-cost, fanless, single-board computer (SBC) based on a TI OMAP applications processor..
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The gOS (“good OS”) project has issued an SP1 release of gOS 3.1 Gadgets. This latest gOS release implements numerous package updates, bug fixes, and configuration enhancements, and continues gOS’s strong dependence on Google’s web-based applications.
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I realize it’s a touchy subject, but some of us prefer unmodified Firefox — including the standard Firefox icon — to Debian’s Iceweasel alternative. Here’s a three-step way to substitute Firefox for Iceweasel on a fresh Lenny install.
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The Linux Foundation has published a series of video interviews from the annual Linux Kernel Summit held Sept. 15-16 in Portland, Oregon. In the videos, 16 developers — including Linux creator Linus Torvalds (shown at left) — discuss their development activities.
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Canonical Ltd., commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, says it’s porting Ubuntu to the ARM RISC processor architecture. Ubuntu on ARM will target netbooks and other emerging device categories requiring a “rich, always-connected, mobile computing experience, without compromising battery life.”
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Digi International has introduced a Linux-based server packaged within a somewhat elongated RJ45 connector. The ME 9210 comes with an embedded OS based on a Linux 2.6.26 kernel.
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It finally happened: Ubuntu 8.10 (aka “Intrepid Ibex”) has uprooted Kubuntu 8.04 from the Black Tower. Although I’ve been a staunch KDE advocate for many years, this exceptional new distribution — based on Linux 2.6.27, GNOME 2.24, and X.Org 7.4 — has unexpectedly converted me into a GNOME user.
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