Smart Home Blog

Samsung joined to the Panasonic and LG announced Skype functionality on its HDTV series 7000 and 8000. But additionally a FREETALK TV Camera should be bought (on the Skype online store, for example) to have possibility make video calls. Samsung TVs with built-in Skype are already available in Korea and should be available in Europe soon.

I found very interesting DIY project of kitchen PC. It includes an ELO 19″ 4:3 touchscreen, Intel Core i5 processor based PC, iPhone-like user interface and a bunch of useful applications such kitchen database with barcode scanner, cooking timer, todo list etc. Additionally Twitter client, iTunes, Skype, Google Maps, weather app are available for users. Also PC allows to watch TV (DVB-T) and works as digital photo frame in standby mode.

The kitchen PC runs Windows 7 and uses Active Desktop feature to set custom UI. The budget of the kitchen PC is about €1000. Thanks to the author you can download all used applications including UI, graphics and kitchen database.

Well, the project looks pretty cool. But … It’s overpriced I think. First of all in my mind the nVidia Ion with dual-core Atom would be more appropriate choice. It’s cheaper, more compact and energy efficient but offers the same possibilities – run rich GUI or watch HD video. I’m also would like to see Linux as OS instead of Windows. Cause it’s more reliable and it takes less resources. So, you don’t need the strong processor and big amount of RAM to run applications included into the kitchen project. In any case, that project demonstrates how attractive a kitchen PC can be and it gives a basic ideas for your own project as well.

Another networked player contains popular HTPC software Boxee. NUU player demonstrated at CES 2010, is based on Atom CPU and probably Intel graphics. It sports 160GB HDD, HDMI, DVI, a few USB and one Ethernet ports. There is no info about WiFi adaptor but the player includes Bluetooth module. So, the wireless headset can be attached there.

Except Boxee, the NUU player offers XBMC and Skype applications. That’s really interesting cause you may no only watch video from sofa but make also Skype calls using Bluetooth headset without standing up.

The price of the NUU player is a bit more expensive then upcoming D-Link Boxee Box – $300 (Boxee Box is just $200). The date of availability is not set yet. The demo video after jump.
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Digium recently released the final version of the module for integration Skype and Asterisk. The implementation is done as an add-on channel driver. The module allows to Skype-to-Skype calls as well as supporting SkypeIn and SkypeOut. Additionally it offers set and retrieve online status, trunk calls between Asterisk servers over Skype, make and receive multiple concurrent Skype calls from the same Skype account. The price of Skype module for Asterisk is $66.00 per channel.

Personally I don’t see a big advantages of Skype over the SIP gates for voice calls. The SIP gates are cheaper and they give better voice quality. But the Skype module for Asterisk can be very useful in case of calling directly to the Skype accounts since Skype is a standard de-facto for business communications. In any case it’s good to have more choices for VoIP calls!

Skype recently announced a new module which integrates Skype functionality into Digium’s Asterisk software. It allows to Asterisk users make, receive and transfer Skype calls with multiple Skype names with low Skype global rates. Not bad, isn’t it?

The Skype for Asterisk beta can be downloaded from here

[via Skype Journal].