UMPC for Home Automation

Ultra-Mobile PC as a Home Automation controller

I was recently emailed some screenshots of some specialized software designed to run on anything, including Ultra-Mobile PC. It allows you to control Media Center (Vista and MCE2005), from a UMPC. It is software from an American company Autonomic. Becasue I got such a huge response from my "umpc for something other than surfing" video, I thought I would post this stuff for those interested in Home Automation.

It also can view, and control the Media Center to play the music library, so would be great as a controller for distributed audio. In an update to the software coming soon you will also be able to control Xbox360 connected to the Media Center. They have a piece of software that runs on the MCE machine, which then allows you to make telnet calls to it to control the MCE machine (and MCE extenders).

With AMX controllers fetching thousands of dollars and functionality often very “locked off” then it makes sense for this software to jump on a UMPC while remaining more dynamic a flexible for the household. What do you guys think? I won’t wade into the Home Automation battle too deeply but I don’t get why AMX and Crestron have such a monopoly in this space.