It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by.  A lot has happened in the Linux world.  While the economy is in the crapper, Linux is growing in both the easy of use and the strength of its community.

Ubuntu was at the show this year and had machines from System 76 showing off Hardy and giving out CD’s.  There were at least 5-6 different CD’s they were handing out in this booth alone.  This includes, Ubuntu Desktop and Server in 32 and 64 bit versions.  They also had Kubuntu in both 32 and 64 bit versions as well as a remix of Kubuntu with the shiney KDE 4 Desktop.  That doesn’t cover the myriad of other Ubuntu based remixes out there.  Ubuntu has firmly entrenched itself as THE Linux distro that is in everyone’s bag. Continue Reading

A lot of discussion is happening in the blogosphere regarding T-Mobile and Google’s G1.  While I ilike the iPhone, I think the G1 could be better.

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As a huge fan of the Neuros OSD and Neuros in general, I’m excited to tell you that Neuros has announced the follow up to the OSD, the OSD2 is now on sale for $249.99 in the Neuros Store.  Now this isn’t intended for end users just yet, but when it is it will bring High Definition to the OSD platform.

The OSD is very powerful, and you can do things with it that you can’t do with any other set top box thanks to the open technology that it’s built upon.  Just this week, I have discovered the uPNP Media features of the OSD, and I was streaming music from my laptop to the OSD connected to my TV. If the OSD is any indication of what’s in store for us in the OSD 2, then I think we have a exciting device on it’s way.  The only limit of the OSD and OSD2 are the limits of the programmers and the limits of the users.  The OSD didn’t do as much when it first shipped as it does now; the OSD2 won’t be any different.

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I know there’s alot of people excited by Apple’s news today.  I realize they are indeed nice devices, however I am a more open kind of guy.  Plus since I just got a Neuros OSD myself, I was amazed to see that the new OSD 2.0 device is now shipping to developers.  It’s been shipping for about a month now as theinquirer.net already has one and it’s been posted on Crunchgear but I must have missed it.

Images Provided by Neuros

The expected specs of the OSD 2.0 are 720p(1924×768) or D1(720×480)H.264 +AAC/AC3/MP3 Encoding; 720p playback with up to 1080i with certain content; Supporting H.264, MPEG2, MPEG4 and WMV codecs;Composite/Component Input: 2 composite input, 1 component input, all with dedicated stereo audio;Composite/Component Input: 2 composite input, 1 component input, all with dedicated stereo audio;RCA Audio I/O;2 USB ports in rear, 1 in front, and 1 internal to housing.

All of this is stuffed in to a Mini-ITX case which means you can install a internal hard disk, a slimline Optical Drive and more into this baby truly making it your own device.

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More and more I think we’re going to all be using the web without actually using a browser.  Joe Born from Neuros has let us know that a new feature of the Neuros OSD will be the ability to use wiki’s and other internet sources to look up data about TV recordings on the OSD and more.

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I have had a few different GPS units over the years. My first was a Garmin GPS 12 which didn’t have any road maps or anything else; it was much more appropriate to use in the forest, but  I used it everywhere and even hooked it to a laptop so I could get maps.  It was a awesome device, but hobbled by older technology and Selective Availability when I used it.

My next unit was also a Garmin, the Garmin eMap to be precise.  Now that SA was off, it was much more accurate, but it did not have WAAS or any other technology that could give me good fast fixes.  The eMap was a great device, but the maps were not very detailed unless you spent a ton of money on memory and a Garmin CD.  I loved it anyway.

Wayne sent me his Dash Express since he hated it.  I was initially a little skeptical about the device, however after playing with it for the better part of a week I think I have found an almost ideal GPS device for me.  With the Dash, you can do so much more than just navigation.  It’s devices such as the Dash (and Apple’s own iPhone) that can bring location specific information to you whenever you need it and wherever you are. Continue Reading

Joe Born let us know the following:

Long time no talk! I hope you are well. I wanted to share with you a piece of news that might interest your audience: Through user contributions, last.fm is coming to the Neuros OSD. If you are not familiar with last.fm (you never know :-)), its a collaborative, interactive internet radio service that’s powered by a large community of users. It’s subscription and ad free, and it learns from your likes and dislikes to introduce you to new music that you’ll like.

Now, a last.fm community member, sponsored by Google, has ported the feature/service to the Neuros OSD: http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/lastfm…

Now the words in this e-mail excerpt that I like the most are, “through user contributions”.  That should mean something to everyone, as it is the power of Open Source and Open Technologies at work.  If you value something, with open source and open technologies you can make it happen.  Try that on an Apple TV!