By Andrew Liszewski
When it comes to universal remotes Logitech has recently made a push to become king of the consumer castle but there are other companies vying for that same title. One in particular called tvCompass is pushing the idea of a wifi capable remote that does more than just control your home theater.
The Wifi Smart Remote as they call it includes a mobile phone sized 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen that can be used for setting up and controlling all the components in your home theater system. Nothing new there but the addition of built-in wifi means the remote can automatically retrieve the ‘device codes’ for whatever hardware you’re running online and even safely backup your remote’s settings on the company’s network servers in case they need to be retrieved later on.
The wifi and screen combination also allows content to be delivered directly to the remote itself including news, sports scores, stock info, programming guides and of course advertisements. It even has a built in speaker like the Wiimote which can be used to grab your attention or probably just annoy the heck out of you.
As far as I can tell the remote is still kind of a concept in the works (the single image of the remote is a bit plain looking) but the extra features might make paying $300-400 for a remote control actually seem worth it.
[ tvCompass WiFi Smart Remote ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]
Advertisements!? Your remote can display ads? Screw that, I have enough ads in my life. Cool features or not the last thing I need is my stupid remote beeping at me in the middle of the night to alert me that I need to buy beer and tampons.
How many adverts are there on this page?