We've just seen this first image of the new Sonos controller.  The CR200 uses a touch screen and comes complete with a charging cradle.  There's no word on pricing but it should be available pretty much immediately.

We're also told that Sonos will be releasing a new bundle. The BU150 now changes to the BU250 which includes the CR200. There also is a slight colour change with the zoneplayers hardware to match the new controller but there are no technical changes & will still be named the ZP120 & ZP90.
 

UK smart home security system AlertMe continue to go from strength to strength and last month secured £8M in series B funding.  When we first reviewed the product in May 2008 we said it was an ideal hub for home automation and CCTV with its link to the Net. AlertMe added their SmartPlug product earlier in the year and today have announced their IP CCTV add-on for the system. 

The camera is a Sercomm RC8021 unit with wired Ethernet and wireless 802.11g WiFi capability too.  It's VGA resolution (640x480) 30 FPS, with dual MPEG-4 and M-JPEG streaming plus support for 3GPP to mobile phones.  Read on for the introductory discount offer on the new camera...

Earlier this month we had a request from a reader to setup a new forums facility for users to write up their home automation projects so others can benefit from their experience.  So the "Projects" forum was born.  To start us off there are now projects there from user jaffaon - Temperature Capture plus a two-part post on ripping / storing your DVD collection and then streaming the movies around your home.  Join in and post your projects in the new forum...

We've been watching the Cortexa Home Automation system since 2005.  Recently they have the introduced Graphite, their new GUI which will be available on their controllers from V5 on. In addition they have released an Phone app that mirrors Graphites controls.  Watch the videos after the jump...

Cytech, creators of the Comfort smart home security system, have just released their new Prontoscript file for the Philips range of Wi-Fi universal remotes.  The free download gives full keypad emulation as well as control of C-Bus, EIB / KNX and X10 with others like Z-Wave, Dynalite, Ulti promised in the future,  Read on for all the details...

After our piece on virtual home servers, here's another alternative to saving power, money and the planet whilst still serving your media around the house.  The Tranquil BBS2 Barebones Home Media Server is a low power, 5 SATA bay, barebones box. Just choose your OS and apply...

UK Home Automator turned podcaster, Don McAllister, is famous for his high quality video tutorials for the Mac.  This week he comes back to his roots covering a true smart home application and an Automated Home favourite - Plex.  Like us, Don is "blown away" by the OpenSource media player / library manager and the show is a great resource for anyone setting up Plex for the first time as well as showing some of the more advanced features if you are already a Plex user.  Links to the 46 minute long Free HD video after the jump...

We've noticed through interweb chatter that Clipsal have launched an new Home Controller called "Wiser".  As usual we've received no press release or annoucement from Clipsal / Schneider and there appears to be no information available to the UK distributors either, but here's what we've found so far...

Jon Bentley from Channel 5's Gadget Show has taken the Philips Streamium MCI500H for a test drive.   The system can hold around 8,000 tracks on its own built in 160GB hard drive as well as streaming from other media sources around your home like PCs. 

it features both wired Ethernet and WiFi, FM and Internet Radio and a top mounted USB socket for playing from a thumb drive.  The £500 system supports DRM free MP3 files, AAC and WMAs (of the non-lossless variety). Check out the video afer the jump...