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Denon is certainly one of the heavy hitters in the AV receiver market, and its full 2007 AV receiver line has now been announced. In general, you can expect Denon's receivers to be pricier than similarly equipped competitors, but in many cases, Denon is trying to justify the price premium with premium features. For example, all the receivers from the AVR-3808CI to the AVR-5308CI feature Denon's new graphical user interface, which replaces the old blocky-text look. Denon is also stressing networking functionality, which is available on the same receivers with the GUI and allows you to you play … Read more

As I sit in a hotel room and write this, I can't help but think that most hotels are behind the curve. As I sit on this king bed, I'm looking at a 27-inch standard-def TV and a couple of old-fashioned telephones. There's no DVD player and the video games available to me on the TV are played with the help of a Nintendo 64 controller. Am I missing something? I know I'm not staying in the Ritz-Carlton or some other fancy hotel, but come on! Can't I get something innovative?

Are your experiences the … Read more

We don't know its name, what it will cost, or even what its right side looks like, but you can add Velocity Micro's new mystery product to the list of others coming out this fall with Microsoft's newly finished Windows Home Server software. According to Velocity Micro, its Home Server will come in several different configurations, but across all of them it will feature a Conroe-based CPU and a high-end chipset. The idea is to limit bandwidth bottlenecks and account for future third-party software add-ons that may demand more than the basic system requirements of Windows Home … Read more

Right on schedule, Microsoft announced that its Windows Home Server software is off to the presses. This clears the way for HP, Gateway, LaCie, Medion, and now Iomega and Fujitsu Siemens, (both also announced today, the latter in Europe only) to begin selling their Home Server-powered hardware later this quarter.

If you're unfamiliar, Windows Home Server is Microsoft's attempt to solve the growing problem of fragmented media collections. Through an easy-to-use interface, you can organize and manage access to your media files (or any other kind of data) from one centralized location, rather than having to look through … Read more

We're slated to attend a Denon press event on July 24, where we'll almost certainly get the details on its new line of receivers, but it looks like the good guys over at Audioholics got on early look at a couple of the new models--the AVR-3808CI and AVR-4308CI. You can check out the full details at Audioholics, but here's the short story:

The AVR-3808CI comes loaded with four HDMI 1.3 inputs and a single HDMI output. It also features a new graphical user interface (GUI), and we're betting it probably looks like the leaked photos we blogged before. Like the new Onkyo receivers, the 3808 has built-in decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, although prospective buyers should be aware that currently no Blu-ray or HD DVD player is capable of outputting these soundtracks' formats to the receiver in bitstream format. The 3808 can also upconvert analog signals to HDMI, along with scaling them to 1080p. Some enthusiasts have lamented that Denon decided to use Faroudja video processing on these models instead of HQV (seen on Onkyo's receivers, like the TX-SR875 and TX-NR905), but we'll withhold our judgment until we actually get our hands on it. There's also an Ethernet jack, and you'll be able to stream digital music files and Internet radio to the receiver. The Ethernet jack also enables custom installers to log into your receiver and make adjustments offsite.… Read more

There aren't enough down-to-earth, Web-based tools to help you visualize a greener home. The Green Building Studio is for architects, while Lucid Design Group's energy dashboard is found only in a slim number of buildings. Yahoo's Green House is pretty, yet it can't be personalized.

But I just wasted a fine chunk of the afternoon playing with a kids' Web site that makes a great model for what I'd like to see for adults. My Abodo is an excellent, Flash-based interface that walks you through building a virtual green home. Created in part by the … Read more

I recently had the opportunity to meet with two Microsoft officials to discuss Windows Home Server. According to Microsoft officials, this new solution could solve all of your backup problems and help you immediately restore your entire system to an earlier day if your hard drive dies suddenly. Could this be the saving grace we have all been waiting for? Read on and decide for yourself.

Although the product is still in development, the Windows Home Server (WHS) is very much a new category of home products. Accommodating almost 15 million households in the U.S. alone, WHS is designed … Read more

During last year's E3, Microsoft allowed Xbox 360 owners to download exclusive content from the show as a part of "Bringing it Home"--a campaign designed to get gamers as close as possible to E3 without actually being there. A great deal of buzz was generated from the huge Lost Planet demo that allowed gamers to play two near-finished levels of the game.

Sticking with what works, Microsoft has wisely decided to continue offering E3 content from this year's expo in the form of downloadable goodies. The Gamerscore Blog reports that beginning July 10 and running … Read more

We could all use these pillows. Think about it: you're dreaming of something fantastic, maybe Steve Jobs showing up at your front door to give you an iPhone with a year's worth of service as well as all the Apple product development secrets you could possibly want to hear.

But then your alarm clock goes off, and there you are in a sloppy bedroom in a cramped apartment, with nary an iPhone in sight--just that scratched three-year-old Razr that still smells like beer from the aftermath of last St. Patrick's Day and has a contacts list full … Read more