I have a feeling Auto Rip n Compress is going to be everyone’s next “must-have” add-in for Windows Media Center. The add-in allows you to easily rip DVD or Blu-ray movies from your couch using only your remote. Of course, you’ll need to have some software pre-installed on your PC — like AnyDVD HD, Handbrake, ImgBurn, Haali Media Splitter, etc. — and a free account with Get Digital Data (aka GD3) to get the whole experience going. But after that, though, you’ll be in ripping nirvana making compressed or uncompressed movie copies complete with metadata and cover art. By the way, if you like Auto Rip n Compress, consider making a PayPal donation to the developer — it’s good karma. [via] MORE »

It appears that Chromium OS developers have begun laying the groundwork on a custom Tablet UI layer for Chrome OS. While things are just in the “visual exploration” phase, the mockups  give us a sneak peek at what a future Google Tablet may look like — and I’ve got say… it looks pretty darn cool. In fact, some of the proposed features are so fresh that they’re difficult to describe. Quoted below is the developer’s explanation of what you’re looking at in the attached concept video, as well as the UI mockup renderings included below. MORE »

Good news for Apple iPhone and iPod touch users. Logitech has added a new app to the iTunes App Store called Touch Mouse. The FREE app turns your handheld into a wireless remote for your Windows or Mac computer (requires installation of the Touch Mouse Server software). Touch Mouse’s feature highlights include: multi-touch trackpad, keyboard (including CTRL, ALT, super key), left/center/right 3-button mouse setup, two-finger scrolling, on-screen text display while typing, and landscape and portrait operation modes. Not bad, Logitech! Alternative Logitech product: diNovo Mini.

Image credit: OhGizmo!

It occurred to me that the Apple iPad has no native, cross-platform media streaming capabilities (a big missed opportunity if you ask me). Being the case, I did a quick search on Google for an iPhone app, since most are compatible with the new iPad, and discovered PlugPlayer (iTunes – $4.99). What’s interesting is that not only does PlugPlayer allow you stream and playback music (including FLAC and OGG Vorbis), photos, and video from any network connected DLNA/UPnP storage server or PC it also allows you to remotely control a music player docked iPod Touch (similar to the Tango remote app we covered earlier) with your iPhone — and I’m guessing via the iPad as well. Below is a quick user-created video demo of the software in action. MORE »

For the person who owns both an iPod Touch and an iPhone, Tango (FB page) may be an app you’ll be interested in. Tango enables one to control an iPhone/iPod Touch’s music collection with another iPhone/iPod Touch over Wi-Fi. Tango, from just about any room in the house, can show you what’s playing, adjust the volume, play/pause, skip tracks (forward and backward with a shake of the control device in hand), select playlists, shuffle songs, and even create new playlists without iTunes. Not bad for 99-cents (introductory price). Plus, you’ve got to like the fact that Tango is putting your extra iPhone/iPod Touch to work in a useful way. MORE »

If you were excited to learn about TwonkyMedia’s new TwonkyServer Mobile app for Android, have a look at the following video demonstrating how the DLNA / UPnP media server app for mobile devices functions in the real world. In a nutshell, the TwonkyServer Mobile app catalogs all your phone’s media (photos, music, videos) and makes it available for playback to any DLNA / UPnP compatible device — in this case a networked Samsung HDTV. Like the demonstrator states… TwonkyServer Mobile is a perfect way to share your phone’s media content with friends. The catch, as you’ll see in the video, the playback device must have the appropriate multimedia codecs installed in order to a play the streamed files. MORE »

A quick search on the web shows that there’s a lot interest in a SIRIUS Internet Radio plug-in for Windows Media Center, but no one has created one — until now. The good news is that 2010 Niveus Media Server / Player owners will get Niveus’ new SIRIUS XM plug-in out of the box (requires a SIRIUS Internet Radio subscription to tune in). In addition, the plug-in has been designed to be multi-room friendly allowing one to listen to audio across multiple rooms via Niveus ZONE players. The bad news… Niveus appears to want to keep the SIRIUS XM plug-in exclusive to their systems for the time being. MORE »

We all got a preview of Boxee Beta back in December ‘09. Well, today it’s officially available to the public on all platforms (except Apple TV) — Windows, Mac, Linux. If your curious about what Boxee Beta is and how easy it is to setup and use, have a look Howcast’s latest video on the topic (attached below). And now for the really big news… Boxee’s Box graphics and processor specs have today been posted on the Boxee Blog. Drumroll… Boxee Box leverages NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 (T20) chipset which combines the graphics processor and dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1Ghz processor on a single chip (additional details @ AnandTech), thus making the Boxee Box an energy efficient HD video processing powerhouse capable of outputting 1080p video to your HDTV. What’s more, the Boxee Box will have full support for Adobe Flash. MORE »

This is big news! Now any Wi-Fi enabled smartphone theoretically can become a UPnP media server — serving up stored photos, videos, music to game consoles, media adapters, networked TVs, photo frames, etc. According to the PacketVideo’s press release, TwonkyServer Mobile can stream content to multiple devices at once and even take phone calls while active without interruption. The new software is available today for Android handsets through the Android Marketplace (no word on when we’ll see it ported to other platforms at the moment). MORE »

It seems that just about every month or so we see a new software based remote app for your HTPC — some good, some with limited functionality. Well, here’s another one to add to your list. However, judging by the functionality of Remotely Possible, this may be the iPhone / iPod touch HTPC remote app to have [$2.99 - iTunes Link]. As you’ll see in the video, Remotely Possible can detect all networked Windows PCs with its accompanying installed software via Wi-Fi and control selected computers. Once a PC is selected, one can then launch any application (i.e. Windows Media Center, Hulu Desktop, SlingPlayer, etc.) and control it via touchpad gestures or virtual buttons (editable: look, layout). What’s more, users can download control button profiles to match product remotes and even use the iPhone’s hardware volume controls to adjust sound. MORE »