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XBMC media center adds Android hardware decoding, drops Windows XP support

The developers of open source media center software XBMC have released a new build of XBMC 13 Gotham, sporting a few shiny new features including support for stereoscopic 3D video and for hardware-accelerated decoding on Android devices. At the same time, the team is dropping a feature (or a bug, depending on who you ask): […]

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Lilbits (8-27-2013): Making a Macintosh Mini out of a Raspberry Pi

The original Macintosh computer was released in 1984, and it was the first popular personal computer to run software featuring a graphical user interface. It had a 9 inch display, a 7.8 MHz processor, and 128 kB of memory. Computers have come a long way since then — today you can pick up a $35 […]

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Lilbits (8-22-2013): More than a third of BlackBerry 10 apps come from a single developer

Folks have a habit of comparing mobile platforms by the sheer number of apps available in their app stores. There are around a million apps available for Android and iOS, for instance, more than 160,000 available for Windows Phone, and about 120,000 for BlackBerry 10. But quality is more important than quantity — nobody actually […]

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Lilbits (8-06-2013): Ubuntu Edge, XBMC, and Firefox 23

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth and friends have been working to bring the open source operating system to smartphones and tablets. And last month they introduced a side-project, a phone called the Ubuntu Edge which would dual boot Android and Ubuntu and work both as a phone and a desktop computer (when docked to a mouse, […]

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Lilbits (7-19-2013): Early phone upgrades, Chrome web app launch

T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have all announced plans that will let customers upgrade phones more quickly. Typically US mobile customers had to wait 18 to 24 months to qualify for a new handset. Some of the new plans let you upgrade as often as every 6 months. Of course, none of this comes free of […]

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XBMC running in Linux on a TV box with an Amlogic AM8726-MX chip (video)

The folks behind the XBMC media center application have made a lot of progress porting the software to run on Android. But if you’d rather have a small, low-power XBMC box that runs on Linux, new options might be available soon. Pivos Technology’s XIOS box can run Android or Linux, and there are XBMC builds […]

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G-Box Midnight MX2 TV dual-core box is made for Android, XBMC

There are plenty of Android-powered TV boxes designed to let you run apps, surf the web, and even run the XBMC media center software on your TV. But the G-Box Midnight MX2 is one of the few that’s really designed with XBMC in mind. Matricom’s latest TV box comes with a custom version of XBMC […]

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Lilbits (5-03-2013): Sony Xperia Z, XBMC 12.2, and Google Glass… oh my!

Acer sort of dominated tech news headlines today, with some crazy new laptop designs, and some not-so-crazy tablets, as well as hints of things to come. But Acer isn’t the only company making waves. Here’s a roundup of some of the day’s other news from around the web, including an update on Sony’s new ultra-thin […]