ASRock AIWI turns your iPhone / iPod touch into HTPC motion controller (video)

You may not think to look at ASRock when considering a new pre-fabricated HTPC, but the company had two new SFF boxes at Computex that could certainly suffice. The Vision 3D (available in black / silver and with or without a Blu-ray drive) was the sleeker of the two, with a minuscule form factor that could easily be tucked beneath your cable box and a Core i5-520M CPU at the helm. Other specs include NVIDIA GeForce 300 / 400 series graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive, slot-loading optical drive, 7.1-channel audio (with a fancy THX certification logo, to boot), gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a bundled remote. The other guy (Core 100 / 200 series) looks an awful lot like the S330 that we spotted at CeBIT last year, offering a Core i3-330M CPU, integrated Intel graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray combo drive and the same general port arrangement as the Vision 3D. Both units will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium, though no pricing or release date information was available.

In related news, the company was also showing off its newly released AIWI solution, which consists of an iPod touch / iPhone app and a lightweight application that runs on ASRock motherboards in order to allow for motion control gaming with an iDevice you already own. The demo that we saw here in Taiwan was perfectly seamless, and the responsiveness was on par with Nintendo's Wiimote. Apparently this is designed to be used exclusively with ASRock mobos (whereas similar alternatives from Sixense can work with any setup), but it's still a solid addition for those who tend to end up with ASRock-labeled gear. Enough yappin' -- head on past the break to catch the action yourself.

ASRock HTPCs and AIWI motion control system at Computex 2010

See more video at our hub!

[FrankDTank Posted Jun 3rd 2010 1:49AM]

I use the ipad as my home theater remote. It controls a mac mini thats connected to my kick ass samsung LED TV.

And just yesterday I was like fucking motion on my iphone would be sweet to control it.

This is awesome news for me.

[ROFL Posted Jun 3rd 2010 1:53AM]

Cool story, brah.

[kapanak Posted Jun 3rd 2010 1:55AM]

@FrankDTank

What do you play on that Mac mini? DivX formatted .avi videos at 640x480? How does that scale on your "kick ass" Samsung "LED TV"?

[Chris Leither Posted Jun 3rd 2010 3:17AM]

@kapanak
Um... I have a Mac mini HTPC as well... and I dunno about you. But I play 1080p content on it. H.264 BD-Rips in a .mkv container using Plex as a media player.
So please go and educate yourself.

[7egend Posted Jun 3rd 2010 7:29AM]

@FrankDTank

I really wish Apple was paying attention here. Mac Mini + Apple TV = HUGE.

[FrankDTank Posted Jun 3rd 2010 9:45AM]

@kapanak No sir. I play 1080p mkv files. I use boxee as my front end.
Plex from time to time.

Why would you think the mac mini cant handle HD?

Ohh let me guess your one those haters that are guided by comments of others without actually testing the product?

[WillSmith Posted Jun 3rd 2010 1:56AM]

looks pretty sweet

[palehorse Posted Jun 3rd 2010 2:00AM]

So the questions remain, can the 3D Vision...

...bitstream HD audio?
...properly handle 23.976 Hz?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[ChaosGoat Posted Jun 3rd 2010 2:32AM]

@palehorse They confirmed the bitstreaming in the first video preview thing that engadget posted.

[h2oferko Posted Jun 3rd 2010 2:06AM]

If the price is right, I am going to have one.

[mustangs Posted Jun 3rd 2010 2:09AM]

I think my contacts are drying up, but one of those htpc's look like a really ugly mac mini.

[BubblegumBalloon Posted Jun 3rd 2010 4:44AM]

I kept thinking he was gunna throw the iPhone into the TV :'O

[SkEvo Posted Jun 3rd 2010 5:06AM]

Ugh, people and their devoted attachment to their mediaplayers.. if you have one, and it works, be happy with it. But you're making no-one jealous by coming on here and boasting about it. It just makes you look lonely.

Besides, tech moves on, in a year, there will be something else new and you will feel cold and left out once more... see a pattern? Do yourself a favour and detach yourself. Be happy with what you have, and be humble.. for there is always someone out there with something better.

[qaddodi Posted Jun 3rd 2010 6:05AM]

playstation move phail?!! xD
i used to do this with my nokia N95 but was pretty laggy

[qaddodi Posted Jun 3rd 2010 6:16AM]

playstation move phail?!! xD
i used to do this with my nokia N95 but was pretty laggy

[Tagbert Posted Jun 3rd 2010 3:24PM]

Yeah, but... Ass-Rock?