Barnes & Noble Nook / Amazon Kindle eBook Readers — 2009 Holiday Gift Idea

BARNES & NOBLE NOOK eBOOK READER / AMAZON KINDLE ($259) — The Amazon.com Kindle was the first eBook reader that really made an impact. However, the newly announced Nook from Barnes & Noble is a very good gift idea for a book worm or technology geek. The native PDF support and color LCD screen in addition to the eInk screen makes this reader the most advanced one yet. The panel is currently sold out until Jan 4th, however, you can still give the gift as the form of a Nook Gift Certificate. For those that want to give a gift that can actually be under the tree in time for Christmas, the Amazon Kindle is still a great option.

This is the second Holiday 2009 gift idea, for the complete 2009 Holiday Gift Guide, click here.

PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-GF1 — 2009 Holiday Gift Idea

PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-GF1 ($899) – A DSLR may be considered too bulky for some people and that’s why Panasonic’s highly reviewed Lumix DMC-GF1 is a great gift for the photographer in your family. The DMC-GF1 is a 12.1-megapixel “Micro Four Thirds” based camera which means there isn’t a mirror and pentaprism inside so the camera can be made much more compact. Quality is comparable with similarly priced DSLR’s and another selling point of a “Micro Four Thirds” camera is that you can mount “any” lens that is made to this standard… even from other manufacturers.

This is the first Holiday 2009 gift idea, for the complete 2009 Holiday Gift Guide, click here.

TRUFIG – Flush Mount Everything In The Wall

There are all sorts of wall plates, touchscreens, light switches, and other control devices that never seem to match either in color, finish, or how they mount on (into) the wall.  TRUFIG  from Dana Innovations, the parent company of speaker manufacture Sonance, have created a solution for this problem.  TRUFIG is a system that lets you match a variety of devices from different manufactures.  A great idea and product for those that want a consistent look and feel… especially useful in a ultra-modern/contemporary  home where less is more.

- TRUFIG

Somfy ILT Z-Wave Interface works with HAI OmniPro II/Myro

A friend of mine is in the process of building a home and requires a lot of outdoor sun shades.  We have been trying to find a cost effective way to control them and get feedback of the position they are in.  There are countless ways to get this kind of feedback but all of them are very costly.  It seems like we’ve found the solution… Somfy has released a Z-WAVE interface which works with their ILT line of motors which give you status feedback and control into the Z-Wave environment and will enable optimized performance through Myro:Home touchscreen panels.  The plug-in design also allows a simple connection to the ILT 2-way communicating motor head and can be setup in less than a minute. As an added bonus, the interface doesn’t require additional external power which keeps the energy footprint low too.

– Somfy Systems

Arlington Wire Bushings – Pass Low-Voltage Cable Through Walls

Have you ever had the need to punch through some sheetrock to pass through a few network cables?  The problem is, you drill the hole then the craft paper begins to rip and the gypsum crumbles as you pull the cables through.  Arlington has a solution for this problem.  The Wire Bushings come in 3 hole sizes ranging from 1.125″ to .500″.  They are paintable and available now from your low-voltage suppliers!

– Arlington – Wire Bushings

Updated Myro Control 8″ In-Wall Home Automation Control Touch Panel (HAI OmniPro II)

I’ve been busy getting ready the next updates to Myro Controls line up.  We have an iPhone application in the works and have also updated our panels.  The MYRO-8W now feature a much more powerful Intel Atom based processor which will allow us to do some more CPU intensive tasks.  We have also updated our Embedded XP build to accommodate some of the panel’s new features like the edge glow effect.    This effect makes it easier to see if the system is armed (red) or disarmed (green) from a distance.

For more information check out www.meetmyro.com.

Kurt Systems: High-Tech Horse Trainer

I was reading the latest issue of POPULAR SCIENCE and saw this new high-tech horse training system developed by a Turkish man.  The story behind this invention is that Mehmet Kurt developed this device after his own horse died from overtraining and human error.   The solution was to build a $427,000 training machine which monitors the horses vitals while training and maximize the speed and fitness of the horse.  Pretty cool concept!

Mavromatic Site Upgrades

Traffic coming to Mavromatic got pretty high the last few days so site access was intermittent.  We should be fully operational now with many layers of caching in place.  If you see any weirdness please let me know.  More posts will be coming shortly… Cheers!

Myro:Home iPhone Application In Development

I’ve been learning Objective-C and have been working on a few iPhone apps… one of which will be the official Myro:Home iPhone application which will allow you to control your HAI panel and view IP cameras.   This application will only be available to users of the Myro Control 8″ In-Wall Panel (MYRO:8W).    The application is in early BETA and should be ready for release beginning of November.

No, I am not Tropical Storm Danny!

You can follow and track Tropical Storm Danny live using this cool Google Maps based viewer @ ABC13.com KTRK Houston.