The Eee Keyboard is the company's newest product in their streamlined Eee series. It's a computer integrated into a keyboard, with a 5-inch touchscreen built right on it. Thanks to Ultra-wideband HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wi-fi, it can connect to your home theater (assuming it has Bluetooth and wireless HDMI features or accessories) and your home network without a single cable.
Continue reading "Asus' wireless Eee Keyboard coming in October" »
Home Theater PCs and high-end gaming rigs generally sit on two opposite ends of the expensive computer spectrum. Maingear, however, has created a pretty impressive machine that can ably handle both. At its top-end, the AXESS HD Gamer model is ridiculously fast, sporting an Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.3GHz processor and up to 12GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM. Handling the graphics are two NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB chips arranged in an SLI. Translation: It will eat Left 4 Dead like a hungry zombie eats an unsuspecting victim.
But, despite its gaming capabilities, it's also a full-fledged media machine, with an onboard Realtek ALC885 that pumps out 8-channel audio. The Pioneer Black Blu-ray drive is a great component and it can handle up to 4TB of 7200 RPM storage. The base model starts at $1,800, but turning it into a dream machine will run you well north of $4,000. For that kind of firepower in a really sexy box, though, that doesn't sound like a bad deal. You even get a Phantom Lapboard keyboard as part of the standard package, which is a lot cooler than the standard Media Center remote.
--Stan Horaczek
Niveus Media has announced the ZONE multi-room media player, a compact media system that can play music and movies served from any networked media PC. At just 6" by 6" by 2", it's slightly smaller than a Mac Mini, with more home theater-friendly features.
The ZONE is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and features HDMI 1.3, a slot-loading Blu-ray drive, e-SATA connectivity for adding non-networked storage, and support for third-party digital cable tuners. Once hooked up to your home network, it can access music, photos, and movies from any networked storage device or PC, including Niveus' own existing media servers, like the Niveus' Rainier Edition 500HD media center PC we reviewed last year.
Like its name implies, the ZONE can support a single room (or zone). However, multiple ZONEs can be set up across a home network, giving numerous rooms the same access to networked media, along with its in-box Blu-ray playback and cable tuner support.
The Niveus ZONE is available now for $1,499, from Niveus.com and select custom installers and dealers.
— Will Greenwald
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