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Universal Remote's Days Are Numbered
theodp writes "While the universal remote has served humanity with distinction, its days are numbered, and your smartphone is to blame. Whether you want to control your music, your television or your PowerPoint presentation, there's probably a solution using your phone. Try as it might, the universal remote simply can't navigate the digital world the way the smartphone can — it's a lot easier to put the remote's abilities in the smartphone than vice versa."
Now I'm going to need a $300.00 "smartphone" to turn on my TV, radio etc? One which will be reporting on everything I do and where I do it? (Guess that's what really makes it smart-never mind if they don't now, they will, they will. Fuck this bullcrap. George Orwell must be spinning in his grave at relativistic speeds.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
We have a voice recognition system where I work. In the intended environment it works fine but when we took it to a trade show to do demonstrations we found that it copes badly with background noise.
So I wouldn't want to use one to trigger the mute function.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
THAT is the future. No faffing about with smartphonesâ"one remote controls one machine.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
With projects like the JP1 forum turning universal remotes into the Swiss army knife of the 21st century I hardly think the will meet their technological demise any time soon. I would rather bet my $0.02 that the killer device control app for smartphones will be remote interaction at an arbitrary distance, much like the remote DVR control applications now entering the market.
I think they are missing the point in saying that the universal remote's days are numbered. Smartphones just allow another way to do the same thing, and not always better. Currently, I use my desktop when im sitting at the pc, an ir remote when not, and an ipaq when roaming around the house. All three have different situation where they are better than others so to say one will hail the death of the other is missing the point that more options are available in general. I use linuxMCE for all my home AV needs and it allows me to use all three with the same interface. If anything I think the end result of smartphones being used more and more is less lost remotes.
-those people who tell you not to take chances, they are all missing what lifes' all about-
Why is it so common to recycle old ideas and call it the best new thing since sliced bread? My old Palm as a remote was cool for a while but I still went back to a real remote for the hard buttons.
Is it this "technology as fads and hype" thing that is to blame?
Why can't I click a button on the TV to make my remote beep when I can't find it. Maybe I should patent that.
The universe remote will never die. It costs at least $200 for a "smart phone" like an iPhone or a Google android, and those smart phones not as good for TV surfing as the $15 remote you get from Walmart. The buttons on the remote are the product of 30 years of evolutionary design, the user interfaces on set top boxes are not -that- bad, and you don't have to worry about hackers. By the time you jizz your finger into getting your smart appliance into channel changing mode, I can reach down from the couch, onto the floor, pick the remote up and change the channel.
Oh, and by the way, the batteries on my remote last way longer than your smart phone batteries.
This is my sig.
Having worked with Universal Remote, RTI, and Crestron products, I know what a "high-end" remote should do. These guys make very flexible remotes, but they cost a ton of money.
Logitech's Harmony series remotes come VERY close, for a fraction of the cost. Programming is not very difficult, and I've yet to find a AV component that can not be controlled by these remotes.
If you need to control lighting, HVAC, and other home automation stuff, RTI and Crestron are your best bet (bring your checkbook). But if you only need to control a modest Home Theater system, take a look at the Harmony remotes.
As far as smartphones go - who is going to leave their smartphone home so the babysitter, or kids can watch TV?
-ted
These generally get pretty good reviews (it's not a smartphone, but it's programmable...):
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/377&cl=us,en
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Whatever happened to "Do one job and do it well".
People's needs and wants, that's what happened.
I think it's great I can communicate with my friends even in extremely noisy places.
I think it's great I can take pictures of hot chicks when I'm out on the town.
I think it'd be cool to always have some game on me if I ever get bored.
I think it'd be cool to always have all my music at hand.
I think it'd be really cool to always have all my music and video at hand.
I think it's useful to always have an address book, calendar, clock and alarm clock at hand.
Am I going to carry a phone, a texting device, a camera, a PSP or DS, an ipod, a clock, a calendar, a personal phone book and an alarm clock? Hell no. I want to have a general-purpose pocket computer device.
I vehemently disagree with "do one thing".
What I think is going on is that you're getting "several things, none done well" and you prefer "done well" over "several things", at least in the specific instances you have tried. If you had several things, all done well, would you really want to carry multiple gadgets around all the time?
I could totally see it replacing your car key. You don't need the affordances of a key.
Whereas a remote, it is useful to have a couple of physical buttons.
Have you considered using a Wiimote to control your HTPC? That's what I do, and it works very nicely. The agent on the PC can be run in demon mode, meaning it stays loaded, so you can turn the wiimote off when the film starts, to save battery, then just hit the buttons on it to reconnect them. Pointing at the sensor bar works rather nicely, and for HTPC stuff, like starting a file playing or clicking occasional menus it's quite adequate.
I'm currently using it under Ubuntu 8.04, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work in any Distro.