Smart Home Blog

Panasonic announced a new concept of its remote control - EZ Touch Remote. It doesn’t look like any other remote control. The idea is do not have any hard key or virtual button on the device itself. Instead of that all information is displayed directly on the controlled TV. The EZ Touch Remote has two touch pads which allow multitouch data entry and zoom manipulation.

The EZ Touch Remote doesn’t look handy for me. Not sure that Panasonic’s approach is better then usual remote controls with hard keys or touchscreen. In any case let’s see how fast EZ Touch Remote will be available for consumers and what they will tell about it.

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MyMote is another cool application for iPhone. It transform Apple’s phone into smart MythTV remote control. Unlike a bunch of web based iPhone applications MyMote is developed using Apple iPhone SDK and it can be downloaded from the App Store without any charges. Unfortunately the applications is not approved yet. But you can get an ad hoc distribution of a development snapshot here.

The MyMote is an open source application. So, you can get its code, improve it or make a donation to its author for his excellent work.

[via MythTV News]

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Another good application for iPhone/iPod Touch - AirRemote. Together with Global Cache box it converts Apple’s device into smart remote control. The actual commands are sent via WiFi to the Global Cache box which converts them to infrared, serial or contact-closure for controlling everything from a home theater system to lighting controls to motorized blinds. As result you can control all A/V equipment. Plus some home automation devices. Additionally to that AirRemote can communicate with AMX or Crestron systems. All iPhone/iPod Touch owners can get AirRemote just for $99 from the iTunes Application store after July 11.

As you may see similar application was developed for Nokia Internet Tablet - Ir Remote Control. But the Maemo product uses
IR Trance Ethernet instead of Global Cache box and LIRC. Plus it’s free and open source.

[via CEpro]

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TiVoRemote is a small GUI application which allows to control TiVo boxes using your stylish iPhone or iPod Touch. It sends remote control commands to the TiVo box TCP port via WiFi.

The latest version of TiVoRemote has the ability to automatically detect TiVo box in your network. So, you won’t spend your time to add it manually. Manual setup still should be done for Series 3 TiVo and TiVoHD only. But it’ll be fixed next versions I guess.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

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Recently I bought universal remote control. I chose One For All URC 7556 Digital 5. That remote is simple and cheap (just 32EUR). But it offers a quite acceptable set of functions. First of all the remote supports up to 5 devices. I found codes for my TV and DVD easily. I just re-mapped a few buttons to support missing functions such switching between TV inputs or opening DVD tray. To replace iMON PAD remote which came with Silverstone case (I hate its PAD!) I learned its commands and assigned them to the Sat button. That’s it. Finally instead of three remote I use only one.

The URC 7556 Digital 5 offers a few simple but useful functions. For example, you can increase or decrease volume during watching DVD without pressing button TV. It’s done by defining special command. In that case if you press volume button the command will be sent to TV regardless what device you use at that time.

The remote supports macros. This means that you can assign sequence of some actions to one button. For example, switch on TV, switch on DVD, switch on amplifier, switch to DVD output. In addition the URC 7556 Digital 5 looks stylish, plastic has good quality and it’s handy.

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