Hasta La Gadget!

First, the good news: Xtreamer has its lovely little Ultra HTPC out and hooked up here at CeBIT. Now, the bad: the considerably more beautiful Prodigy streamer is under lock and key, and they won’t be doing any demos. Ah, well — may as well make the best of the situation, right? In brief, the Ultra might be the baddest little HTPC we’ve seen here at the show — Xtreamer seems to have nailed the equation with the small size and the price point. It doesn’t look cheap, either; we imagine it’s a little overbuilt-looking with those faux heat sink fins for some living rooms, but you can plug in an IR extender and bury the actual box in a cabinet if you like. The company’s staying very media platform-agnostic, shipping with Boxee and XBMC among others on a 2GB USB flash drive that houses the entire operating system. And at a shipping price of €200 (about $277), it puts the hurt on the Boxee Box. Look for it in early April.

Turning our attention to the Prodigy, this thing is seriously gorgeous for one reason: a large curved sheet of metal covering the top and sides. Functionality is another matter entirely, though, and as we mentioned before, Xtreamer isn’t demoing it here. On paper, at least, it should take care of business thanks to USB 3.0 and AirPlay support along with an internal 3.5-inch hard drive bay — and the company is currently taking pre-orders for €50 (about $69), which seems dirt cheap for what you’re getting. Like the Ultra, Xtreamer expects to ship it in early April.

Xtreamer Ultra HTPC hands-on — and Prodigy eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While AMD’s Zacate E-350 APU has managed to find its way into a number of laptops, it’s not exactly simple to find a desktop based on Fusion right now. Thankfully, Zotac was champing at the bit to be one of the first, and its Zbox AD03 / AD03 Plus has just hit the test bench over at Hot Hardware. All told, the results were fairly predictable, with the Fusion APU running laps around the prior Atom-based version. Of course, “laps” is a relative term, and while it hasn’t single-handedly redefined the SFF PC sector, it has provided a real alternative to Intel’s stable of underwhelming nettop chips. Across the board, the Zacate E-350 managed to hold its own, with the only real issue being “lackluster Flash video acceleration.” We’re told that updated drivers are expected to remedy that, however, so there’s really little to gripe about from a numbers standpoint. As for value proposition? The AD03 Plus (ringing up at $529.99) seems like a worse deal with its skimpy 2GB of RAM and (comparatively sluggish) 250GB HDD, while the barebones AD03 (which lists for $439.99) could be turned into quite the powerhouse with 4GB of memory and a speedy SSD. Head on down to the source link to get your nerd on, but only if you’re interested in scratching that DIY itch that’s been so bothersome of late.

Zotac’s Fusion-based Zbox AD03 Blu-ray HTPC gets reviewed, smiled upon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Name recognition? Ah, who cares? Particularly when you’re hawking an Ion 2-based media PC for €100. Xtreamer — the same folks responsible for the e-TRAYz NAS — is gearing up to unveil its latest concoction at CeBIT 2011, but it looks as if most of the beans have already been spilled. It’s billed as a portable HTPC, and it can be ordered with a dual-core Atom D525 / Ion 2, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, HDMI / DVI outputs, six USB ports, an eSATA socket, Bluetooth, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet and support for IR control. Predictably, that low (low!) price point doesn’t include an operating system, but at least that gives you the option to slap whatever you want on there. If you’re looking for a TV tuner or optical drive, you’ll need to turn to external options, but those looking for a barebones system to build on should be able to procure one in a matter of weeks. That is, if the Boxee Box doesn’t lure you in while you wait.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Xtreamer Ultra HTPC launching with Ion 2, €100 price point originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Simmer down, son — neither Elgato nor Other World Computing are actually shoving 12TB of hard drive space within a 2010 Mac Mini, but if you order one of their new bundles, you’ll definitely end up with as much. OWC is now selling pre-pimped Mac Mini machines, complete with bolstered storage options, an internal Blu-ray burner, Elgato’s EyeTV Hybrid tuner (or HD DVR), more RAM than usual and an Apple Remote. The company plans to offer both the 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo systems, and it swears up and down that the machine will arrive preconfigured and ready to rock your home theater. The addition of a Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 4-bay storage solution enables you to keep even a vast library of digital content nearby, but there’s no telling how much the outfit will charge for such a luxury. Hit the source link if you’re scrounging for details, but don’t expect pricing or an order button just yet.

Update: So, it seems that OWC isn’t actually selling new Mac Minis itself, but will upgrade your own if you send it in. We’d like to take this opportunity to now recommend that OWC actually sell upgraded Mac Minis itself.

Continue reading Elgato and OWC hawk upgraded Mac Mini HTPC bundles: Blu-ray burner, 12TB, TV tuner

Elgato and OWC hawk upgraded Mac Mini HTPC bundles: Blu-ray burner, 12TB, TV tuner originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES is a big place, way bigger than your first apartment, so hopefully you’ll forgive us for missing the Moneual Lab DSPC on the show floor. That stands for Dual Screen PC, a case sporting a decidedly tall display that could make for a useful desktop extension despite subscribing to no aspect ratios heretofore known by man. Unfortunately no specs were provided for resolution or size, but we could see throwing your image editor’s toolbox over there, maybe a chat window, or just loading it up with widgets as in this picture. However, with an anticipated cost of $1,500, we’re thinking you could instead buy a properly large second monitor — and a new desk to put it on.

Moneual DSPC puts a monitor on your computer case, welcomes your widgets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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