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Apple Patent Shows Self Configuring iPhone as a Universal TV Remote
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Since when did your remote control need much battery power.
Most run on 2 AAA's for years.
Can you imagine if you're watching the Apple TV with the Siri Remote and an Apple comercial comes on for the Apple TV with Siri and in the comercial someone is saying "Siri put on ESPN..." then your actual TV changes to that because your Siri heard the comercial. LMAO
Would much rather RF. RF universal remotes are so much better for those of use with equipment behind walls and doors.
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Yes, but your device would also have to support rf control.
Bluetooth already has protocols for doing remote control actions by default, and was better designed for the range and power requirements. See Sony's PS3 as an early example.
Stationary devices (Blu-Rays, game consoles, receivers, set top boxes and TVs) really ought to be on wired Ethernet. WiFi is nice for ease of hookup, but nothing beats a hard wired connection for a non-mobile device - particularly high bandwidth A/V stuff.
Why bother with IR? Just use bluetooth or wifi/LAN with an Apple-branded IRless TV.
Not that I wouldn't love to have an IR transmitter on my iPhone, it's just unnecessary if Apple is going to start selling TVs.
Not that I wouldn't love to have an IR transmitter on my iPhone, it's just unnecessary if Apple is going to start selling TVs.
Hard to hook a ethernet cable to a remote - or at least it would defeat the purpose
If things are already connected to your home router - why use bluetooth?
Yes, but in the meantime, it still needs to be supported... I'm not changing my TV, BDP, just for a fricking remote...
If they added a box that converts WIFI to IR in the meantime, fine by me, but I'm not changing my stuff on cue from Apple. If that doesn't happen, then ****'em, they'll get my money much later.
Stretching a little there?
Its just using a photo of a remote to find it in a database of known remotes. No different than entering a harder to find and identify code as has always been done for universal remote.
This will never work with the iPhone, what people want from a universal remote is the ability to use it with a stylus.
I already have one. I got it off Woot dirt cheap, and it works great.
http://www.l5remote.com/
I don't want to replicate my crappy remotes on my iPhone. Some of them are a nightmarish mass of confusing buttons. The L5 allows me to configure the on-screen remotes for just the functions I want to use. It's much more elegant.
http://www.l5remote.com/
I don't want to replicate my crappy remotes on my iPhone. Some of them are a nightmarish mass of confusing buttons. The L5 allows me to configure the on-screen remotes for just the functions I want to use. It's much more elegant.
Personally, given the choice of an iOS all-in-one remote or a dedicated device like a Harmony One, I'd go for the latter.
Imagine you just want to turn the volume down in the middle of a TV show: with an iPhone you'd need to wake the device with the top button, swipe to unlock it (maybe even have to enter a PIN code), launch the app, wait and press the volume button. With a dedicated remote, you just grab the remote and press the button.
I imagine Apple would come up with a clever solution, but I can't see it coming close enough to a real remote convenience-wise. As I said in an earlier post, lots of my home entertainment equipment can be controlled by iOS apps but after having played with them a bit for the novelty factor, I don't use them any more, it's just so much easier using the physical remotes.
I agree that the setup suggested might be easier than something like the Harmony One (especially for non-techies) and that an iOS control could potentially offer even greater functionality, but I'm not convinced just how practical it would be.
Imagine you just want to turn the volume down in the middle of a TV show: with an iPhone you'd need to wake the device with the top button, swipe to unlock it (maybe even have to enter a PIN code), launch the app, wait and press the volume button. With a dedicated remote, you just grab the remote and press the button.
I imagine Apple would come up with a clever solution, but I can't see it coming close enough to a real remote convenience-wise. As I said in an earlier post, lots of my home entertainment equipment can be controlled by iOS apps but after having played with them a bit for the novelty factor, I don't use them any more, it's just so much easier using the physical remotes.
I agree that the setup suggested might be easier than something like the Harmony One (especially for non-techies) and that an iOS control could potentially offer even greater functionality, but I'm not convinced just how practical it would be.
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never going to happen this way.
Apple wouldn't be Apple if they would blatantly copy the user experience of existing remotes. You'd be restricting the iPhone to be the remote you already have, and not being anywhere near intelligent with it.
If anything, yes take a picture to see which remote you have, but then then let Siri take control in a new way. either through the (new) iOS device (with iR), or via a new version of an Apple TV box that has build in tuners, turning your existing TV into a monitor (for which the iPhones don't need iR capability).. with most the capability of the future Apple TV.
That would be a small step in the direction I see Apple thinking about this subject. Apple will change the way we use TV's, just as they've done with other markets. Even the above may be far to conventional....
Watch this space.....
Apple wouldn't be Apple if they would blatantly copy the user experience of existing remotes. You'd be restricting the iPhone to be the remote you already have, and not being anywhere near intelligent with it.
If anything, yes take a picture to see which remote you have, but then then let Siri take control in a new way. either through the (new) iOS device (with iR), or via a new version of an Apple TV box that has build in tuners, turning your existing TV into a monitor (for which the iPhones don't need iR capability).. with most the capability of the future Apple TV.
That would be a small step in the direction I see Apple thinking about this subject. Apple will change the way we use TV's, just as they've done with other markets. Even the above may be far to conventional....
Watch this space.....
I was saying that currEntly, almost every remotely controllable device supports ir while few support rf natively.
"Apple acknowledges the iPhone in question would also need IR transmission capabilities. The patent application is dated from 2010."
Not really. If the system can identify the remote in question, it can then present a short list of potential TV's/devices it's talking to. The iPhone could then send commands to an AppleTV to send instructions to the TV over the HDMI cable.
So the requirement is no longer IR, but ATV. I think Apple would like that.
Not really. If the system can identify the remote in question, it can then present a short list of potential TV's/devices it's talking to. The iPhone could then send commands to an AppleTV to send instructions to the TV over the HDMI cable.
So the requirement is no longer IR, but ATV. I think Apple would like that.
Great....
Now I won't be able to change the channel while I'm on the phone, or decrease the volume. Doesn't seem like a good idea.
Now I won't be able to change the channel while I'm on the phone, or decrease the volume. Doesn't seem like a good idea.
Seems promising, I use my iPhone as a remote for apple tv quite a bit. same with iPad, doesn't work perfectly, but gets the job done so can't complain