Apple's diminutive infrared remote control was replaced a few weeks back (along with a raft of other new hardware).  The new unit leaves the old white glossy plastic look behind and adopts the brushed aluminium finish of the rest of the modern Mac range...

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just glance at your doors and tell if they were locked or unlocked. This Automated Home reader has done just that and can tell the status of each door from the colour of the LED.  Read on for the photos and the circuit details...

It's hard to believe, but its four and a half years since we built our first proper rackmount media server for the Automated Home.  Our tutorial for the MkI is still one of our most popular articles and it's easy to see why.  It's something that people are doing every day as they realise they need to move all their digital media to a central server that can be accessed by the many IP devices we have now come to rely on.  But nothing lasts forever and this week we've pulled the old girl out of the rack ready for a heart transplant...

We've just had a play with the new S5 Zoneplayer, thanks to Sonos' UK distributor.  Watch the video after the jump and read on for the new social networking features coming in the new software version next week..... 

Could this be the "X Smart Home Utopia" we've been waiting for?  The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has approved a new technical standard called 'G.hn' which could finally lead the way to a workable standard by providing a set of protocols and profiles to enable a diverse range of devices to communicate with each other around the home...

Automated Home reader Kevin Warner has been building a comprehensive home automation system based on a HomeSeer backend controlled from touch screens using Cinemars MainLobby system.  Check out the photos of his beautiful installation along with his opinions on what works best and his thoughts on future additions...

A few days ago we were contacted by the guys at LinITX.com Apparently they had a little box we'd be interested in.  Turns out the ASRock 330 is another nettop PC, but one with a nice GPU.  What makes this especially interesting to us is that the XBMC team have recently added GPU support to the Linux version of their world beating media player software.  So can this little £250 machine replace our weapon of choice, the Mac mini which costs double the price?  Read on to find out...

Digital files affect almost every facet of our life these days.  We download MP3 files, subscribe to podcasts, shoot thousands upon thousands of digital photos, watch streaming TV and movies over the Internet and email documents back and forth.  All of this adds up to a lot of digital files, but for the most part they aren’t being utilized to their fullest potential, nor being stored in a secure location.  Furthermore, one person in the home can often only access them at any given time.  With a little help, you can easily automate the back up, storage and centralization of all your digital files and enjoy them in ways never before thought of...