Hackable Windows PC / Synth / Entertainment Center
Peter writes “Korg has kept its OASYS Linux PC – synth hybrid closed, but not Open Labs. Their Windows-based synthesizer keyboard slash DJ/VJ workstation slash home entertainment center (with remote control) has an open hard drive bay, four PCI slots, and hinged access to the PC innards, all with a fully-customizable Windows install. Sure, it’s preconfigured for music production with a 15″ touchscreen and software bundle, but you could go inside the machine and reconfigure it into whatever you wanted. One idea: control games from the music keyboard.” Link.
Fsteele writes in to confirm you can stream purchased video with the new iTunes – “Thanks for the link; it works just fine with store content. That’s actually how I noticed it. I’ve successfully imported content I captured via EyeTV, as well, but it looks like it only works if it was imported via iTunes 6.02. My wife has a couple of videos she bought with 6.01 that aren’t available. What really makes this cool is that there’s now a video streaming server inside every copy of iTunes, so it will be interesting to see what people can do with that.” 
Makers, are you OK with paying more money for ringtone than you would for a complete song? These folks seem to think so – “According to The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information, consumers are willing to pay more for a 30-second snippet of a song track to be used as a ringtone than to download an entire song track. In addition, consumers are willing to pay a premium (above the average $0.99 price for paid music downloads from the Web) for the convenience of downloading a full song directly to their mobile phone wherever and whenever they want.” 
News to me, the Digg folks are on it “With all the attention on the new ministore presentation, no one seems to have noticed that iTunes 6.02 enables video-sharing to your local network. Whether it’s intended for an upcoming home media appliance or not I don’t know, but it brings videos up to par with music.” 
Mat_the_w writes “Everybody loves LCD monitors because they are so portable and perfect for LAN parties, but I am always afraid of something falling and damaging the soft screen when I travel with my LCD. After purchasing a nice 19 inch Dell display, I decided I needed something to protect my investment. I cut and molded a piece of acrylic plexiglass to form a cover for my LCD monitor.” Here’s the how-to on Instructables. 
Lavere writes “Logitech is selling a great webcam with pan and tilt functions (called “Orbit”, about $120). However, they really dropped the ball with the software: you can’t pan and tilt the cam via the Internet. Enter 
Bruce on the Etel blog interviews the good doctor about her “