Got an old generation iPhone laying around? Always wanted a nice universal remote? Well after watching Tekzilla the other day I found out that companies are making IR blasters (remote control signal relay points) that will connect to iPhones via bluetooth.
On the show they reviewed the GEAR4 UnityRemote and it looked pretty cool. I suggest you check it out.
For those of you wanting to jump right to the segment it starts at 14:37 or 4th white dot
Here is a Commercial like video that shows some of its features and ease of use.
I currently use the Harmony 890 Radio Frequency remote and when I went back to get a price for you guys I almost had a heart attack when I saw that it is only $195 now. This is about what I paid for it about 3 years ago since I got it while working at Best Buy at a discount, but the regular price was around $450.
Now knowing that the Harmony only costs $195 that kinda takes a big positive for the iPhone/iPod Touch remotes away but they still have a lot of good stuff for half the price.
If you are not familiar with what the advantages of these remotes are then I'll explain a few.
First and foremost, the ability to turn on/off all devices involved in a specific activity with the click of only one button!! For instance my family has been around technology for years. Between my dad and I we were always getting new gadgets and they were always having to learn how to use new remotes. Well with these remotes you can customize activities like "Watch TV" that will turn on the TV, Receiver, cable box, etc and set them all to the appropriate inputs at the click of a button that is clearly identified on an LCD screen.
Second, a lot of the functionality with remote controls comes from clicking the same button repeatedly until you get to the setting you want. With these remotes and the customizable buttons (LCD screen on Harmony or Custom drag and drop buttons on Unity Remote) you can just select a specific setting you would like to jump to instead of scrolling through all of the options.
One of the first things that comes to mind with using the UnityRemote and the iPhone/Touch app is that there will not only be one remote control...sure if you have an old iPhone or touch lying around you could dedicate it to being the home theater remote but it could also be your phone. I other words there can be unlimited remotes in your house all customized to their specific user.
While Logitech has pretty much got the high end universal remote market captured these new competitors sure peeked my interest.
Let me know what you think!!
