We're looking for new hardware for the LINK, and I thought the results might be As we benchmark hardware for the v1.3 of the LINK, I thought some of you would be interested in the process. We have no special deal supporting any of the hardware shown, sponsorship or anything of the like. Of course, we'll get a discount from retail on any of the below, but there's no sweetener that skews the results beyond normal pricing considerations.

A Student at the Technical University of Hamburg is doing a survey Neuros Community Members

I'm a masters student at TUHH, Technical University of Hamburg. As
part of my master’s thesis, I am carrying out a survey to better
understand your experience and expectations with regards to the
organization of Open design projects.
Your opinion as Neuros OSD user and community member is very important
to me!
That's why I'm inviting you to fill out my survey. Answering the
questions may take about 8-10 minutes.

Mashable recently posted an article With Google TV Looming, Can the Boxee Box Prevail? It was almost rhetorical because Mashable clearly can't see how it will. I tend to agree with them, but I'll take it one step further. Why would we want dedicated hardware of any kind at this stage? Lets assume that Google TV will run on a PC as we've speculated. Let's further guess that the Google TV hardware will cost $200.

@browndamon : And the Nobel Prize in Futility Goes to... Makers of New Web-TV Boxes http://bit.ly/99NBra #bnet #webtv #litl #vudu #boxee #appletv #neuros

It's only natural that the above would be said, and there's no doubt that Google's entry into this space could, and hopefully will, change everything. This space, as we have often discussed, is in desperate need of a shakeup. Of course, Google's entry is no surprise and we posted on it first over two years ago. The question now is how well did we anticipate and position ourselves, and what should we change? Lets start with our current assessment:

It's a stopgap measure we've talked about previously but it does work today. While we wait for an agreement with Netflix, PlayOn can get you watching Netflix streaming today. Now its on sale for $20. From a recent newsletter from MediaMall:

Buy a lifetime PlayOn license now for only $19.99.

The subscription plan, launching on May 20th, will be $39.99 for the first year and $19.99 a year thereafter.

Steven Johnson wrote an interesting provocative article in the NY Times about whether or not Apple's success should make us re-think the "gospel that an open web will win." My gut tells me that openness will win in the end (I guess no one would be surprised by this view).

We've just released a practically silent Neuros LINK (codenamed "Phantom") and figured some of you would be interested in the process.

Of course, there are easier ways to create a silent computer, the easiest being a net-top solution, with an Atom processor or the like. We've decided not to go that route with the LINK simply because we didn't want to make the sacrifice on CPU horsepower. Sadly, as we all know, there are still plenty of web apps and inefficient video streams that require CPU cycles. Instead, we architected a full power PC to be silent (or silent to an excellent approximation anyway) Click more to see what it took, or if you just want to buy, go here: we're good with that too. BTW, geardiary posted a review and some pictures

It's been rumored for years but now it does appear closer at least as discussed in the NY Times. What does Google's presumed entry into this space mean for consumers? For the LINK? For the OSD3? Will Google be able to open the TV? How open will it be? Post your thoughts on what it means.