hypothetical question (PB as A Remote?)- feel free to call me a dreaming moron

[Heart Break Kid]

this may just seem like a stupid idea, but i was surfing the web wirelessly on my 17" PB while my brother was watching tv in the same room. As usual he lost the remote and rather then getting up to change the channel spent a good 20 min looking for it and finally deciding the search wasnt worth it and continued watching "Golden Girls". It then dawned on me, wouldnt it be awfuly cool if i could change channels from my powerbook? It would make the coolest remote ever - i mean this is completly hypothetical, but does anyone think it is possible? Has anyone tried this before?

 

[Roger1]

I'm not a programmer, but it seems to me it would be possible. You would need to know frequency (?) of which your tv uses to switch channels. BTW, have you checked the website of the manufacturer of your tv? You never know, they might already have some type of program there, so you can do this

Good luck

 

[Heart Break Kid]

i was thinking something along the lines of making my PB a truly universal remote - granted a freaking expensive one

i want it to work with all the tvs in the house - lol - while we're on the subject - why not make it work with all media devices that have remote input capabilities like dvd players etc ?

 

[melchior]

anyone with a palm can do this, but... correct me if i'm wrong, but i was under the impression that powerbooks no longer have an iRDa port....

so you'd have to buy a dongle. maybe there is already some software. probably not. maybe for unix.

it's possible. but probably not worth the effort.

 

[Heart Break Kid]

your probably right

i was just thinkin itd be a nifty little thing - make win-hell users salivate for a mac just a bit more

 

[mim]

Originally posted by melchior
anyone with a palm can do this, but... correct me if i'm wrong, but i was under the impression that powerbooks no longer have an iRDa port....

so you'd have to buy a dongle. maybe there is already some software. probably not. maybe for unix.

it's possible. but probably not worth the effort.

There was/is a company that was going to do this for the iPod. Apple asked them not to, do they did it for Palm's instead. It consisted of some software, and a dongle that plugged into the audio port of the Palm (the ir ports weren't powerful enough). I googled for them to post a link, but I can't find them (I can't remember their name).

Apple asking them to stop developing for the iPod leads to all sorts of juciy speculation.

 

[Roger1]

Apple probably didn't want it developed because of safety reasons. Someone might try turning on the tv set, and zap someone in the eye with the infrared beam. Who knows. Seriously, why couldn't Apple do it? My parents used to have some kind of controller that could read the frequency of all their media equipement, rendering the original remotes uneeded.
(Of course if you have your ipod plugged into your stereo, it would be stupid to get up, walk over to the stereo, grab the ipod point it at the stereo and change the station. )

 

[melchior]

yeah, safety reasons.... it's not a high powered laser. it's an infrared interface. all your remotes have one too. better be careful. you might zap yourself in the eye. (that would be a tragedy)

and i was able to do this on a palm 5 years.

 

[BubbaTAC]

The company that makes the universal remote is Griffin...the software is for pocket pc, but it probably be ported easily. It "listens" to the IR traffic. You set it say this is about to be a channel up command and then use your remote to channel up and it will learn that that is how you channel up, then you can "replay" those commands. It connects to an audio port.

 

[shadowfax]

i sure don't think there is anywhere on my powerbook with an IR interface thing.

i think the solution looks like: be a responsible person and stop losing things, heh.

one an interesting note: i think it's a good thing that some things are expensive. for instance, i lose bic type pens all the time. they just freaking disappear into nothing. on the other hand, i have several $200+ pens that i take around just as much (to a public school every day for the last 3 years) and they have never been lost. somehow their value keeps me more alert. maybe if you paid ~$100 for your remote, you wouldn't lose it

 

[Heart Break Kid]

i paid 4g's for my 17" PB i think that would be enough incentive not to lose my baby