It appears that the next PMP from Creative will be called the ZEN X-Fi and will include Wi-Fi, IM capabilities (Yahoo! Messenger & MSN Messenger), an SD card slot, a 9-button direction pad, and a built-in speaker, reports epiZENter.net. While all that is well and good, the feature that seems the most interesting me, from what early details have been gathered, is a bundled PC app called “Creative Centrale” and its online tie-in called “Public Home Server”. According to a support document discovered by epiZENter.net, Creative Centrale will allow users to “rip, store, manage and transfer your music, movies and photos… and enjoy them whenever and wherever you want!” and then Public Home Server will give you remote access to your home media files from any Wi-Fi access point – thus negating the need to have a device with massive amounts of storage. Pretty slick. [via]

Rhapsody®, the leading digital music service from RealNetworks®, Inc. (Nasdaq RNWK) and MTV Networks, today launched its “Music Without Limits” initiative. This strategy is designed to turbocharge the digital music industry in three ways, by:

• Accelerating the move away from proprietary Digital Rights Formats by making music from all major labels available in the DRM-free and interoperable MP3 format;
• Empowering music fans to conveniently stream full-length songs, and buy MP3s, anywhere they want including the most popular music sites and social networks on the Web;
• Integrating digital music directly with mobile phones through a deep partnership between Rhapsody and Verizon Wireless.

MORE »

DivX, Inc., a digital media company, today announced the DivX Certification™ of byd:sign Corporation’s new LCD HDTV (model: DC-1902DWB [black], DC-1902DWW [white]).

To be released this month, byd:sign’s LCD HDTV (liquid crystal display high-definition television) is the first LCD HDTV with DivX Certification for the Japan market. With guaranteed DivX video playback, users will enjoy a media experience that seamlessly bridges from the PC to the television while maintaining superior video quality. MORE »

Running Google Desktop 5 or better on your PC? Take Google Media Server for a spin. According to Google’s official Inside Google Desktop blog, Google Media Server functions as a free UPnP A/V media server so users can stream audio, video, and photos from their Windows’ PC to a compatible UPnP media adapter client (i.e. PlayStation 3, D-Link DSM-520, Netgear EVA8000) connected to their TV. In addition, Google Media Server is able to tap into Picasa Web Albums and YouTube video content for playback on the same devices. Unfortunately, no details of which codecs Google Media Server supports (along with any transcoding abilities) or if the app will ever get ported to Mac OS X or Linux in the near future (would be nice). [via/via]

Digital media are transforming our experience of entertainment more profoundly than at any time since the introduction of radio and television themselves. And in industrialized regions, growing numbers of consumers are seeking ways to distribute digital information and entertainment content around the home, creating wired or wireless home networks to do so.

In an audio Webcast presented by ABI Research director Michael Wolf, he assesses the implications for distribution and presentation of digital media, to and through the digitally-equipped home. MORE »

Sony today presented a series of new initiatives designed to build on its previous three-year revitalization plan and to position the company as the leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment. In particular, the company will focus on strengthening core businesses, enhancing network initiatives and leveraging international growth opportunities to build for the future and drive further growth and profits. In addition, Sony announced the following key mid-term goals: MORE »

To address the growing consumer need for storage in the home, Seagate today announced the Maxtor® Central Axis™ network drive, a network storage drive that can be used by the whole family. This latest drive from Seagate provides a terabyte of storage that every computer in the home can back up to. In addition to media streaming capabilities for video, photos and music, the new Maxtor Central Axis network drive also includes an easy-to-use remote access service that allows people to easily and securely retrieve content stored on their network drive through any Internet browser. MORE »

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DigiOn is another company that provides OEMs a middleware UPnP A/V software stack for use in NAS and digital media adapters. However, DigiOn seems to be slightly more advanced than the competition… its platform supports content aggregation from multiple devices (usually this type of software can only access content from one selected device at time) and is capable of accessing third party content online via downloadable widgets (i.e. Flickr, YouTube) or partner extensions (i.e. Rhapsody music service). More details about the company’s DiXiM platform can be found here.

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Want a glimpse of the future in home networking gear? Have a look at the following router reference design from Ubicom that not only offers cutting-edge 802.11n networking, but also embeds (get this) a UPnP A/V media server, USB host, and NAS functionality! In this video, Ubicom is streaming content from an external USB drive to a PlayStation 3 via UPnP wirelessly, as well as, photos to wireless picture frames. More details about the company’s StreamEngine can be found here.

[View on Blip.tv, YouTube, or Download]

Call me strange, but I’m always on the look out for new, cross-platform compatible UPnP media server applications. Basically I like any software that I can install on different computing environments and still have the same experience. Anyway… I learned about AwoX during a panel discussion at CONNECTIONS 2008. The company is based in France and offers its UPnP A/V media server software to Windows / Mac / Linux PCs and provides a middleware stack to OEM / ODMs for use in NAS systems and digital media adapters.

Aside: I did some digging around the AwoX site, since it sounded like one could buy the media server software directly from the company, but no such link was available.