Ever wanted to use your iPhone as a remote control for your TV, DVD player, and more? Well, I have! A few months ago I was really excited to write about UiRemote, an app + hardware solution to control your home electronics. At the time, the devs even offered to send me a beta version so I can try it out for myself. I’m still waiting for the product to be mailed, and quite honestly, I think their project died along the way.
RedEye on the other hand is not a beta and it is currently available to anyone willing to put the price into it. RedEye [iTunes Link] is a universal remote control solution that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote for any IR-equipped device in your home. In other words, it’s an iPhone remote control for your TV, DVR, cable, home stereo, etc…
Engadget explains how it works:
The app itself is completely free to download, though it’s the $188 base station that really makes the magic happen; your handheld talks to said dock via wifi, and if you’ve got an AV device, home automation system or pretty much anything that responds to IR signals, your iPhone can now control it.
Check out this video for a quick demo (2 more vids here and here).
This is a great idea even though it’s not really new as Palm has been doing this for years without any extra hardware.
Everything about this sounds great, except maybe the price, which might be a deal breaker for most of us, especially since you can get a universal remote control from Best Buy for a fraction of this price. I also wonder why they had to make the dock so clunky. Adding an IR dongle to the iPhone seems it would have been a better solution.
All in all, I think it is a great piece of technology and even though I will definitely not buy a RedEye, I’m really glad that there are companies out there putting the effort into such developments. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple added an IR port to the iPhone in the future and sold the app at an hefty price…
What do you think about the RedEye iPhone remote control? Are you willing to pay nearly $200 for it or are you just gonna stick to your current set up?