Here's a first look at some pretty special pre-release sample units of the "IR Anywhere" system from Keene Electronics.  The new system allows you to send Infra Red remote control signals across your network cabling, but unlike other systems that simply use the CAT as a medium to send the electrical signals, IR Anywhere actually converts the infra red into packet data for transmission across your LAN via TCP/IP.  The signals are received at the module with the IP address they were sent to where they are de-coded and output back as IR....

Yes, it's another iPhone remote do-hicky, but this one is really interesting.  Created in the UK by Steve Moore the system comprises of two parts.  An iPhone / iPod touch application and a hardware base station that recevies the commands from the iPhone app and converts them to IR and Serial commands allowing you to control anything from a TV to an entire AMX home automation system...

While there are IR distribution systems available that use CAT5, many homes don't have the structured cabling required to use them.  Keen Electronics have just launched their new retro-fit-friendly RF2IR system which transmits IR signals around the home using existing TV Coax cables.  Priced at £45 the system is available now...

LinuxMCE is of course a open-source media centre distro.  But did you know you can use it as a home automation controller as well?  Other goodies are lurking under the bonnet too such as the integrated Asrerisk VoIP system, already pre-configured for many providers and phone hardware.  Read on for the overview of this amazing free system...

HAI (Home Automation, Inc.) has announced a new software product called WL3 for Windows Home Server.  Available from next month, WL3 is an Add-in for a WHS that allows you to monitor and control your HAI Home Control System from any device with a web browser, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Smartphone, computer, PDA, etc...

In the fifth and final of our video interviews from this years Smart Home Show we have a quick chat with Guy Reece from WebBrick.  Guy talks about the hectic last 12 months for the company and how they are using their product to manage renewables and save energy in other intelligent home configurations.  The WebBrick gateway uses standards based HTML so can be configured to output almost anything you require and support for DMX lighting control has just been added too...

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The wait is over, some rumours smashed, others proven true.  The next generation Phone was announced a few minutes ago by Steve Jobs in his keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.  Of course the iPhone is now a 3G device as expected and it now features a built in GPS.  Read on for all the other juicy details...

UPDATE - UK Tariffs just published  

Last week we interviewed Andy Stanford-Clark on his smart home integration with Twitter and now we have a document published by computer science student Justin Wickett giving his open source script to do the same.  Read on for the code that gets your home communicating with you via SMS text message to your mobile plus all the other advantages Twitter offers...

eHome Creation have just released version 5.15 of their eHome Digital Tools home automation software.  The $45 touch screen application includes modules for Audio, Video, Kitchen, Office, Games, Weather and Browser and now supports iPhone style "gestures" too.  Read on for the rest of the features...