Remote Controls On The March

faxafloi writes "SFGate has an article about how remote controls have proliferated in our world like rabbits. Even their inventor, Robert Adler, is befuddled by them. 'Universal' remotes help some, but are not interoperable with enough devices to drive everything, so we're stuck with multiple remotes. The article then describes the new top of the line models, ranging to (ahem) $1699.00." (Of course, there were remote controls of a sort long before Adler.) For another approach to universal remote control -- using a cell phone as display and controller -- read on below.

An anonymous reader writes "This whitepaper describes Intel's research into innovative and futuristic uses of camera phones. Cell phones are already much more than a communication device. In cities around the world, purchasing a soda out of a vending machine can be as easy as dialing your cell phone. Even parking and toll fees are easily paid through a cell phone, and they are used as debit/credit cards to purchase food, services, and gas. Now, the global proliferation of cell phones with cameras brings more opportunities to use mobile phone devices in different capacities -- and the best part is that these applications require no additional hardware. In Intel's research, camera phones are being used as pointing devices, authentication devices, storage devices, and even as user interfaces for systems that, because of cost and/or form factor, aren't able to accommodate a display of their own."

Comments

It's not as bad as it seems

[Rude Turnip]

Most universal remotes will handle multiple devices for you. A co-worker of mine has a $700 remote with virtual screens, etc. that takes care of his living room. However, when I asked him if his remote can access each device's special menus for things like brightness, contrast and other settings, he said he still needs the original remote controls for such purposes. However, how often do you need to fiddle with such minute settings? Stick the originals in a drawer and forget about them until you need them for very rare, specific purposes.

Keep in mind that the alternative would be having a control panel of knobs and buttons on all your devices, which only provide more points of failure.

Re:It's not as bad as it seems

[eclectro]

I use Philips universal remote

I was able to program all my devices onto it, and it learned the commands for a daewoo 5800 dvd player. I haven't found a need to touch any of my original remotes. Also, you can have it "learn" the special menus. A neat thing you can do is program any key for any device. So if you want to control the amp with the cd player selected, you can program it to. It fits really well in the hand, costs under 20 dollars, and its available at shopko.

I did a considerable amount of shopping for a low-cost universal remote, and this has the best price/performance ratio of them all. Why spend $700. I highly recommend this one.

Re:It's not as bad as it seems

[shumway]

I definitely agree...I love the 8-function version....only $25 and it has Tivo and ReplayTV buttons. Plus it is incredibly light and thin. The only flaw is that the buttons are not backlit or glow-in-the-dark (which should be a minimum requirement for all remotes).

I used to geek out on my Philips NeoPronto, their $200 "low end" progammable remote, until my toddler introduced it to the floor. It was more fun to program than it was to use, though...you don't really care about having 20-step macros and custom logo bitmaps for all your favorite channels when you keep hitting the wrong fsckin' numbers on the touch screen.

Salling Clicker

[aclarke]

It may not be a UNIVERSAL remote, but for those of us with Apple computers and bluetooth phones, Salling Clicker lets us use our phones as a display and a remote. Works great!

Remote Central

[Flaken2000]

See Remote Central for in-depth info on remotes.

http://www.remotecentral.com

Mobile phone is a great remote for laptop

[Uninen]

I've been using Nokia 6600 with Salling Clicker for a while now and it works great.

It can control just about every program and SC ships with ready scripts for the most used, like iTunes, Keynote and Powerpoint.

universal remote

[darkain]

Laptop: $500
ATI RemoteWonder: $50
IR-Blaster: $50

ability to use an RF remote to control virutally *any* IR device? priceless.

Don't buy the $1699 iPronto

[Rufosx]

Piece of crap, really. Lots of defective units from the factory. Not as easy to use as the earlier Pronto remotes (which I really do like a lot). Surfing the net is slow and hard to use a touchscreen for.

Lots of promise in this unit, as it does run Linux and does a lot of cool stuff, but it just didn't turn out that well.

My recomendation : get a Harmony or a Pronto. If you have a Tivo, get a Pronto (because you don't need the guide in the Harmony).

Re:RadioShack 15-1994

[mdwebster]

It has 4 generic buttons right across the top below the mode switches and 7 mode switches. You can also cross-map volume, say from your stereo system, to overlap the volume controls when in Cable/Sat mode. There are also numerous buttons that a given mode would rarely use that you could map on top of like picture-in-picutre or surround mode or move.

BTW, After a bit of reading, I believe you can do 50+ custom mappings depending on the signals.