As its OS gets fatter, OSD owners get a free CF card

OWNERS OF the nifty Linux-based Personal Video Recorder and Media Centre, the "Open Source Device" or OSD, should hurry and request a free CompactFlash card from its manufacturer, as the next-generation OS for it requires more storage space than the device includes internally.

After a long - and ongoing - development effort, the firm last week released a beta version of the next-generation OSD firmware running the QT graphics toolkit, code-named "Arizona". You can find it over here.

Get a free CF card from Neuros if you want to run the latest OSD software release

The firm decided to port the QT graphics framework to the device last winter. It claims that with QT on the OSD, it makes it "easier to develop new programs or add functionality to existing programs" and that besides the improved UI this will bring more programmers to the platform, and also make porting existing Linux applications easier. "as more developers are able to work with the standard QT framework, more applications may be made for the OSD."

But as the software got fatter, it no longer fitted into the device's internal trousers. So in order to boot the new OSD firmware, you need to have a 128MB card into the CF reader slot on the side. The firm is hence offering a free 128 CF card to everyone who owns an OSD. You only need to enter your device serial number and MAC address as proof of ownership on a web form here.

Also worth a noting is that if you run an old firmware version, you must first update to this other beta version as a requirement before upgrading to the "Arizona". The company makes it clear that "Once you have upgraded to the new version, the CF card cannot be removed. If removed, The OSD will request that you put the CF card back in. The CF slot will be permanently taken up for this purpose."

Those outside the U.S. are promised a coupon which can then be exchanged for a CF card in their local markets. And those in far remote places where coupons are rare - like this scribbler down in South America - get 10 yankee greenbacks sent over Paypal, to purchase one such card locally. It works, as I got the wonga in my Paypal account about a week ago.

Besides the new GUI built with the QT graphics toolkit, this new beta firmware includes two important fixes that have been awaited for some time: support for large SD cards - those that are SD High-Capacity, or SDHC - and the ability to mount network shares on machines running Microsoft's Vista.

Asked about any timeframes for this free CF card offer, Jason Shah from Neuros Technology told the INQUIRER that beginning "approximately next month" OSD units "will include the 128MB of CF card storage internally, will not include an external CF card, and will not even have a CF card slot for external storage. Neuros Tech's Shah said they will "continue to offer CF cards to those who require them until demand has dried up. This will likely be by end of this year. We have been including CF cards with new OSD units sold since November, in anticipation of this move."

The removal of the CF slot on new units can be a real pity for some users, since it will prevent people from swapping cheap as chips 8GB CF microdrives for recording, or re-using your existing collection of CF cards, for instance. Owners of the existing OSD will have things easier: the OSD wiki currently claims that "in the future, it may be possible to partition the CF card. One part could be for the internal storage, and the remainder could be used for recording and playing your content."

But hey, progress is progress, and with fatter software comes the need for more storage. If in doubt, just ask Microsoft. µ