Home control hub offers Siri-like voice assistant

Ivee has begun shipping a $200, Linux-based “Ivee Sleek” home automation hub, offering voice control of WiFi-enabled devices and a Siri-like voice assistant.

Tiny ARM9 box-PC adds wireless options

Artila Electronics announced a tiny control computer running Linux on ARM9, and featuring mini-PCIe sockets for options including WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, and GPS.

Homemade Raspberry Pi tablet, PiPad, with wood finish and Linux OS will set your sweet tooth tingling

Meet the Raspberry Pi tablet, named PiPad by its owner and creator Michael Castor.

The tablet was built by maker-enthusiast Castor as a Maker Faire project. He used a 12V, 10-inch touchscreen with a 5V HDMI to LVDS adapter, since the Raspberry Pi runs off 5V. He also managed to squeeze in a 10,000mAh battery that gives a good six hours of use.

Raspberry Pi: Hands-on with RISC OS

In the previous three posts about exploring my Raspberry Pi, the operating system has always been Linux; first looking at Raspbian, the Debian GNU/Linux spin for the Pi, then Arch Linux ARM and Pidora, and then Raspbmc and OpenELEC, two Linux-based XBMC Media Center versions.

Feathering its Nest

“HOLY cripes, Google just broke into my home”, was a typical reaction on Twitter to news on January 13th that the internet giant had splashed out $3.2 billion of its cash pile on Nest, a startup that makes smart thermostats and smoke-alarm systems for houses and apartments. The deal is striking not just because it represents a massive pay day for a hardware company that is only a few years old. It is also a landmark deal that signals the coming of age of the internet of things, or “Thingternet”—a world in which everything from household gadgets to cars, clothes and pets are connected wirelessly to the web.

Google acquires Nest, gains Linux IoT tech

Google’s pending $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest Labs brings it a hot selling, Linux-based smart thermostat — and a launchpad for the Internet of Things.

Google’s stock price rose 1 percent the day after it announced it planned to acquire Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. The acquisition topped off a CES show in Las Vegas that was awash in similar, low-cost, smartphone-accessible home automation devices. Like most of these products, including Belkin’s WeMo and Ivee’s new Ivee Sleek, Nest Lab’s Learning Thermostat and runs on embedded Linux. The Nest Protect Smoke + CO Alarm lists the open source FreeBSD, NetBSD, and FreeRTOS. (See farther below for more details on the products.)

Linux powers smart LED bulbs, crockpot, maker kit

Belkin is expanding its line of WeMo home automation products with smart LED bulbs, an automated crockpot, and a Maker kit for WeMo-izing your own devices.

Linux-friendly mini-PC moves to Haswell CPUs

Android eyewear offers virtual, augmented reality

Epson demonstrated Android-based Moverio BT-200 eyewear featuring a stereoscopic 3D VR display, a camera for augmented reality applications, and head tracking.

Traffic Jam on the Road to Linux in Cars

A little before Christmas, I wrote about some of the important markets where Linux was starting to make its mark, notably gaming and the Internet of things. One sector where Linux has been active for a while is that of cars. As these become more and more infused with digital elements - be it in-car entertainment or control systems - so the need for an operating system that ties it all together becomes more urgent. As for elsewhere, Linux is the perfect choice: low-cost, flexible, secure, robust etc.

Linux Drives Automotive Innovation into the New Year

New Harman IVI system runs HTML5 apps on Linux

Harman announced a Linux-based IVI platform featuring an HTML5 development environment, a type 1 hypervisor, and integration with driver assist functions.

Full-featured Android smartwatches debut at CES

None of the high profile smartwatch launches expected in 2014 appeared at CES this year, but as we await rumored wristwear from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others, there were plenty of interesting smartwatches on display. Most follow the path of the Pebble watch, typically with minimalist operating systems running on microcontrollers, monochrome displays, and a focus on Bluetooth tethering. Here, we instead examine two relative newcomers that offer substantial smartphone-like Android capabilities: the Neptune Pine and the Omate TrueSmart Smartwatch 2.0.

Roku gets sucked into TVs

It was inevitable: Roku, which shipped its 5 millionth streaming media player last year, is now having its Linux-based STB technology embedded directly within Smart TVs.

Linksys WRT54G reborn, with 802.11ac and more

Linksys is resurrecting the hackable Linksys WRT54G router in a new WRT1900AC model, with dual-band 802.11ac, a dual core CPU, and open source Linux code.

The Iconic Linksys WRT Router is Back

Amahi's Open Source Home Server Software Goes Mobile

Following a recent trend in network attached storage (NAS), Amahi, the open source home server software based on Linux, has added remote network access using its new mobile app for iOS and a forthcoming Android app.

Touchscreen media players run Android KitKat

Vizio’s new touchscreen Portable Smart Audio players stream audio and video directly from the Web, from USB drives, and from mobile devices via Bluetooth.