Slashdot Mirror

I was a beta tester. It just wasn't terribly useful. I know what they were trying to do, but it failed miserably. The reason they all sold out on Tiger Direct is because the devices came a hundred times more fun after they were hacked.

There is a touchscreen keyboard available for Audrey if you want to ditch the physical keyboard:
    http://www.keithandgina.com/audrey/

It works well enough, but I still prefer using the actual IR keyboard. I find that it's tougher to type quickly on the virtual keyboard and that became annoying to me.

Lots more good Audrey info over at http://www.audreyhacking.com/

PS - There is a version of VNC that you can run on Audrey. Supposed to make life easier in the home automation dept, but I've never tried it.
    -DaveR

Speaking of small-screen gadgets running Unix variants, I can't resist putting in a word about the 3-Com Audrey, a $85 (EBay) solid-state touch-screen gadget that runs an embedded Unix called QNX. The Audrey is a failed Internet appliance that was made by 3Com a few years ago. When they didn't sell for $499, 3Com dumped them. They soon showed up on EBay and an Audrey hacking community sprang up (see AudreyHacking.com). Hacked memory images are available with all sorts of free goodies like mp3 players and home automation software.

The Audrey has a 7-inch 640x480 color touch screen built into a 2-inch-thick package that looks like like a Jetson's version of an Etch-a-Sketch. It was made to sit on the kitchen table so you could read the news, send email and look up recipes. Several dedicated buttons on the front, intended to start the pre-packaged apps, can be reprogrammed to do other things. There's even a "channel changer" knob that switches among favorite websites.

Inside is about a P200, 32Mb ROM and a 32 Mb flashcard for RAM. The original built-in software included a telephony app. There is a built-in 56K modem, microphone and two tiny speakers, also 2 USB ports and an audio output jack, and a no-frills wireless IR keyboard. Most of the ones sold on EBay include a USB LAN interface.

I bought 5 of them and put them around the house to stream mp3 to different rooms. Beats having to go to the computer to select files, and the touch screen and retro look make a really cool UI.

If you're interested in more details about the Mobilis here's another article with couple different photos.

Whenever subject of solid state computers comes up I have to throw in a few words about the Audrey, a failed Internet appliance made by 3Com a few years ago. When they didn't sell for $499 3Com dumped them and they are readily available on EBay for about $85.

The Audrey has a 7-inch 640x480 color touch screen built into a 2-inch-thick package that looks like like a Jetson's version of an Etch-a-Sketch. Several dedicated buttons on the front were intended to start dedicated apps like email, address book and web browser. It was made to sit on the kitchen table so you could read the news, send email and look up recipes. Inside is about a P200, 32Mb ROM and a 32 Mb flashcard for RAM. The original built-in software included a telephony app. There is a built-in 56K modem, microphone and two tiny speakers, also 2 USB ports and an audio out jack, and a no-frills wireless IR keyboard. Most of the ones sold on EBay include a USB LAN interface and have replacement software, an embedded Unix called QNX.

When these things came out on the market for such a low price a hacking community quickly sprang up (for example Audreyhacking.com). You can find lots of free goodies such as an mp3 player and home automation software. Because of the touch screen I bought 5 of them to use as UIs for streaming music to stereos all over the house. Anyway, they are fun toys.

my uncle was just in town recently and had the plans to the house he is building. they are putting sockets under the roof overhangs just for christmas lights and they will all go to one or two switches. on one hand it seems silly, but on another it makes a world of sense.

as for everythng else maybe you want to try to keep some conduit space open for the future. honestly who knows what we will be using for TV or internet in even just a few years. will everyone have fibre in the house? will coax be gone? will CAT5 cable be old? is today's CAT5 cable going to be good enough for tomorrow's speeds? i don't know how much it matters in a house setup, but cable is rated for speed.

you might as well plan for ethernet everywhere. wireless is easy, but ethernet is cheap to do from the start. if you put something along the lines of an Audrey http://audreyhacking.com/ in the kitchen, it would be nice to have the wires ready to go.

For an audio-only solution, my choice is the 3Com Audrey, a cute little retro-futuristic gadget from the short-lived "Internet appliance" bust a few years ago. It was originally meant for lightweight users to read email and news at the breakfast table and look up recipes on the web, but the $500 price tag didn't work out. But now the EBay price (about $85) makes it a nice cheap UI for selecting music to play in different rooms of the house. The Audrey hacking community has made lots of alternative software freely available for playing mp3s, X10 control, etc.

The Audrey has a 7" touch screen, wireless keyboard, microphone, audio jack, 2 USB ports, and a 56K modem or USB LAN dongle. No hard drive, no fan, totally silent. It runs QNX, an embedded Unix.

Setup is very easy, especially if you already have network wiring. All I had to do was plug it into a network jack and a stereo, and add a couple lines to the boot file to connect to my Windows share. My ambition is now to figure out how to get the original telephony software to work, so the 5 Audreys I ended up buying can double as speakerphones and a home intercom system. I highly recommend this nifty toy!

I think the ideal UI for streaming music is a 3Com Audrey, a diskless Internet Appliance from a few years ago that failed to sell, and can now be bought on EBay for $85. It has a nice sharp color touch screen (7-inch 640x480) with a stylus, wireless keyboard, USB LAN dongle, audio output jack and a second USB port. It looks cool too, kind of like a Jetsons version of an Etch-a-Sketch. I bought steveral and am using them to stream music all over my house.

The Audrey runs QNX, an embedded version of Unix. A growing Audrey hacking community has replaced the original email, web browser and address book software with useful things like MP3 players, a nice text editor and a full-featured web browser. You can download different memory images from various people and load them via a Compact Flash card, and you can easily back up your file system to another computer's hard drive.

I found setup to be extremely easy, despite being a networking newbie. I just plugged it into my hub and it worked. All I had to do was add a couple lines to the boot file, courtesy of helpful posts on various Audrey forums, and it connects automatically to shares on my main computer. Have it run the mp3 player at startup and your parents will have no trouble using it.

This doesn't address your desire to automate ripping CDs, but for my money it's the perfect UI solution.

As cool as this hack is, and I personally think it is pretty cool, for my money an old 3Com Audrey makes a much better media system UI. The Audrey is a diskless "internet appliance" from a few years ago that failed in the market. Originally about $500, they are now commonly available on EBay for about $80-90. The screen is larger and you can do a lot more things with it.

The Audrey looks like a Jetsons style Etch-a-sketch. It was designed to sit on the kitchen table and do email, read the morning news, look up recipes on the Internet, stuff like that. It has has a 7" diagonal 640x480 color touch screen, wireless keyboard, some specialized buttons on the front, 2 USB ports, built in speakers, microphone and audio jack. There is no disk drive; it uses 32 Mb RAM and a 32 Mb Compact Flash card that holds the OS (QNX, an embedded microkernel).

A thriving Audrey hacking community has evolved; people have replaced the original software with things like mp3 players, a better web browser, home automation stuff, etc. I own five of them, which I use to stream music all over the house. The tiny built-in speakers are crappy but the sound card is decent, and sounds fine plugged into a stereo or boom box. My winter project is going to be to implement a home intercom system using my network of Audreys. I can't say enough good things about this cool toy!

That's what happened to This little piece of equipment.

Why is this device any better than just bridging your ethernet to your wireless peer network?

It doesn't require a PC or Mac, needs no drivers, and so can provide connectivity to devices such as Audrey, ReplayTV, TiVO, Xbox with network connector, or playstation2 with network connector.

I think it's closer to the Airpad since that uses USB power, except that this new device doesn't require a computer so it plugs directly into the ethernet port and allows any number of devices to connect to it -- none of which need be PC or Mac computers, and so no drivers are required.

Examples of such devices include Audrey [audreyhacking.com], ReplayTV [digitalnetworksna.com], TiVO [tivo.com], Xbox with network connector [xbox.com], or playstation2 with network connector [playstation2.com] just to list a few.

Slashdot ate half my post, 503 errors suck, here's the full post

Your post confuses me. I read your (broken) link (HTML isn't hard -- try it!) and it seems that "any number" is, well, one. And, unless you mean drivers (which the Airpad requires, but the new D-Link device does not,) I don't understand what software has to do with it.

Most importantly, the product you linked to requires a computer to be connected to the ethernet port, upon which drivers muct be installed, and into which the Airpad connects to allow other computers to share said connection.

In contrast, the new D-Link device plugs directly into the ethernet port and seems to allow any number of (and I do mean more than one!) devices to connect to it -- none of which need be PC or Mac computers, and so no drivers are required. Examples of such devices include Audrey, ReplayTV, TiVO, Xbox with network connector, or playstation2 with network connector just to name (and link) a few.

Maybe it's just me, but given the wording of your post, I expected more than one. I suppose "one" is "any number," but I think that's phrase is usually reserved for cases where there are several. I also expected an equivalent device (hint: USB-power isn't the main feature) which the device you mentioned is not.

And, since the Airpad costs $92 and requires a computer (PC or Mac only,) and the D-link device is $99 with no computer required I can think of (and link to) any number of possible devices for which this new product may have applications where the Airpad can't work.

... hacking a 3COM Audrey to do the exact same thing. It runs QNX natively, but I think you can put Linux on it. There are discussions from time to time on AudreyHacking.com but I don't think anyone has (yet).

The Audrey has a touch-screen and IR port built in. You can get em pretty cheap from e-bay, sometimes even new in the box. Since 3COM no longer offers the service that is required to run the Audrey, you can get em fairly readily (noone has any real use for em).

Probably pretty time-consuming to try to hack one to be a remote like TFA describes, but might be worth it for someone willing to expend the energy! :) Oh, and if anyone does, you gotta post about it on Slashdot!

It is sort of like open source software in a way, as digital art lends itself to being copied and used as wallpapers, fodder for other digital art, and the like. For instance you are free to use my digital pieces for whatever you like as long as it is not commercial. Hmmmm, looks like I need to put up my copyleft tag. Anyways the future of art is the mutability of the medium. Where people will buy 3 or 4 digital photo frames or make your own out of old computers or laptops.

These things are going really cheap and were all the rage like a year ago. I still have 2 floating around and they access my networked music server over Cat5 (need a particular USB Ethernet adapter to do this, but you can reflash several other USB adapters to look like the one the Audrey has drivers for) just fine. Use a pair of amplified speakers for the audio jack (the Audrey uses a Sound Blaster compatible audio card) and you're all set.

The QNX OS on the Audrey is quite impressive considering it's tiny footprint. Boot time is under 20 seconds (mainly b/c the CPU is pretty slow at 200 MHz) but people have trimmed it by cutting down on the services the OS loads at startup and it boots from a flash drive which you can re-flash or change at will. It is a true Real Time Operating System as well. And the file system once you have a hacked Audrey is very Linux like if you like puttering about in the various configuration files via its csh shell.

Go over to www.AudreyHacking.com where you can download various firmware images that perform the sorts of things you want to accomplish. Lots of folks are using Audrey's as cheap network terminals, Home Theater/Multizone Audio controllers, networked music playback stations, home automation via X10 control center using X10's Homeseer web served interface, etc.

Look around and you can probably get one for less than $100 a pop. A real bargain as you're gettting a 200 MHz Low end Pentium compatible CPU, with sound card, networking capability AND a working backlit LCD touch screen in a package that does NOT look like a computer/terminal at all. It is a pretty modern, decor neutral apperance. More capable than a dedicated network MP3 player, you can even get a web browser and e-mail client and other applications working without difficulty. There are several QNX software sites out there to check out.

DaveC

A little different from what you're asking, but here's what I did for a similar setup...

I picked up a discontinued Audrey from 3com and put that in my kitchen, networked through the powerlines using Seimens Powerline ethernet adapters. It mounts a SMB share from my Windows box (can also mount NFS shares) and plays my music through it's built-in speakers, or through attached computer speakers. There's a headphone jack on the device for external speakers.

It runs QNX with a full root shell, along with a web browser and other fun doodads. The mp3s play flawlessly (and there's a plugin for OGG) while taking up very little real estate on my counter. Anywhere I go in the apartment with a powerjack I can get to my Windows box. Wireless is also an option using a Linksys WEP11.

Best of all, my girlfriend loved it and wants me to get a couple more for the apartment. When not in [musical] use, it doubles as a digital picture frame.

Some sites to look over...

Audrey's on Ebay

AudreyHacking.com

www.linux-hacker.net Audrey Forum

Infinity flash image

But systems like QNX and other niche OS's are more like a Hammer and Screwdriver. Although they don't have as much functionality as the Swiss Army Knife. They do their job better and are more reliable for their jobs.

QNX is being used by industry to run a vast array of completely different machines. It's obviously doing more than one job, it just does them one at a time. Software is always flexible, unless it's closed then it's just another chunk you can't modify. According to the article QNX is being used for "general purpose" computing too. Another poster mentioned the Audry as an example.

The other thing that's anoying about your post and the article itself is the compairison of Linux and Microsoft crap as equals because both employ a monolithic kernel. What crap. Stable distros of GNU/Linux don't crash whith anything like the frequency M$ crap does. While M$ execs laugh like madmen over the prospect of running an M$ system for more than 30 days, calling it "insane", Free software routinely runs for months and years on a variety of hardware. NT proves that this instability on M$'s part is a matter of code quality, because it uses a microkernel. It's very irritating for people to assume that free software sucks simply because it can be used as a replacement for software that should not be tollerated.

I read Slashdot using QNX, on an Audrey. I almost bought another one at a garage sale today for $20, but it had no power supply. Plus the keyboard was Lime.

The Audrey is not an open system, and it is not based on Linux. It is based on Qnix, which is free for non-commercial use. The Audrey applications themselves are closed, and were developed by a third party (not 3COM). I am fairly certain that that at least the Address Book application uses GDBM, which is a GPL'd library (not LGPL) and as such they should have released the applications under GPL. There is (or was) an active Audrey hacking community, at http://www.audreyhacking.com.

Disclaimer: I have an Audrey, a Rio, and an I-Opener, plus a few other pieces of tech detritus I'm more embarrassed to mention. Not that I paid retail for any of them...

The Audrey is quite hackable. You should check out this or this

For example I have one which I use to stream MP3's from my main PC (via WiFI) into my Hifi.

I use an Audrey for a similar purpose. No moving parts, so it's instant on with a touchscreen to select playlists. Yummy.

--saint

Go over here and look at the breath of software that has become available for the Zaurus in a very short timespan.

Most of this is a port of already existing software made for other platforms. The reason is the underlaying Linux kernel. Had the Zaurus been based on QNX even with QT support we would not have seen near the amount of SW. (Check the nifty Audrey based on QNX as an example of the latter)

If that's what you want, a hacked 3Com Audrey is a lot cheaper. Color LCD with touchscreen, networked, even runs a UNIX-ish OS. I have a bunch of them scattered around my house; they're great. They're about $100 these days.

Buy a non-working Audrey from someone who fucked up the Flash IPL. It has exactly the screen you describe and can be had for less than $100.

Some links: Here's my caller ID thing and audreyhacking.com will tell you everything else you need to know.

And if you couldn't guess by the domain name, there is tons of hacking info too.

That's exactly what I['m doing with my audrey. The audrey has a nice touch screen so its easy to use. Mounts nfs/smb shares, has and IR port that you control with a learning remote.

You can buy them for about $100 and with a 32meg CF card update them pretty quickly. Mine has a digital picture frame that runs and pulls random pictures from a share, a full screen mp3/ogg player and a callerid display. It sits beside my sofa so I can get to it easily.

Check out Linux Hacker BBs and audreyhacking.com

.. we start integrating some jetsons like stuff into our lives.

Why not create a jacket with an integrated GPS/Compass/Temp guage and mp3 player for hikers? Imagine pulling off a protective cover on your wrist and seeing a display showing your heading, location, your body temperature, outside temperature and which mp3 is playing. Doesn't even have to be color, just backlit.

Guaranteed, you can sell this jacket for 700 bucks and people will buy it. Maybe I'm in a minority, but I have money for gadgets, but there just isn't anything out there I want. Got Tivo, got xBox, got my own weather station [offline at the moment as I rewire it], got an Audrey. Maybe I'm just spoiled ;-)

Sheesh - just get one of these and a wireless card. Save yourself $100's. ..plus it runs Linux, use it as a wireless remote, mp3 player, etc..

I have an Audrey that I picked up off EBay for $80. With the hacks from the Audrey Hacking site, it has been updated to the latest firmware. Using the pictureframe module from Misterhouse I not only have X10 control of my house accessible from the Audrey, but also as a digital pictureframe when idle. The Audrey also has a high Spouse Acceptibility Factor and looks great when you put three or four around the house. Get the additional supported 3Com 3C19250 USB Ethernet adaptor if you have broadband and it works great as an instant-on fast internet appliance.

With the extra space saved on the ROM in the device, you could either add some more applications in for greater functionality or possibly just decrease the overall price of the unit given that you wouldn't need so much memory to store the OS. Or both.

3Com used QNX in the Ergo Audrey (I still wish I'd managed to get one of those in time), and not only did it work well technically, but it also created a very hackable device.

Just some thoughts.

I would be very interested in bottlerocket. You should post info about your progress to audreyhacking.com so we can all enjoy it. I will ensure you get credit and all that nonsense.

-harper

Hmmm. They may have just been temporarily slashdotted? I can still get to them at this link. If not, just go to Tiger Direct and do a search for 'Audrey'. And Tiger Direct is reputable - just look at the Audrey Hacking website, like, in the forums. You'll read lots of good things about Tiger Direct, at least as far as the Audrey goes.

Actually, you can purchase an audrey from a vendor and then go download a hacked rom image from audreyhacking.com. Dump the image onto a compact flash card, slot it into the audrey and wham, bam - a hacked audrey with all the coolest features. It really is very easy. check out this article for more info and success stories.

BTW the audrey rules..

Actually, you can purchase an audrey from a vendor and then go download a hacked rom image from audreyhacking.com. Dump the image onto a compact flash card, slot it into the audrey and wham, bam - a hacked audrey with all the coolest features. It really is very easy. check out this article for more info and success stories.

BTW the audrey rules..

i love mine... And for any of you slashdotters reading this, I suggest you try it out. I paid $69 for mine and $30 for the NIC. It's a great toy to play with... you can VNC, SSH, Telnet, IRC, mount SMB shares, play MP3s... (all after you hack it)
and now its even easier to hack thanks to the CF card images found on AudreyHacking, or you can update via Marimba update like I did.

At any rate, the Audrey probably would have sold much better than it did had the price not been so high ($499). I wouldn't go so far as to say it's just bad-ass - but it is cool (esp. for $89).
(I used to play GrooveRadio's RealAudio stream on my audrey while i played RtCW. (can't do it any more cause the way grooveradio streams their broadcast now...).)

in short, i love mine - recommend you try one for yourself...
wanna see how one looks? try out the demo linked on my site www.neodux.com/audrey

Then, hack it:

• http://www.audreyhacking.com
• http://www.canoma.com/audrey
• http://www.sowbug.com/audrey/hack_index.html
• http://www.linux-hacker.net BBS

We've already got various customization hacks worked out. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to:

• Add a hard drive
• Add 802.11b
• Get Linux running on it

Supplies are dwindling. You may want to go ahead and by one (or four) now.

www.audreyhacking.com

www.linux-hacker.net

For something a little sooner and a little cheaper, check out the now liquidated Audreys. Sure, they aren't the newest toys, but I just ordered a handful from Tiger Direct for $90 a piece, plus $30 for the usb network adaptor.

Out of the box, it supports web browsing, email, and palm syncing among other things. And with a little hacking, it can play mp3s, be an X server/client, VNC server/client, web server, etc.

check Audrey Hacking for more info.

The Audrey has an x86 processor that's capable of playing MP3's. Audrey has the ability to update her software from a central server - hackers have put together new packages for audrey that can give you a shell into the QNX system. From there, you can do almost anything you want. Best suggestion is to set up an NFS mount or SMB share on a server, and give Audrey as much disk space as you need.

Get started by installing the QNX RTP 6.0 or 6.1 on an x86 machine. With some library updates on the Audrey, it can run any of those binaries.

Mine doesn't do anything cool yet. I want to set it up to use the channel selector to select different shoutcast MP3 streams.