Articles

2012 International Consumer Electronics Show Report
Jan 13/11 - Brandon Hetherington and Mark Anderson, HomeToys
With so much to see the HomeToys team has compiled a report of some of the interesting products in the Home Technology sector at this year’s show. 

CES 2012 - Special News Report
HomeToys.com is a great place to post your company's CES news and keep up to date on what others are up to. (already 125+ releases)

The Rise of the Personal Cloud
Jan 3/11 - Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates
As personal clouds evolve, they will incorporate access to premium content offerings. There is an ongoing migration away from physical media in favor of electronic formats for music, photos, and video. However, most homes lack the storage capacity and distribution ability to keep and fully enjoy libraries of high-end media files.

Residential Power Monitoring
Dec 16 - Mark Anderson
Living with soaring fuel prices, a difficult economy, and the emerging Smart Grid, I decided I would start to monitor and manage my power consumption when I rehabbed my 1912 house. The monitoring has been running for several months now, so did it make me a more eco-friendly citizen and did it save me money?

Visual Presentations for the Modern Sports Bar
Dec 16 - Len Calderone
The ideal sports fan experience includes views available from any seat in the bar with multiple, large high-definition TVs positioned for ease of view.

Cooling the Enclosed Video Projector
Dec 16 - Frank Federman. Active Thermal Management
Some projectors still produce more noise than is acceptable in quiet theaters in which projectors are located close to the audience. There is also a desire in many cases to hide the projector for aesthetic reasons.

Using the Kindle Fire as a Home Automation Touchscreen
Dec 1 - Mark Anderson
Ever since I saw the first homes with wall-mounted touchscreens, I’ve yearned for an affordable alternative. Was the Kindle Fire, the answer to my dreams. I ordered one in an attempt to find out.

The Data-driven Video Discovery Evolution
Dec 1 - Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates
Time-shifted viewing via the DVR or video-on-demand in combination with video options via the Internet has created an increasingly fragmented consumer “television” experience. And although live television still dominates viewing in a typical U.S. TV household, viewers are supplementing this experience with additional options.

What can you expect in today’s conference rooms?
Dec 1 - Len Calderone
To grow, a company has to spend money.  Many companies upgrade the technology for their employees, but they often forget the potential of their conference rooms.  Before the first piece of equipment is purchased, a company needs to evaluate how the room will be used, the esthetics of the room, and the layout.

LINUX: The Forgotten Operating System - Part One
Dec 1 - James Russo
The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used , freely modified,  and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License.

Project Showcase - iPad Controlled Mediterranean-Style Home in Arkansas
Dec 1 - Contributed by Crestron
Featuring drag-and-drop functionality on a floor plan-based interface, the iPad app controls audio, HVAC, lighting, paging, intercom, security and surveillance. HomeSuite provides the client with similar look and feel across all control devices.

Interview

Home Control in the Clouds
Dec 16 - Glenn Murdzia of On Controls
The best feature for the installers is the ability to log in off site and make simple changes to the system, like updating favorite channel buttons, adding custom family photo backgrounds or simply adding new/additional devices to the system from off site.

Interview - What is WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance)?
Dec 1 - Mark Grodzinsky, Wilocity
Based on the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) specification, Wilocity's wPCIe TM technology will enable truly multi-gigabit wireless for a wide range of applications from I/O to networking to video.

Review

Review - Long-Runner HDBASE100MSW HDMI Extender
Nov 15 - Michael Palm, TechGuys
We use this solution for conference rooms, lunchrooms, hospital waiting rooms and nearly all-custom Home Theater projects. It’s the bang-for-buck theory. HDMI, IRE and Ethernet from one cable save time, costs and headache.

More Articles

Nature Could Make SSD the Storage Solution Everyone Will Enjoy Soon
Dec 1 - Grant Dahlke, Other World Computing
Higher performance, higher reliability, light weight per capacity and lower power consumption are just a few of the many advantages that are making SSDs the drives of choice for power users, gamers and anyone who  wants high-speed and low latency-- including  businesses.

Facebook … The Next Best Thing to Buy, Like
Nov 15 - THE Insider
Companies, brand managers and communications people walk a fine line as they begin to engage more and more with customers and users on a one-to-one basis.  But with more than 800M (and counting) Facebookers out there brands simply have to work harder, do more to be Liked … and stay Liked.

Home Automation Protocols, Networks and the Smart Grid
Nov 1 - Len Calderone
We have a long way to go before AV, lighting, HVAC, and appliances come together within a home automation network that will work with smart meters and the utilities’ back office system to communicate both ways flawlessly, controlling how and when energy is wisely consumed.  Strides are being made in each area and we will see more systems coming together for the perfect balance of energy consumption and energy savings. 

Cooling Large Home Theater Installations
Nov 15 - Frank Federman, Active Thermal Management
The easiest way to overcome the noise and control issues is to use cooling devices that:

• are located away from the enclosure,
• turn slowly, and
• are controlled by the temperature within the enclosure.

Health, Privacy and Security within the Smart Grid
Nov 15 - Len Calderone
On the surface, a smart grid system sounds like it has great potential from controlling our appliances and saving us money to keeping the world green.  On the other side, we could face security, privacy and health issues.  These concerns need to be addressed before we can feel comfortable with the smart grid.

Do It Yourself Advertising on HomeToys

Free Listings and More
Promote your products and services with directory, link and hot product listings. Start simple and add/edit your offerings as you grow.