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Sony's $700 Linux-based Remote Control
SlashdotMeNow points out a remote control to consider if money is no object: "The NAVITUS from Sony has a 64k colour touch-screen with tactile response, 32MB of RAM and a 200MHz processor. Looking at the photos it looks like a sexy little beast! It uses Linux as an OS and you can customise just about everything about it by linking it up to your PC. Hell, this thing is more powerful than my iPAQ. Useful for replacing your TV, DVD, sound system and other home entertainment system remotes, it can also control your lights and air conditioner. ... Just be careful using the Memory Stick slot - you don't want to get a virus on a device that controls your whole house!" Of course, that would have to be a Linux virus ...
What is the point of paying this much for such an mundane object like a universal remote. Has society become so lazy that even several specific remotes is too much a hassle? Control that fan, control that ac, control that tv, control that toilet. Remotely controlling anything is a good thing? Just one more thing so we can sit on our big fat nerd ass. Now that is insane.
I think this is a cool thing, but I wouldn't mind buying a remote control based on the Contiki OS instead. Contiki also allows remote administration over the net, and also has pretty icons and a GUI. Given the requirements of Contiki, the device would not need to have megabytes of memory and could be made significantly cheaper. Perhaps a $7 network-enabled remote control would see a wider audience?
... hacking a 3COM Audrey to do the exact same thing. It runs QNX natively, but I think you can put Linux on it. There are discussions from time to time on AudreyHacking.com but I don't think anyone has (yet).
:) Oh, and if anyone does, you gotta post about it on Slashdot!
The Audrey has a touch-screen and IR port built in. You can get em pretty cheap from e-bay, sometimes even new in the box. Since 3COM no longer offers the service that is required to run the Audrey, you can get em fairly readily (noone has any real use for em).
Probably pretty time-consuming to try to hack one to be a remote like TFA describes, but might be worth it for someone willing to expend the energy!
bash: rtfm: command not found
Problem is there are two kinds of IR.
The one on most pda's isn't powerful enough and doesn't have quite the right timings to do consumer electronics properly. (it can do it, but the result is dissapointing, has a range of something like 5 feet).
There was a linux pda (the agenda?) that did have consumer IR in it as well as the normal inter-device IR. Much cheaper, still a touch screen but grey scale. Other than that, much the same.
Been keeping my eye out for a cheap second hand one but haven't seen it yet.
I've thought about how it would be fun to write a nice remote control program for it, but there's no time for that yet.
Who (other than people who have way too much $$$ to spend) seriously would buy this?
$700 ($932.40 CDN) for a hand held, limited PC to control you devices?
It's not like they're including the hardware so that you are guarenteed that it will control your lights and A/C.
Heck, i can buy a half decent PC for under that price
Personally, I'd rather have one of these (better image here)for $119 CDN (so thats like $50 US), which doesn't run linux, but has a nice display that changes depending on what device it's using and save my money for other things.
News for Nerds dude.
I'm interested in this not for the fact it runs Linux, but because it runs Linux there is a much better chance I might be able to hack the control to do things like this:
http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/sonyadj.html#sony
or this:
http://www.dvd365.net/?hacks/sony.htm
It's scary to think that this individual remote control has more computer power than the on-board computer of the Apollo spacecraft back in the day.
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
I just can't figure out what justifies that price tag. There is no way any remote control should cost this much, let alone *this* remote. The feature list is underwhelming. This paperweight-in-training shouldn't cost more than ~$150.
The key to these sort of speciality devices is the user-interface design. If Sony holds true to form, they'll have tried to fold in way too many functions, with way too little thought on how to make accessing those functions intuitive.
Plus, when you spill a beer on it and short it out , it's really gonna suck.
This remote may belong in a "smart home", but it'd be one with a really dumb owner.
---anactofgod---
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
Yeah, unfortunately, most IrDA transmitters in PDA type hardware isn't strong enough to control AV equipment very well. You end up having to get really close to the TV to use the PDA (or cellphone) based remote, and at that point you can just stick your arm out and use the buttons.
I've tried using various AV remote software on Palm 3, Palm V, and (most recently) my Nokia 3650 phone. The results have always been disappointing.
On the other hand, a Bluetooth based remote would rock.
(Warning: beer-swilling geek trivia/rambling follows)
When I throw a party, I hook my laptop's video out up to my TV, audio to the stereo, and load up a 3-5 hour playlist and some XMMS visualizations. With Bemused and KDE Bluetooth, I can control the media player from my Nokia from anywhere in my apartment. Line-of-sight is not necessary, so I can be in the bathroom vomiting and queue up my favorite vomit music with ease.
It would be great if I could control my regular AV setup with Bluetooth. I could do it from my PC, laptop, cellphone, PDA, or whatever else. Even better would be something like this, but more universal. It would be great if I could stream audio from my PC to my stereo via Bluetooth, controlled by another BT device.
Be even better if BT had enough bandwidth to do video.
Why not get a full fledged PDA, or even some mobile phones now, which have all the funtionality needed to do this and then some?
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I'm sure it can be hacked if you're good. Turn it into a nice little PDA and check TV listings from it!!
What is your penile percentile?
This is competition against the Phillips Pronto line.
Anyone who has set up a serious home theater system (and I have set up a couple) for 'normal' people know exactly what kind of a remote nightmare that can be. Totally programmable remotes that are just remotes can totally take the training aspect of the project from impossible to merely slightly painful.
The last home theater setup I was involved with we spent over 100 hours in Pronto programming. That may seem insane, but now a couple of retiree's can use their $10000 home theater with a 60" HD TV, et al. We did things in the Pronto that it is impossible to do in any of the software available for Palm/PPC, or even on things like the Harmony.
On the more flexible remotes every single button/control can be a macro if you know what you are doing, and you can put in custom IR commands to get to features in your equipment that are not published, or available on the included remote. For instance Sony TV's have IR codes to go directly to a specified video input, but it you learn from their included remote you can only flip between them in order. On an advanced system hitting a button that pulls up input 5 specifically saves a lot of training headache.
If you look at this remote and think 'holy crap that is expensive!' then you obviously haven't ever priced out these sorts of things before. From the picture and the specs it seems totally in line with its true competition. Especially since there are Pronto's that retail for more than $1000 that include WiFi.
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So can someone help me clarify this GNU/GPL licensing stuff.
Since Sony is using some port of Linux, don't they have to post the source code for it too?
Goals are deceptive - the unaimed arrow never misses.