We've seen some amazing stuff in our time covering the smart home but this is definitely one of the stranger items.  The 'KJB Security SC7000 XtremeLife Artificial Rock Camera/Recorder with Motion Sensor' (to give it its full title) is, as it sounds, a covert recording camera built into a custom housing designed to look lke a decorative rock in your garden. The camera can record up to 1280x960 and supports PAL and NTSC.  With an amazing standby battery life quoted of up to a year the unit records to an SD card and can also be connected to a PC via USB...

Fancy sending HD FreeSat channels to the PCs and Macs around your home?  How about watching live telly over Wi-Fi on your iPad, without the need for a PC to be powered on to do the heavy lifting?  Well you're in luck as this little box of silvery goodness does all of the above and more.  It's the £180 Elgato EyeTV Netstream Sat and it is due to ship on 22nd November 2010, read on for all the details...

Marmitek have launched 2 new IR products.  One aimed at controlling components in another part of the house - the GigaControl450, the other - the Invisible Control4 - redistributes IR in the same room (into a closed AV cabinet for example).  Both devices are under £40 and available now.  Read on for the details...

Keene Electronics have added some new panel mount IR receivers to their range.  These are particularly useful if your AV Kit lives in a cabinet as you can neatly mount the rx on the surface.  You can also use them in stud walls, ceiling or even on a blank faceplate like we show here.  It gives a neat and proffesional look to your set-up.  You can now choose from Black, White, Brass or Chrome and are in the filtered 36-40KHz band (plasma friendly) and can be used with the entire Keene IR range...

More 'Z-Wave Helps Save the World' type stuff today with the new QEES SmartGate and Open Software Platform.  The hardware and software pair, in conjunction with metering devices, enable home owners to monitor and control their energy usage.  The SmartGate is described as an "All-in-one-Gateway' that replaces your wireless router and adds a telephone gateway, energy management and home controls.  With the Open Software Platform users can also configure and control entire smart home networks...

The Californian company, Mi Casa Verde, has introduced a new type of home control system to the European market.  The Vera IP gateway employs the Z-Wave wireless standard and is controlled using any standard web browsers from any PC, Mac or mobile device with internet access.  Users can define scenarios which trigger actions on lighting, heating, cctv and security etc.  The $249 smart home controller is available now in the UK and European from the dealers listed below...

UK based BenSoftware today announces SecuritySpy 2.0.9, an update to their multi-camera video surveillance software on the Macintosh platform. With features such as motion detection, real-time compression of multiple video and audio feeds, and network video and audio streaming, SecuritySpy is designed for demanding video surveillance applications. SecuritySpy supports a wide variety of network cameras and video servers, as well as FireWire, USB, and PCI video input devices...

Vogel are an innovative company making quality designed and manufactured products, indeed we use one of the Vogel Mounts in the Automated Home to hang our projector from the ceiling.  Their latest creation is a clever iPad case with accessories like the 'WallMount' that allow the Apple tablet to be, you guessed it, wall mounted in your house, yet easily removed and attachment in your car instead with the 'CarMount'.  The 'Mount & Cover' system offers a third attachment - "TableStand' for landscape and portrait free-standing use. The system should be available later this month, for now check out the rest of the videos and photo below...

The Idratek guys have been busy.  As well as launching a new version of their website they've also just released a major new update of their Cortex software (version 25).  In addition there are two new hardware modules available too.  The PC/IDRANet interface module (PCU-001)which provides a USB data interface and conventional analogue audio interfaces.  Plus a new push button module - the DBI-001 which is a dual button faceplate with LED indicators and also incorporates two general purpose digital inputs with pulse counting capability. Ideal for simple user interactions such as light switching/dimming or blind control and for connecting any nearby switch type sensors into the IDRATEK network...

The new Smart Wi-Fi system from AMX uses Ruckus BeamFlex technology which promises up to a four-fold improvement in signal range.  This is especially important in transmission of delay-sensitive applications such as streaming IP-based video or voice and results in longer range and more stable Wi-Fi connections that can support flicker-free multimedia viewing.  The AMX ZoneDirector at the heart of the system is a centrally-managed WLAN controller for the simplified management of the wireless environment...