Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Marvell’s SheevaPlug wall-wart Linux PC has finally come of age, with the company announcing mainstream retail partners including Buffalo, D-Link, LaCie and Seagate, together with beginning distribution of the Plug Computer development kit in Europe. The original SheevaPlug has a Marvell Kirkwood processor with a 1.2GHz Sheeva processor, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage; resembling a wall-wart, it plugs directly into a power socket and offers a single USB 2.0 port and a gigabit ethernet port. Suggested uses included a home server, NAS or other form of network-connected device.

Various companies have partnered with Marvell to offer Plug Computers in multiple form-factors. These range from Axentra, who have a new touch*mediacenter mini designed to store and share digital content, Eyecon Technologies, who are positioning their version as a multi-source UPnP/DLNA aggregator, and CodeLathe, whose TonidoPlug is a home server offering local and remote access to documents, apps and media. Ionics have taken a more general approach, positioning their Plug Computer as a tiny Linux PC, while ProSyst have integrated OSGI and Java to their version, to enable developers to more easily port existing apps and create new software. Finally, WebTView have loaded their own software to discover and play internet TV.

The various form-factors include a simple box that closely resembles the original SheevaPlug prototype, together with more streamlined and even circular designs. Of course, as well as the development device from Marvell themselves, the first retail device based on the reference design is already available, in the shape of the PogoPlug.

According to Marvell, a Plug Computer uses less than one tenth of the power of a regular home server PC. It supports multiple Linux 2.6 kernel distributions, and is available to developers now for $99.

D-Link have announced two new network webcams which promise plug-and-play remote viewing using the company’s online streaming portal. The D-Link Network Camera DCS-1100 launches today, while the DCS-1130 – with WiFi draft-n – arrives later in the month.

Both cameras can be accessed from any browser by going to D-Link’s mydlink.com portal. However they can also be used to stream live video to cellphones, with sound from the integrated microphone and remote control of 16x digital zoom and motion detection.

Setting up the cameras is reportedly as straightforward as entering its unique ID code into the web account. Streams can be shared, though at present only Internet Explorer is supported; D-Link claim other browsers will be added shortly.

The D-Link DCS-1100 is available now, with an MRSP of $179.99. Meanwhile the DCS-1130 is expected to ship at the end of June 2009 with an MRSP of $219.99.