Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
A home theater PC is, by definition, a computer designed to hang out near your TV so you can send videos, music, or photos to the big screen. But just because the natural habitat of an HTPC is the living room doesn’t mean you can’t move it from place to place.
Hackaday found one hacker who decided to build a portable HTPC by cramming all the important bits into a small box, slapping a wireless keyboard on the side with a bit of Velcro. The best part? That little box already has a built-in handle which makes it easy to carry, since it’s a $10 Star Wars lunch box.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Building a portable HTPC (home theater PC)
The goal was to build a system that could be used at home, in a camping trailer, at hotels, or other locations. It involves a Raspberry Pi, a 250GB hard drive, and a lunch box. [Instructables] - Humble Indie Bundle 11: Name your price for up to 6 Windows, Mac, and Linux games
Pay any price and get 4 games. Pay more than the average and you get all 6. [Humble Bundle] - Microsoft launches new, updated Bing apps for Windows and Windows Phone, syncs data between platforms
New apps include Bing Food & Drink, Bing Health & Fitness, and Bing Travel. Bing News, Finance, Weather, and Sports have also been updated. [Windows Phone Blog] - Icis wants to be a better looking Google Glass alternative
The frames are more fashionable, the camera harder to spot, and the user interface designed to be more user-friendly. Too bad they’re missing something Google Glass will command on day one: the ability to draw a big third-party developer community. [CNET] - Bloomberg: Samsung Galaxy S5 to have 5.2″ display, better battery, and a lower price than earlier models
Next week we can stop paying attention to rumors and just read the official spec sheet. For now the latest rumors have Samsung’s next flagship phone launching at a lower-than-usual price despite offering the most powerful hardware to date. [Bloomberg] - These are the Samsung phones and tablets that will get Android 4.4 KitKat updates
Not holding your breath waiting to buy Samsung’s next phone? If you’ve got an older model (but not too old), there’s a decent chance an Android 4.4 KitKat software update is on the way. [SamMobile] - Windows Phone 8.1 keyboard may support Swype-like gesture typing feature
Who wants to hunt for letters and tap them one at a time when you can just drag your finger across the screen to trace out word patterns? [Unleash The Phones]
You can keep up on the latest news by following Liliputing on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
That’s a cute and accessible hack that many people could do. Neat
I built a similar atom-based mini-atx system years ago, though I did cut a lot of ventilation slots with a dremel, not quite as cute. But it ran fine 24/7 for four years in the lunchbox.
What’s old is new again.
A long time ago, the Compaq Portable III and
its Taiwanese copycats were available in
lunchbox form. These had gas plasma (later
LCD color) display, PS/2 wired hardware keyboard, and
could take two 5.25″ form factor drives, a 3.5″ floppy
drive, and an internal 3.5″ hard disk. The
motherboard had a riser that could accommodate
3 expansion cards.
I wanted one so bad…to access dialup BBS systems!
If only the Bay Trail boards are smaller like the quad core GIGABYTE J1900N-D3V board that just got released: https://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4918
I guess I could get the dual core Bay Trail NUC. Does anyone know if only the board and a compatible passive heatsink are sold anyware?