Researchers from the University of Virginia and Microsoft Research are now saying (opens PDF) that in the future, people might purposely host small “data furnace” server farms in their home to be able to produce the heat needed to cool the place. I think this would make more sense for data farms or businesses than individuals. According to the researchers, if you had a server that had 40 mainboards and processors inside you could create some serious heating capability.

In fact, they claim that if you had 110 of those mainboards inside a server room in a home you could heat the entire place, as well as a furnace from the server heat alone. The downside is that if the room temperature reaches 95F or higher you would have to shut the servers off to prevent overheating.

[via NYT]

For that much loot, you get a media server that looks a lot like the other Olive offerings with silver or black finish and a 4.3-inch touchscreen for navigation your tunes. The device has a CDR drive inside that lets you rip CDs right to the server and you can burn music to disc as well.

The 03HD has a Cirrus Logic DAC with 192khz/24-bit clarity. The device has a 500GB HDD with noise isolation for quite operation. It also features a wired Gigabit Ethernet port and support for WAV, FLAC, and MP3 formats as well as AAC. That 500GB is enough space for 1500 CDs or 5000 HD tracks to be stored.

If you’re looking for high-end audio quality for your digital media server, you definitely should give the Olive a look.

Every day that I use my iPhone, I discover yet another cool trick that I never knew I could do the day before. This time, it comes in the form of a little app called Snatch, which lets you turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a completely programmable remote for interacting with applications on your Mac or PC. Just install the included server software on your computer, make sure that your iPhone and computer can see each other over the same Wi-Fi network, and you’re all set.

For starters, Snatch provides you with a wireless trackpad and scrollpad interface for working with just about any program on your computer. The trackpad even supports multitouch actions like a two-finger scroll or two-finger tap. But the real power of Snatch is hidden beneath the surface in its robust remote editor, which lets you create custom graphical buttons and assign them to any key, button or mouse action on your computer. The app can store up to 8 screens of remote control buttons, and provides an easy-to-use graphical editing screen for creating new layouts.

In addition to being able to build your own interfaces, Snatch offers a library of over 20 remote templates including Adobe CS3 palettes, a Hulu remote control or a PowerPoint slideshow controller among others.

You can get your hands on Snatch over at the iTunes App Store for $3.99 (USD).

Please post a comment if you see anything out of sorts. Thanks again for your support!

The decTOP computer system was originally released by AMD as a thin personal web browsing appliance, but when DEC acquired this division of the company, they revamped it as an all-around compact server. The system comes with 128MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive (both of which are expandable), and runs a 333MHz AMD processor. It’s no powerhouse, but more than enough for running a web server or other lightweight applications. It’s got built-in VGA video, Ethernet, a modem, USB and even audio capabilities. The decTOP measures in at just 5.5″ x 8.5″ x 2.5″ and weighs just about three pounds, so you could easily throw one in your suitcase or backpack if you’re looking for portability.

There’s no OS provided for the computer, but JSCO offers this simple tutorial on installing Ubuntu. I’m sure installing other flavors of Unix wouldn’t be difficult either. You can pick up a decTOP from Data Evolution for just $99.

[via Lifehacker]

The $399 Square One Personal Internet server is a turnkey web hosting box that’s completely loaded with everything you need to get rolling. The Linux-based server even bundles in router and firewall capabilities. It’s pre-loaded with Apache, PHP and MySQL, so you don’t have to worry about installing those. In addition, you can use the Square One as an attached storage and backup device for your other networked computers.

From a hardware perspective, the little machines are pretty decent, with an ARM 922T RISC CPU, 320GB hard drive and 6 Ethernet ports (1 WAN, 1 DMZ and 4 LAN ports.) There’s also a memory card reader which lets you read from  CompactFlash (Type I, II & III), MicroDrive, Secure Digital (SD), MMC, xD, Memory Stick, MS Pro, and SmartMedia cards.

Unfortunately, these machines only come with 64MB of RAM (and don’t seem to be expandable,) so I’m guessing they won’t be sufficient for serving high volume websites (like Technabob,) but if you have a need for a network file server, and have a small website, it looks like it could fill the bill.

[via GadgetGrid]

[Order this item from Amazon]

The server features HDMI output for pure digital quality, and streams content off of a high-speed SATA drive to ensure stutter-free media playback. For those of you without a digital video connection, it also offers component, S-video and composite outputs, and stand-alone digital and analog audio connections as well.

It can play video files in a ton of formats, including WMV, WMV HD, AVI, MPG, VOB, MP4 and ASF among others. It’s no slouch in the audio department either, with support from MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, OGG, PCM and M4A file formats too. The server can easily connect to your computer network making it easy to move content from your PC to the server’s internal hard drive.

The M-5100SH retails for a little more than $500 when configured with a 250GB SATA hard drive. TViX also offers options for a digital ATSC tuner with DVR capability, as well as wireless network connectivity.

You can upload tunes to the player via the radio’s USB port, can also use it as an external storage device for other files (though I’m not sure why you’d need to do that.) The AM/FM radio also offers timed recording of over-the-air broadcasts, so you can listen to radio programs whenever you want. It’s also got an audio input for direct encoding of analog sound sources. To enhance sound quality, they’ve also included SRS WOW XT acoustic enhancement.

The VJ-10 is currently slated for release in Japan this March, with no release date announced for other markets. Olympus has not announced a price.

[via Akihabara News]

Among the new rack systems revealed are the NHS-1030, NHS-2030 and NHS-3030. The top of the line 3030 model integrates an 7.1 channel ES series A/V receiver with six sources, including a 400-disc DVD changer, media server, XM radio and secondary DVD players. More high definition sources can also be added to the system as needed.

The 3030 can send audio and video signals to up to thirteen individial rooms, while the less expensive 1030 and 2030 models support up to six rooms each. Wall-mounted remote controls and LCD touch panels are also available

Also introduced were Sony’s new Sposato series of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. These feature a unique design to reduce undesirable echo and reverberation, and are matched to work with the NHS series of A/V systems.

Systems will range from as little as $10,000 to as much as $50,000, including typical installation costs.

More information should be available from Sony’s New Home Solutions website in the coming weeks.

It features a complete home media server including PVR, DVD, music and photo library capabilities. The server can handle high definition content up to 720p resolution (sorry no 1080i/p or HDMI at this point.) Connections include component, composite, s-video, digital audio, gigabit Ethernet, USB and Firewire. An optional $50 IR blaster kit lets you control external cable and satellite receivers.

It’s all packaged in sleek, compact (13.6″ x 2.2″ x 12.2″), fanless box perfect for A/V equipment racks. The MyTellyHD comes in 160GB ($899) and 400GB ($1068) versions and is available now.

[Press Release]

The Sooloos is a complete home media management system in a very elegant package. There are three components to the system, the Store Series, The Control Series and the Source Series. The Sooloos Store series is configured as a mirrored pair of servers with 1 to 3 Terabytes of storage each. The Control Series provides LCD touch screen interfaces for the system. Multiple controllers can be placed throughout an installation in 17-inch, 7-inch and 7-inch wireless models. The 17-inch model features a slot loading CD player so you can rip new tracks directly into the system. The Source Series of components provides zone control and distribution for up to 32 discrete zones. All modules are fanless and feature noiseless cooling.

Sooloos even takes care of ripping all of your existing CDs for you and loading the box with your music, album artwork and liner notes. Subscriptions are available to keep up to date with new release data. All music encoding is lossless for optimal audio quality, and the distribution components offer audiophile quality output, based on designs used in professional recording studios.

Pricing starts at $12,000 for a single zone system and goes up from there. If money were no object, I’d love to have one of these puppies in my home.

[via SciFi]

The CS510 handles playback in a nice variety of formats including Windows Media Video 9, XviD, Nero Digital, MPEG-4, QuickTime MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1. In addition, it supports numerous audio codecs including FLAC lossless compressed format, OGG, AAC (Unprotected), MP3, Windows Media Audio 9 and CD Audio.

Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

[via Gizmodo]