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Samsung Media Centers

Samsung is rolling out three new media center PCs, dubbed ‘Magic Stations’.

The PCs will be available in 2006 and come in thin, thin and slightly fatter configurations.

The MZ50 Media Center is only 9.2cm wide, but hidden behind the fascia you’ll find an I/O panel with a 9-in-1 memory card reader, 7.1 channel sound card, DVI / RGB / S-video outputs, remote control.

It comes with Microsoft XPMCE 2005, but we can find no mention of a TV tuner in the specs. Presumably our ‘Google Translate’ version of the Korean press release has failed to pick up on this.

The MZ48 is a massive 9.8cm wide and has a slightly less impressive fascia. It features a Pentium 4 LGA775 chipset, DDR2 RAM, an ATI X300SE 16x PCI-Express graphics card, and a dual-layer DVD-RW drive.

The MV50, which actually resembles a standard mini-tower in terms of dimensions, features a front I/O panel, 9-in-1 memory card reader, 5.1 channel sound card, Pentium 4 LGA775 chipset, DDR2 RAM, and 16x PCI-Express slots.

As usual Samsung have decorated the press release with pictures of smiling Korean ladies. We’re not sure what the one on the left is indicating, but we’re not sure we like it.

Source: SamsungHQ

Add comment November 7th, 2005

TiVo and Yahoo! Join Forces

TiVo has announced a partnership with Yahoo! that allows its users to schedule recordings on their PVRs directly from Yahoo!’s TV listings.

From any Yahoo! TV episode page, just click “Record to my TiVo box”. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Your request will be automatically sent to your home the next time your TiVo box connects, which could take up to one hour if you have broadband or 36 hours if your TiVo uses dialup.

Even with broadband, the time lag prohibits impulse recording or solving the ‘oh no, I forgot to set my TiVo and Lost is about to start’ problem. With dial up the service only really works with long term planning in mind.

Even so, it’s a good tie up of technologies and one that the internet rumourmongers are suggesting is a precursor to Yahoo! buying TiVo.

To get started you’ll need a valid Yahoo! account with a yahoo.com e-mail address, a valid TiVo user account and a TiVo Series 2 DVR.

For more info look here.

Add comment November 7th, 2005