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Kaleidescape shows off a new kid-friendly remote/menu system, Blu-ray disc vault

Besides being a thorn in the side of the MPAA, Kaleidescape is all about letting its owners play back their movies as quickly and easily as possible, and showed off a couple of new products to that end this week at CEDIA. As promised, it showed off a disc loader due later this year designed to rip and hold on to your Blu-ray discs while it actually plays them back not from the disc, but as images. Convoluted, but necessary to work around the rules in place. Once you've got all those discs loaded up (up to 100 per vault) there's another new way to play them back, with its new kid-friendly interface (available as a free download for existing owners) and $39 remote that lets parents give kids their own limited list of movies to watch and a durable, nine-button IR remote to browse them with, perfect for keeping their grubby fingers off your remote and iPhone.

Update: And now with video, direct from Kaleidescape's CEDIA booth, embedded after the break.
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Kaleidescape Introduces First User Interface for Young Children
Even Toddlers Can Find and Play Their Own Movies,
and Parents Have Complete Control over Available Content



SUNNYVALE, CA - September 22, 2010 - Kaleidescape, Inc., the market leader in movie servers, today introduced the industry's first user interface designed specifically for young children. With a Kaleidescape System and a Kaleidescape Child Remote, a young child can find and play any of his or her movies without help from an adult. The way it works-different user interface behavior when using a particular remote-is an industry first.

When a Child Remote is used with a Kaleidescape System, the on-screen user interface automatically changes to the simplified child user interface, which only offers pure graphical navigation of movie covers. The Child Remote has nine buttons, a) up, down, left, right and select, b) play, pause and stop, and c) shuffle. It's so simple and intuitive that even a toddler can use it. Parents choose what content is in the child's personal collection of movies. The rest of the content is hidden. When any other controller is used, the user interface changes back to the original on-screen user interface.

"Most of my clients are families where the children use the Kaleidescape System the most," said Brandon Hoishik, owner of Hoishik in Spring City, Pennsylvania. "The new child user interface gives parents a way to add educational programs into the mix and encourage young children to discover good content independently within their personal collection."

"With a complicated touch panel controller and more than 1,000 movies loaded on our system, my four-year-old daughter used to always ask for help when she wanted to watch a movie," said Michael Malcolm, Kaleidescape's founder, chairman and CEO. "The day she got her own remote and her own collection of movies, she was thrilled. Now, she won't let us start a movie for her; she insists on doing it herself."

The child user interface is a feature of the Kaleidescape Entertainment Appliance Operating System (KEAOS) version 4.0, and Kaleidescape Systems connected to the Internet will automatically receive this software update by October 2010. The Kaleidescape Child Remote is available immediately at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $39 in the United States. Kaleidescape will be demonstrating both of these products at booth #2228 during CEDIA EXPO 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia (September 23-26).


About Kaleidescape
Kaleidescape designs and manufactures the world's leading movie server, bringing lasting lifestyle convenience to families with young children and movie enthusiasts. The Kaleidescape System, renowned for its intuitive user interface, presents your entire collection of movies on any TV in your home, and provides a rich, cinematic experience for the entire family. Kaleidescape's innovative products and services are protected by over 50 patents issued and pending. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Kaleidescape sells its movie servers through custom installation dealers and distributors throughout the world. For more information, visit www.kaleidescape.com.

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Kaleidescape and the Kaleidescape logo are trademarks of Kaleidescape, Inc.; they are registered in the United States and certain other jurisdictions. Other trademarks and trade names are owned by third parties and may be registered in some jurisdictions.