Not a very gleaming review for the Insignia…
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hp1Qy9Xtgg2Zb_CwxMIscMa7PkSwD9GV1UJO3
I really like the look and feel of the Dash and am glad to see it now has battery backup from what I can tell.
I am bothered by the restrictions placed on it by Sony though…makes me want to stick with my first choice…Chumby 1.
Unless someone out there thinks they can make a vera interface even for the dash…I’m not sure how restrictive it is…
Its no looker but seems to have some real potential for hack-ability
Going against my instincts, I’d still have to side with the Best Buy Infocast. It has the larger screen, Chumby doesn’t. The only advantage Chumby has, and it is important to me, is to wake up via a music source alarm. The more I think about it though, I’d never use it. The main use for something like this is to get a single device bedside that is an alarm clock and a home control device, having a picture frame, access to music, access to news/weather is just a plus that would get used occasionally. The infocast delivers on all of those.
I’ll have to drop by Best Buy and see if they have a display to try out, or buy one with the option of returning it. All of the “bad” reviews are really based on the screen, but the screen isn’t any better or worse than a cheap digital picture frame. Also the resistive touch screen can’t be any worse than my cheap GPS in my car. I think people are are too used to capacitive touchscreens backed by good touch software, and high rez displays (I only need to see it 18" from my pillow). One best buy review states “The touchscreen is not as sensitive as I would like, but still very useable.”, which seems fine to me. The dash is more expensive, locked down, and probably just as slow processor-wise. I could always buy a another EEEPC netbook w/ touchscreen, or Lenovo netbook or iPod touch with capacitive touch, but I don’t want this stuff on my night stand. I always forget to bring the iTouch when I go to bed, so I’m hoping the Infocast will give me just what I need, with all of the Chumby apps, and possibly write some Vera control, for a reasonable price.
I’m currently trying to find reasons to not buy one as I have a $100 gift card burning a hole in my pocket 
Will probably take a look myself later.
Me too strangley, lol…giftcards are awesome motivators.
It seems like the infocast could possibly house/run the Mios software entirely, doing away with Vera hardware…it’s described as “a $169, 800MHz ARM Linux computer with 128 MB of DDR2, 2 GB of mass storage and an 8-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen display” by none other than Andrew “bunnie” Huang (orig hacker of orig xbox). It has a USB port, wi-fi, etc, but few hard buttons to repurpose and would have to use the Aeon Labs stick. For MCV to get into the retail market it could be a cool vehicle, possibly.
What’s great is Andrew “bunnie” Huang has already given hackers a lot to go on…“clearly labelled serial port connections on the mainboard, a “mini hack port” – with GPIOs and power – together with places to solder in a 3-axis accelerometer or a digital camera module. He also describes how to take the unit apart, how to get into the OS via ssh, and how to install a native ARM compiler along with some other programming tidbits”
I was also thinking this morning that it would be a good MIOS vessel!
Come on MCV/SQ, release the MIOS software!
[quote=“shady, post:25, topic:164687”]Me too strangley, lol…giftcards are awesome motivators.
It seems like the infocast could possibly house/run the Mios software entirely, doing away with Vera hardware…it’s described as “a $169, 800MHz ARM Linux computer with 128 MB of DDR2, 2 GB of mass storage and an 8-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen display” by none other than Andrew “bunnie” Huang (orig hacker of orig xbox). It has a USB port, wi-fi, etc, but few hard buttons to repurpose and would have to use the Aeon Labs stick. For MCV to get into the retail market it could be a cool vehicle, possibly.
What’s great is Andrew “bunnie” Huang has already given hackers a lot to go on…“clearly labelled serial port connections on the mainboard, a “mini hack port” – with GPIOs and power – together with places to solder in a 3-axis accelerometer or a digital camera module. He also describes how to take the unit apart, how to get into the OS via ssh, and how to install a native ARM compiler along with some other programming tidbits”[/quote]
Wow great info. Did you find all that on the Insignia site?
I think I’m going to check it out in person at my local BB tomorrow.
The Sony being locked down is a deal breaker for me and the Chumby screen might be too small for me.
Just noticed that the Infocast does not have a battery option 
back to square one for me…I have to be able to move around with it.
looks like the chumby-one is the choice for you then
I might get one of those for my kitchen, but the white case won’t pass WAF in the bedroom
it is nice to have options for different areas, but first there needs to be a Vera app written for it the I’ll consider more
Yeah without that interface, i really don’t have a good reason to get it.
I wouldn’t be able decide anyways…
Sony Dash=locked down OS
Insignia=no battery
Chumby=too small
I’ll wait for now…
How about modding the Insignia with a battery?
How long does the Cumby last anyway on battery?
Rigging it up with some sort of battery might work…I’d have to experiment.
My understanding is the chumby gets about 1.5 to 2 hours on battery.
The more I think about it, the more I think I wouldn’t get one unless or until we had a Vera interface to go with it. Its neat but I just don’t really need it right now…
Have you thought about maybe getting an iPad if not already? It really is very good when coupled with SQ remote!
I have but at the same time I can’t really justify that pricetag.
I might wait and see what happens when the Android Tablets start coming out this fall.
I’m hoping we will start to see some more development for that platform.
FYI, newegg has Sony Dash for $130 now…
While it’s not as open as Inforcast, it’s still miles ahead in terms of alarm clock flexibility and media consumption.
I have both Sony Dash and Insignia Infocast since they got released and use Dash in the bedroom as an ultimate alarm clock, picture frame and scheduler, while my Infocast is being used in the living room. I wish I had more time to work on the Vera UI for those devices…
And by the way, there is a WebKit-based browser available for Infocast:
[quote=“denix, post:34, topic:164687”]FYI, newegg has Sony Dash for $130 now…
While it’s not as open as Inforcast, it’s still miles ahead in terms of alarm clock flexibility and media consumption.
I have both Sony Dash and Insignia Infocast since they got released and use Dash in the bedroom as an ultimate alarm clock, picture frame and scheduler, while my Infocast is being used in the living room. I wish I had more time to work on the Vera UI for those devices…[/quote]
Darn I missed that Dash price and it looks like it went back up today. I ended up buying the Infocast. So far, I am very happy with it. It is the perfect size for a bedside device and I got it viewing my Foscam camera, but it isn’t working with the pan, tilt, zoom app that looks to be built for the Panasonics. I tried several different URL formats and the Foscam won’t work with that PTZ app, but I do get a still/static image updating through another app (which is very cool so far). Any suggestions are welcome…
The good thing about the alarm is that it is easy to set and quiet to set too (old clock’s buttons clicked). So far it is a very cool and responsive device that needs Vera on it it pronto. I’ll try installing the browser and see.
I was looking at the infocast the other night and was thinking if it was worth the price to test out. It would be great to have control of Vera on the unit. I hear you can not use pandora or any streaming radio with the alarm clock? I guess I’ll have to do some digging to see what it can do.
The good news is that Insignia employees seem to be responsive on the forums about feature requests. So hopefully we’ll have an update that gives us more options like the Chumby has. You can start a channel to play after your alarm, so while the music doesn’t wake you you can wake up and get dressed to the news, weather, and traffic or Letterman’s Top Ten.
Even without a music alarm, this thing is really cool. Just being able to view my IP camera on it has made it useful for me. It would be such a short stretch to get Vera on it, hopefully I’ll have some luck with the Browser once I get it installed.
OK, booted up the Infocast with the browser files on a USB stick and “blammo” UI4 at my bedside. Unfortunately, getting to the mainscreen and back requires a reboot but it is still cool. Everything is pretty touch friendy, including dimmer sliders, only issue being the far right scrollbar for the webpage. Hopefully we can get the UI accesible by an app at some point.
See attached pics:
Nice!
I saw the FLASH-Lite interface that the MIOS guys had residing on a Samsung TV at Cedia. Pretty nice interface!
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