out of the console, into the living room II

i posted on monday that the big pitch at CES this year was the smarthome and the home server, with a quote from Bill Gates indicating his intention to leverage the xbox to 'get access to the living room'.

it's not just large corporations pursuing this goal: individual users (aka console hackers) are doing the same thing. my colleague at i2, Richard Carmicheal, pointed me to the Wii controlled smarthome:

Using the Wii-Mote and my Nintendo Wii, I have an onscreen Flash User Interface that lets me control the following aspects of my home: Lights, Thermostat, Security Camera, Music Playback, Cable DVR, and more.

full details are here, and this, and more Wii-hacks than you can poke a stick at, can be found at Liquid Ice's Wii Hacks site. There's a point to be made here about console hacking and user-created content, and another point to be made about console and walled gardens, but they deserve their own posts at another date.