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Hannuri Biz's nurian X10 e-dictionary doubles as PMP
Hannuri Biz has a knack for sprucing plain ole e-dictionaries up with enough multimedia capabilities to still make them relevant, and it's proving yet again that these things still have a place in our world with the vividly colored nurian X10. Aside from sporting an external LCD surrounded by playback controls, this thing also handles all the translating one could stand, and just in case you get tired of mingling with all those words, it can also play back XviD and MP3 files. Additionally, you'll find an image / text viewer, voice recording capability, USB connectivity and a rechargeable battery good for up to 14-hours. Mum's the word on pricing at the moment, but feel free to check out a couple more looks in the read link.
Indigo Home Automation
We just told you about the Lithium server monitoring app but what if, like most Mac users, you're more likely to monitor and control your house (or at least your lamps) than your servers? Adam Goldstein has a nice introduction to the Indigo Home Automation and Control Server over at MacDevCenter. Indigo is a Mac application for home automation using INSTEON/X10 switches, dimmers, sprinkler controllers, etc. It does this via a USB interface device which communicates with the special switches, etc. through your existing power lines. Thus, your Mac can both monitor sensors of various sorts (e.g. motion sensors) and send commands to various appliances plugged into control modules (either external ones that go between the appliance and the wall socket, or internal ones that actually replace the wall sockets). There are a variety of sensor and control modules available. Indigo can be controlled in many ways: pre-made schedules, Applescript, Salling Clicker (Bluetooth), a Dashboard widget, the phone, or even over the internet via the built-in web server. As of now, your Mac server must remain on at all times (though a future version will be able to upload commands to the USB module and then shut off). Indigo is not cheap at $179.95 (introductory price, $199.95 regularly, demo available) and obviously requires a considerable investment in INSTEON modules ($10 to $200 each), but if you're the geeky type like me this is just begging for a mac mini home server. The main thing missing for me is some sort of thermostat interface and perhaps more sensors.[Via MacDevCenter]
