Hot off the presses: CasaTunes announces a new iPhone app companion to its family of whole-house audio equipment. The CasaTunes PC-based system is designed for 6- or 12-room audio, although according to their latest press release, it can now control up to 48 rooms — now that’s a big house! You can probably guess that [...]

“91% of families fight over the remote.” So says Logitech in a study carried out last November. Among the findings, “72% of people have fallen out or argued over a remote control, 12% have thrown one and 7% have actually physically fought over one.” What’s got everyone so riled up about having total control over [...]

Of course “there’s an app for that,” but now it’s becoming increasingly common that there’s “a remote for that.” And by that, I mean everything. Take this week alone: first we reported about the remote controlled power strip, then there was the remote control toilet, followed by the remote controlled wizard adventure. And so we [...]

Does reality television make you sick? Me too… but not as much as the TV remote in the hospital bed can, apparently. Microbiology Professor Chuck Gerba — “The Germ Doctor” says that the TV remote harbors more bacteria than “the toilet bowl handle, bathroom door and call buttons, among others. Even more disturbing is the [...]

Another day, another iPhone app. Dubai-based Pulse Technologies wants you to control your home and hotel via iPhone… by the end of next year. Pulse Technologies aims to conserve energy and improve security by enabling people to control their homes by adjusting the thermostat and monitoring their homes remotely to achieve their vision of “living [...]

“Having the police officers there won’t work, I told you… I’m going to kill you.” Imagine receiving a call like that, as the television flickers itself back and forth between random channels while the remote control sits idle on the coffee table. For the Bethea family, this isn’t a late-night horror movie, it’s a daily [...]

Remember the days of free-to-air TV, listening to free radio programming and only communicating via landline? Yeah, me neither. Over the last 20 years, families have been witnessing dramatic increases in their monthly communications budget. Take the Martin family for example: $900 a month (US $780) now covers their four mobile phones, Wi-Fi enabled laptop [...]

You’re busy, I’m busy – we’re all busy people. We’ve got places to be and we want to take the route on our terms. Some might argue life isn’t worth living if it doesn’t allow for a personalized soundtrack, yet some still view public headphone use a modern faux pas. When was the last time [...]

It’s 3:51 PM: do you know where your remote is? According to a new poll, chances are nay. Sky, UK’s leading entertainment and communications company has conducted a poll of 4,000 viewers on their TV remote control habits. Among the findings… “The average viewer loses it an average of 3.2 times a week and spends [...]

We called out Logitech’s fancy footwork in minimally rejiggering their remotes by rearranging models and price points and it would appear that Universal Electronics (not to be confused with Universal Remote) joins the market dance in this ongoing floodgate of universal remotes. Last week, UEI released details about their new C2 and C3 series custom Nevo remotes [...]