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Homepod Development Version Available
jbradleymd writes "Javalobby members can purchase a development version of the Homepod (a wireless digital music player running JAVA on Linux) for $249 (reg $395). Register free as a javalobby member at javalobby.com
A previous Slashdot post
discusses the Homepod."
Until the lawers get involved then it will be this- and that-.
'Same speed C but faster'
The site list the development version as discounted to $249 it makes mention of requiring JavaLobby membership. Everyone who is interested appears to be able to get the development version for the standard price. /. should be checking the stories to see if they are true before posting.
Don't worry the Homepod Mini will be coming out soon. It's 235 dollars and only streams 4 gigs of music a month to your home.
___ Shout Central - Crushes your nuts!
Yeah, but if it is not from Apple, it is just a psuedopod.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
I had the chance to look at the HomePod last night at a friend's place. The device borrows from the iPod aesthetic rather blatantly but the construction appears to be lackluster. On boot-up, the device made quite a few random clicking sounds which reminded me of a Geiger counter at Chernobyl. I'm not sure if this was an I/O problem with the audio circuitry or if this was supposed to happen. Once the device did in fact boot, we were able to play FM radio ok, but we had quite a bit of trouble configuring it to receive Internet Radio stations. The manufacturer's claims are a little misleading in that the device itself does not actually receive and interpret Internet Radio streams directly... but rather talks to an instance of a Java-based server from a PC on the network. I would imagine this server receives commands from the device, finds the stream, decompresses the streamed content, and moves it across the wireless network as PCM. I was a little disappointed by this topology because I expected this device to function independently. What we're left with is a glorified 802.11 transponder hooked up to a cheap sound card. It also boasts another would-be nifty feature which allows the playback of MP3 files from an attached USB hard drive, though we couldn't get that to work either. The device has a very basic web administration console which can be accessed via the IP address, allowing one to change TCP/IP settings and FM presets, etc. We were also able to ssh into the device, apparently giving us root priveledges on the device. Hopefully, this will be locked up on the commercial version as the factory configuration might be serve up a very large backdoor to your wifi network. In short, great idea but poor execution thus far. It has a good deal of potential if the bugs get worked out by shelf time.