July 17 - 6:10pm EDT   Sand Hill Engineering on Thursday unveiled XTension 6.0, a major update to its home automation software that adds support for a number of new hardware devices, as well as a new web-based interface. XTension now offers connectivity with multiple concurrent powerline and RF interfaces, supporting devices from Oregon Scientific, such as barbeque temperature monitors, atomic clocks, power monitoring, and more. Sand Hill Engineering is selling XTension 6.0 for $150, while a free "lite" version is also available. [full story]

June 5 - 10:40pm EDT   In brief: We have posted a review CleanApp 3 and a review of the Crumpler Chester Squander bag, lynda.com offers new CS4 training, and Savant Systems holds a home automation showcase ... We have posted a review of CleanApp 3 Beta. Wouldn’t it be useful if this utility could archive the whole package, so you could save it and reinstall it later, or even back it up or burn the archive onto a CD. Such a useful utility does exist, and it is Synium Software’s CleanApp 3. This very useful program is considered a beta product, but worked very well in all our tests. The CleanApp 3 user interface is rather simple. Along the left side is a list of the functions including Applications, ... [full story]

May 7 - 11:40am EDT   Perceptive Automation has released Indigo 3.0, the newest version of its Mac-based home automation server. Connected to proper accessories, the server can control appliances such as lights, thermostats, lawn sprinklers and hot tubs. The upgrade supports INSTEON technology, which for instance lets users wirelessly control Venstar thermostats. Users can define links and lighting schemes between most INSTEON modules, and upload information to a PowerLinc 2414U, which lets users shut their Mac off without losing automation. [full story]