HP pitches 'little iron' for the home

HP unveiled its MediaSmart Server at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. The server, to be based on a new edition of Windows called Windows Home Server, will let consumers share and backup media collections on a home network, says News.com.

Faced with maturing growth in developed economies, PC companies have been searching for ways to convince people to add second and third PCs to their homes as digital entertainment hubs. The MediaSmart Server does not even remotely resemble the "big iron" servers that run corporations.

Sales of PCs with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition have been brisk, but there's no evidence that those PCs are being used to access content from the outside world and stream it around the home.

The maker of Slingbox, a device that lets people watch their home television on laptops away from home, now plans to reverse that flow and bring Web video to television sets, reports BusinessWeek.

Sling Media will unveil SlingCatcher at the Consumer Electronics Show, joining a growing group of companies that aim to bring Web content into the living room.

The new set-top box will send multimedia content of any format from the Web to a TV, whether it's a slideshow from a photo-sharing site, clips from a video sharing site, or films downloaded from an online movie service.

Sharp revealed the world's first prototype of a 108-inch LCD Aquos television in Las Vegas, reports Pcmag.

The LCD screen, which measures 93.9 inches high by 52.9 inches wide (107.8 inches on the diagonal), features a black advanced super view full-spec HD LCD panel. Sony and Samsung Electronics now both use seventh-generation glass in their joint venture, but plan to bring on stream a new eighth-generation plant by next autumn, according to both companies.

In general, eighth-generation glass substrates can yield up to six 52-inch panels, compared to only two from the sixth-generation glass used at the first Kameyama plant. Sharp claims the new plant will allow the company to offer even larger LCD TVs at competitive prices.

Officially, Nokia is still mum about its new Linux-based N800 Internet tablet, the successor to its N770 Internet tablet, but it is already on sale in some US stores, reports eWeek.

The N800 is now for sale at some CompUSA stores for $399.99. This new model, from sources close to Nokia and the Carrypad Web site, appears to be a substantial upgrade to the Nokia 770.

Some of these are changes that Linux tablet fans have been requesting for some time. These include increasing the RAM from the older model to 12MB and its flash memory to 256MB. The processor has also been given a kick in the pants with an increase in speed from 220MHz to 320MHz.