MythTV 0.22 Now Available

After a little over a year and a half in the making, the developers of MythTV have announced that MythTV 0.22 is now available. There have been a lot of large changes since 0.21, including a port from Qt v3 to Qt v4 and a major UI rewrite to convert to MythTV’s new MythUI user interface libary. As always, this release adds support for some new hardware, in this case VDPAU video acceleration, DVB-S2, and the Hauppauge HD-PVR. The MythUI toolkit allows themes much greater control over the user... 

Myka ION Media Center

Think of the Myka ION as a nettop built for your HDTV. The little media streamer utilizes an 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 330 CPU and an NVIDIA ION GPU to provide your TV with quality high-definition content. Actually, the Myka ION is more computer than dedicated media playback device, which is good thing. Well, a Linux-powered computer with Boxee and XBMC installed, that is. The company claims that the Myka ION has enough juice to power Boxee, Hulu, and other Internet sites as well as playback HD content... 

XBMC 9.11 Alpha Release

Windows/Mac/Linux: XBMC media center has issued a 9.11 alpha release for all platforms, with quality fixes on all three computer platforms and more powerful skinning abilities. If you’re not afraid of a bug or two, it’s yours to grab. From the outset, not a whole lot looks new, but XBMC has made some real improvements under the hood. From the developer’s release notes: DirectX has replaced OpenGL for Windows Numerous skinning engine updates which allow for use of some fancy new... 

PS3 Now Upscales PlayTV to HD

Sony has released an update for the PlayStation 3 Play TV tuner unit enabling it to better serve the needs of HD buffs and mobile maniacs. Version 1.21 of the unit’s software lets you watch, pause and record HD TV over a DVB-T standard broadcast, Sony said, and makes it possible to simultaneously watch and record free digital HD channels. The update also supposedly provides “better standard definition upscaling”, Sony added, so that when you are watching SD channels on an HD screen they look... 

Windows 7: Numbers Look Good

In its first week of sales, Windows 7 has already surpassed Vista. Looks like the hype and impressive reviews of Windows 7 are paying off. Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher than Vista’s first few days of sales, according to the NPD Group. In comparison, first-week retail sales of boxed copies of Windows Vista were almost 60 percent below sales of boxed copies of Windows XP in the week after its 2001 launch. The numbers for revenue growth weren’t as stellar,...