Apr
30
You know what sucks? Well, when you find out that your fancy HTPC wireless Mouse & Keyboard combo that just cost you 149 USD is basically put to shame by your average Chinese no name one, and for 100 bucks cheaper too!
Yep EFO’s wireless Keyboard simply just kick-ass and even perform better than my crappy Logitech diNovo Mini that often does not work correctly and force me to remove the main battery once a week, where some letters stop working correctly after 2 month, and where the track pad seems to have a mind of its own.
Now sure, EFO’s wireless Keyboard is far as sexy as Logitech’s one, but for 4o bucks what can you expect? Now if you can put aside looks and just need something that simply does what it advertises, well, the EFO Wireless Keyboard is you answer.
With a straight forward design, our squarish HTPC remote, features a touchpad like you would find on most cheap PCs, a left and right mouse keys, a fully QWERTY keyboard and directional arrows.
Ultra slim (10mm) our keyboard has a mini USB port that will let you recharge its internal battery, but just plug its USB dongle to your PC, Mac, Linux Box, PS3 and X360 (Did not try yet the Wii) and “Voila” your done.
I have been using this baby since a month now and I really do not regret it… My fancy Logitech diNovo Mini back in its drawer, I now enjoy navigating through Hulu Desktop (PC/MAC) with this new EFO keyboard, Windows Media Center 7 and well quickly type email or URL from my Sofa.
Things are of course no always perfect and I would love to get an Apple Key on this keyboard (or command key) to be fully compatible with my Mac Mini, a faster touchpad, but for 40$ really, this EFO beat the hell out the expensive Logitech diNovo Mini.
Oh and I forget… No drivers are needed, this little wonder is just Plug & Play!
Apr
30
Programmer Martin Millmore released My Media Center, a kid-friendly interface for Windows 7 Media Center. At it’s first release, the design (and name) is a bit lackluster so it can’t truly be called kid-friendly at this point in time. Martin reasonably chalks the design up to this being the first release.
I can’t really make mention on using the application due to it not displaying any of my videos even after waiting overnight. It seems the MyMediaCenterController.exe application doesn’t want to run. I’ll play with it a bit more later today and update the post if successful.
Design and naming flaws aside, My Media Center looks like a nice option for Windows Media Center users who want to restrict or limit access to your media for little eyes.
My Media Center is a Windows 7 Media Center interface specially designed for kids. It has a simple easy to use interface, and it allows a you to set up filters on what can be watched so that your youngsters don’t accidentally start watching age inappropriate programs.
Key Features
- Decide which channels, videos and DVDs are available to watch
- Settings secured by PIN
- All media items in a single list
- Animated screens and exciting UI
- Add videos and recorded TV to a playlist to set up a whole viewing session
- Video previews
- Can launch straight in to My Media Center, bypassing other media options
- No option to accidentally delete precious videos
This is the first release, and the graphics need to be improved a bit yet, but download now for free from here and let me know what you think.
Thanks
Martin
Source: The Green Button
Apr
30
I want to build a new multimedia PC for my home. Currently I am looking for a perfect motherboard and processor for my HTPC. I read on many reviews about the ASUS AT3N7A-I motherboard that already bundled with NVIDIA Ion. This AT3N7A-I is perfectly compact, relatively inexpensive, and potentially noiseless HTPC or an entry-level gaming computer.
Inside this AT3N7A-I motherboard, ASUS already preinstalled Intel Atom 330. ASUS look like very serius on this HTPC motherboard. They use all solid capacitor on this board. ASUS AT3N7A-I boasts of a wide range of interfaces, including HDMI, eSATA, 3 x SATA-II (300 MB/s), 10 x USB, as well as a classic PCI slot, which was not available in the ION-based motherboards from Zotac.
NVIDIA ION gives the following features to the ASUS AT3N7A-I:
- Support for two DDR2-800 memory modules (up to 4GB)
- Integrated graphics based on GeForce 9300 (D-Sub and HDMI)
- 1 x PCI
- 10 x USB 2.0 (8 ports on the rear panel and an on-board header for 2 additional ports)
- 3 x SATA300 plus one eSATA port on the rear panel
- PS/2 keyboard connector
Apr
29
If the slew of QWERTY keyboards recently launched for your HTPC haven’t fit the bill, have a look at Adesso’s latest full size, 30 foot range, 2.4Ghz RF wireless multimedia keyboard. What makes the $119.99 Adesso RF SlimTouch Pro Touchpad Keyboard (WKB-4200UB) different from most other wireless keyboards is that it places the built-in touchpad (with left/right buttons and a scroll strip) where the number pad usually goes and includes 6 multimedia buttons right along side it for quick access. Adesso’s designers even thought ahead and included sleep mode and power on/off buttons to help users extended the keyboard’s battery life (requires 2 x AAA batteries) when not couch surfing. Overall the WKB-4200UB’s design is quite nice and can be easily be used as a replacement desktop keyboard, if one wanted to. [via]
Alternative: Adesso MCE keyboard w/ multi-touch touchpad @ Amazon.com
Specifications:
- Connection: 2.4 GHz RF Smartlink with 12 Auto-Changeable channels (65000 IDs per channel)
- 4 Internet Hotkeys: (Scroll Up/Down, Home, E-mail and Forward/Back
- 6 Multimedia Hotkeys:(Play/Pause, Stop, Previous Track, Next Track, Vol+/Vol- and Mute )
- 3 PC Hotkeys:(My Computer, Search and Sleep)
- Keyboard Dimensions: 11.75″ x 6.0″ x 0.5″
- Mini USB Receiver Dimensions: 1.65″ x 0.75″ x 0.25″
- Weight: 2.0 lbs
- Number of Keycaps: 87 Keys Mini Layout in an ultra-stylish design.
- Keyboard Technology: Membrane Switch
- Mouse Function: Touchpad with two Buttons
- Switch Life: 5 Million Cycles
- Switch Travel: 3.0+/- 0.3mm
- Includes 2 AAA Battery
- Power Consumption:
- Active mode: 7mA
- Standby mode: 5mA, Without any movement, the keyboard will go into standby mode.
- Sleep mode: 150uA, 10 minutes in standby mode, the keyboard will go into sleep mode.