VideoWave is the audio company’s foray into the visual side of home entertainment–it’s basically Bose’s answer home theater in a box. Comprised of a 46” LCD TV with built-in 5.1 channel audio (What?!), a separate processor, and a unique remote control, the system appears to be a feat of engineering on a number of fronts.

Bose VideoWave system - launching this month

While it’s fascinating that Bose managed to make a flat screen TV with built in speakers feel like surround sound (a point *some* audiophiles may disagree with), we think its FAR OUT controller deserves a bit more attention.

Called the Click Pad, the VideoWave system’s bundled universal remote is  more than a departure from Bose remotes past; it’s a departure from all remotes past.

Bose VideoWave universal Remote (photo via Engadget)

The Basics
Click Pad is the hand-held universal  remote that controls a Bose TV, its built in Wave audio system, proprietary iPod dock, and up to five different HDMI sources (cable, TiVo, Blu-ray player, Xbox, Apple TV, etc.).

Because it’s an RF remote, everything can be hidden in a cabinet if you like, and it will control additional through an emitter and optional jacks.

Programming disasters will be kept to a minimum since white glove delivery and installation/integration are included in the VideoWave purchase price. Sorry DIY-ers, Bose professional installation is actually mandatory.

The Controller

The Click Pad is extremely simple. In fact,  it almost looks like a prop because a lot of space is given to a small number of traditional buttons, directional keys, and a wheel shaped touch pad for selecting sources and navigating to through an on-the-tv-screen interface.

It is visually soothing, but we are a little concerned that usability may have been sacrificed in the name of simplicity. More on that later…

The Interface
To use the Click Pad to control the VideoWave and multiple audio/video sources, you simply tap the touch pad (Bose calls it a click wheel), which shrinks the picture on the TV screen, and pulls up a border-shaped menu of remote control commands for the selected input.

You then slide a finger around the pad in a circular motion, stopping it once the menu option you want is highlighted; then click to select.

Bose VideoWave on-screen control menu (photo via Engadget)

Because the command menus are fixed, once you’re familiar with the location of your favorites (like TV guide and saved programs), you won’t have to glide around the menu. Rather, you’ll tap the touch pad in the spot that corresponds to the location of the menu command on the screen; then click (watch demo).

Simplicity v. Usability

Using the click pad looks it will be fairly easy on the brain. The way you know the positions on the face of a clock without effort, Click Pad users will probably know the wheel/menu location of their favorite commands without effort. Though the interface is innovative, it seems like usability has take a back seat to simplicity.

Sure, it’s nice to look at the clean design of the Click Pad hardware. The problem with having menus instead of buttons for all but a few functions, is that it becomes more difficult to do the things you need to do with your remote.

For example, instead of pushing one button to pull up the TV guide, Click Pad users will need to complete two (or three) actions:  (1) touch the pad, (2) slide your finger to highlight the guide option on the menu, (3) click.

Now imagine having to deal with the Bose on screen interface in addition to the TV guide’s on screen interface.

Or what if you want to jump to channel 273? Instead of pushing three number buttons, users will have to complete at least six actions. And one can only hope that the cable box doesn’t jump to to channel 2 or channel 27 before you finish all six of those actions.

I hate to say it, but a more complicated controller may have been a better solution.

Who cares if your remote looks sleek on the coffee table if it means doing twice the work, and looking at extra junk on the TV screen all the time? Perhaps it would be an okay trade if you never watch TV, but feel like you need one in the house for the sake of completeness…

Installation & Programming Details

The installer will program  your Click Pad by firing a few commands from your existing remotes at the VideoWave’s IR receiver. The system then compares the signals from your remotes to an embedded database of IR command codes to identify what kind of devices you have, and what on-screen menus should be added to your system. Cool, huh?

We were curious about what users would do if their inputs ever changed. The very helpful Bose rep I spoke with yesterday assured me that it would be ridiculously easy for VideoWave owners to modify their inputs and update their remotes without professional assistance.

Though we know the system has an IR receiver that it uses for to identify connected devices, it’s still not clear (to me at least) whether you can use the Click Pad to control a device that isn’t in the embedded database. I wasn’t able to get an answer beyond, “The database is fully updatable.” Whatever that means… (hopefully it doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait for a firmware update).

Final thoughts

Regardless of our opinions on usability, Bose does get points for innovation and simplicity. It’s fun to watch companies get out there and shake things up. Who knows, maybe we’ll test the ClickPad later this month and fall in love.

T minus two weeks. Can’t wait to try it out!

**Learn more about the VideoWave: Bose; Ubergizmo; TWICE; Digital Trends; CrunchGear; Engadget; ZDNet; CNET; PC Magazine; USA TODAY

There’s a reason why more people haven’t seen the next RedEye universal remote for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad before ThinkFlood makes an announcement: They’re in disguise.

This RedEye mini, which looks drastically different from the original RedEye, was concealed in a custom-molded enclosure, so it could be carried public without attracting attention. When not in use, you would think it was just a standard RedEye base station. Very clever.

The plastic case, which comes apart easily, looks just like the original RedEye base station. When you pry the case apart, you quickly realize that what you thought was a RedEye remote, doesn’t even have a circuit board. And then you see it clearly—the elusive, much-anticipated RedEye mini is lurking in the shadows.

To reassemble the case, all you have to do is place the RedEye mini inside bottom of the acrylic RedEye enclosure before popping the top back on. An ingenious solution to protect future designs from lookeyloos.

One of the best bits is that the case looks like the enclosure FOR the original RedEye base station. RedEye remote hardware is seen so often, that even though this one looks a little weird because the power supply and dock connector are missing, it wouldn’t normally attract any attention in the field.

In fact, if ThinkFlood developer Justin Nguyen had not accidentally lost his RedEye mini at Watch City Brewing on May 25/26, the whole scene would have easily been dismissed as just another oddball-waltham-software-developer who didn’t want to go home fore the evening without his favorite Linux server in tow.

Click any image to enlarge

The Complete Lost RedEye mini Saga:

• This is ThinkFlood’s next iPhone, iPad, iPod touch remote—RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood lost the RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood conceals prototype RedEye minis

Watch City Brewing Company. A nice place to enjoy good Waltham craft beers. And if you’re a ThinkFlood software engineer named Justin Nguyen, it’s also a nice place to make the honest mistake of losing the next product in ThinkFlood’s line of universal remotes for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad—RedEye mini.

Justin Nguyen—a Northeastern University 2009 graduate and movie trivia master—is a ThinkFlood software engineer working on the RedEye app, the little program turns the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad into a high-end universal remote, when combined with RedEye hardware. A dream job for a talented engineer like Nguyen who always wanted to work at a hip, young company like ThinkFlood.

On the night of May 25, he was enjoying the fine house beverages at Watch City Brewing Company, a legendary brewpub in silicon savvy Waltham, Massachusetts. He was happy. After all it was his birthday. He was turning 24 that very same day and he was celebrating. The place was great. The beer was excellent. “I underestimated how good Waltham beer is,” he typed into the iPhone he was using to test RedEye mini hardware in the field. The RedEye mini he was testing earlier that evening sat beside him, cleverly disguised as ThinkFlood’s original RedEye remote. It was the last Facebook update made by Nguyen while he still knew the whereabouts of the secret universal remote adapter, right before he abandoned it on a bar stool, leaving to go home.

It was a simple, honest mistake in the middle of celebration. Something that anyone from Matt Eagar to Adam Shapiro could have done. Knowing how ferocious and ruthless ThinkFlood is about product leaks, those beers may have turned out to be the bitterest of his life.

(Almost) Impenetrable Security

Until now, ThinkFlood’s legendary security had always worked perfectly. Perhaps there was a blurry factory photo here, or some last-minute information strategically whispered to some friendly media there. But when it came to the big stuff, everything was airtight.

At their Waltham campus, any gadget or computer that is worth protecting is behind armored doors, with security locks with codes that change every few minutes. Prototypes are bolted to desks. Hidden in these labs, hardware, software and industrial-design elves toil separately on the same devices, without really having the complete picture of the final product.

And lurking in every corner, the ThinkFlood secret police, a team of people with a single mission: To make sure nobody speaks. And if there’s a leak, hunt down the traitor and escourt him out of the building. Using lockdowns and other fear tactics, these men in black are the last line of defense against any sneaky eyes. The Gran Jefe Matt Eagar trusts them to avoid ThinkFlood’s worst nightmare: The leak of a strategic product that could cost them millions of dollars in free marketing promotion. One that would make them lose control of the product news cycle.

But the fact is that there’s no perfect security. Not when humans are involved. Humans can lose things. You know, like the next RedEye remote, the portable RedEye mini.

Lost and Found
ThinkFlood security’s mighty walls fell (on the midnight of ) Wednesday, May 26. At that time, Nguyen was at Watch City Brewing, just 2.5 miles from the company’s Bear Hill Road headquarters, having his fun. Around him, other groups of people were sharing the jolly atmosphere, and plenty of the golden liquid.

The person who eventually ended up with the lost RedEye mini  was sitting next to Nguyen. He was drinking with a friend too. He noticed Nguyen on the stool next to him, but didn’t think twice about him at the time. Not until Nguyen had already left the bar, and a random really drunk guy—who’d been sitting on the other side of Nguyen—returned from the bathroom to his own stool.

The Random Really Drunk Guy pointed at the RedEye mini disguised as the original RedEye remote that was sitting on the stool, the precious prototype left by the young ThinkFlood engineer.

“Hey man, is that your RedEye base station?” asked Random Really Drunk Guy.

“Hmmm, what?” replied the person who ended up with the RedEye mini.

“No, no, it isn’t mine.”

“Ooooh, I guess it’s your friend’s then,” referring to a friend who at the time was in the bathroom.

“Here, take it,” said the Random Really Drunk Guy, handing it to him. “You don’t want to lose it.” After that, the Random Really Drunk Guy also left the bar.

The person who ended up with the RedEye mini asked around, but nobody claimed it. He thought about the young guy sitting next to him, so he and his friend stayed there for some time, waiting. Nguyen never came back.

Thinking about returning the Wi-Fi-to-infrared bridge the next day, he left.

When he got home, he downloaded the RedEye app to his iPhone and tried to play with the networked universal remote. I was buzzed and exhausted, so after trying to get it working for two minutes or so, I gave up and went to bed,” he told me in a telephone interview.

He had no clue that something was amiss. “It seemed like normal RedEye hardware,” he said. “It looked just like one—except I was confused because it seemed like the device’s owner was controlling bar TVs with it earlier in the evening, despite the fact that it had no power supply. I reasoned that maybe he took the AC adapter home with him and accidentally left the rest of it behind.”

When he woke up after the hazy night, he took a look at what he had carried home the night before. He immediately realized that there was something very strange about this RedEye.

At first it didn’t appear to have any special features, just a sticker that read, “JN’s Rm,” in the spot where you would normally find the device’s serial number, MAC address, FCC ID, and IC ID. All of the usual hardware identification numbers had been scratched off.

He already knew that the power cord was missing, but it was more than that. The 30-pin dock connector was gone too. He picked up the device and was stunned by what he hadn’t noticed in the crowded brewpub: something inside the base station was loose and rattling around.

He held the RedEye hardware up in the morning sunlight and finally saw that there was something other than a circuit board inside. After tinkering with it, he managed to open the fake RedEye base station.

There it was, a tiny and glorious thing, completely different from everything that came before. He immediately started Googling for the “JN” from ThinkFlood, who was sitting next to him the night before. Several minutes later he found a picture of ThinkFlood developer Justin Nguyen.

He reached for a phone and called a lot of ThinkFlood numbers and tried to find someone who was at least willing to transfer his call to Nguyen, but no luck. The company had recently relieved him of his occasional telephone duties so he could focus on finishing code for the in-app TV guide, that would soon be free for all RedEye remote users in the US and Canada.

He thought that eventually Nguyen would check his voicemail, and that he would receive a call back, but his phone never rang. The receptionists at ThinkFlood, who were unaware of the missing RedEye mini, thought the calls were part of an elaborate prank by ThinkFlood’s competitors (who often call to feel around for unpublished company and product information). Not to mention the fact that the caller’s tale was nearly identical to Gizmodo’s Lost iPhone Saga.

He thought that eventually the ticket would move up high enough that he would receive a call back, but his phone never rang. What should he be expected to do then? Walk into a retailer that sells the original RedEye system and hand the RedEye mini to a 20-year-old who might just end up selling it on eBay?

The Aftermath
Two days later, MoreControl.com got it for $100 in rolled quarters and a king size box of Swedish Fish. At the time, we didn’t know if it was the real thing because the RedEye mini didn’t work with the version of the RedEye app currently in the App Store (and all RedEye hardware is supposed to work with a single app).

Once we saw it inside and out, however, there was no doubt about it. It was the real thing, so we started to work on documenting it before returning it to ThinkFlood. We had the portable universal remote hardware, but we didn’t know the owner. Later, we heard the whole story, but we didn’t know for sure that it was Nguyen’s RedEye mini until today, when we finally tricked a receptionist at ThinkFlood to transferring our call.

Justin Nguyen: Hello?

Steve MacKinnon: Is this Justin?

J: Yeah.

S: Hi, this is Steve MacKinnon from MoreControl.com.

J: Hey!

S: You work at ThinkFlood, right?

J: Um, I mean I can’t really talk too much right now.

S: I understand. We have a device, and we think that maybe you misplaced it at a bar, and we would like to give it back.

J: Yeah, I forwarded your email [asking him if it was his RedEye mini], someone should be contacting you.

S: OK.

J: Can I send this phone number along?

S: [Contact information]

He sounded tired and broken. But at least he’s alive, and apparently still working at ThinkFlood—as he should be. After all, it’s just a stupid, little universal remote dongle for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and mistakes can happen to everyone—Justin Nguyen, Gray Powell, Phil Schiller, you, me, and Steve Jobs.

The only real mistake would be to fire Justin Nguyen in the name of ThinkFlood’s legendary impenetrable security, breached by the power of locally brewed beer beer and one single human error.

The Complete Lost RedEye mini Saga:

• This is ThinkFlood’s next iPhone, iPad, iPod touch remote—RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood lost the RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood conceals prototype RedEye minis

Click any image to enlarge

ThinkFlood’s original RedEye remote was the first complete universal remote control system for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It allows users to control virtually any infrared devices from any room in the home (without having to attach anything to their phone, MP3 player or tablet).  The RedEye system is a Wi-Fi-to-infrared bridge that can support multiple rooms, controllers (iDevices), and users simultaneously.

RedEye has been growing in popularity around the world since the product launched last December. In January, the RedEye app was selected to appear in iPhone print ads that ran in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Newsweek.

While ever-increasing RedEye remote sales and the company’s rapidly expanding list of distributors are sure signs that things are going swimmingly at ThinkFlood these days, the greatest testament to their success came last week when Apple started featuring the RedEye app in the What’s Hot section of the App Store.

Still glowing from the launch of the RedEye system, ThinkFlood is preparing to launch the second product in its line of networked universal remotes: RedEye mini. Think of it as the original RedEye remote’s little brother.

RedEye mini is a small adapter that plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone, iPod touch and  iPad—transforming it into a completely portable universal remote. RedEye mini owners will be able to use their iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices to quickly operate anything anything controlled by infrared signals, anywhere they go: TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, stereos, gaming consoles, etc.

The power… The anarchy… The RedEye mini. Okay, I’m getting carried away, but you get the picture.

While ThinkFlood may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final RedEye mini hardware, it’s clear that this lost-and-found RedEye remote—is drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here’s a detailed list of our findings:

What’s new and exclusive to RedEye mini?

• Completely portable – Download IR codes anywhere using a 3G connection (or Wi-Fi). RedEye mini is much smaller than a thumb drive, and comes with a free carrying case
• The price—only $49—the most affordable RedEye universal remote yet
• Instant gratification – No waiting for IR commands to be communicated over Wi-Fi. Since RedEye mini attaches to the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, IR commands for controlling your gear go straight from the application to the RedEye mini hardware
• Can also be used in conjunction with the original RedEye system for control in rooms without a RedEye base station, or to control equipment outside the home

What do RedEye mini and the original RedEye remote have in common?

• Compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
• The iPhone application itself–RedEye
• Database of 45,000 IR codes and ability to learn codes from existing remotes
• Nearly unlimited device and command capacity
• Activity-based control and macros
• Constantly evolving features and functionality
• Available in 52 countries around the world
• In-app TV guide (coming later this summer for users in the US and Canada)

Differences between RedEye and RedEye mini

• Power source – RedEye mini does not plug into the wall; it plugs into the headphone jack of any  iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (Note – a common, inexpensive headphone jack adapter is required in order to use RedEye mini with the first generation iPhone)
• Storage – With RedEye mini, IR codes and activity configurations (remote control button layouts), are stored on the user’s iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Since the original RedEye is a multi-controller system, its codes and configurations are stored on the RedEye base station
• Dock connector – RedEye mini does not use Apple’s 30-pin dock connector; it plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. The originial RedEye remote does include the 30-pin connector, however, it is only there for convenient charging. Users don’t physically attach anything to their iDevices to operate the original RedEye system
• Line of sight – RedEye mini users must point their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad at the equipment they wish to control; while the original RedEye remote only requires that users be somewhere in range of their Wi-Fi network
• Internet connectivity – No Wi-Fi needed to set up or operate the RedEye mini. If users aren’t in range of a Wi-Fi network, they can quickly download IR codes for controlling their equipment (or anyone’s equipment for that matter), using a 3G connection
• Easier setup – Getting started with RedEye mini will be faster and easier than the original RedEye remote because the wireless networking element of the setup process is no-longer part of the equation

Click any image to enlarge

How it was lost
Here is a detailed account of how the remote was lost.

Why we think it’s definitely real
We’re as skeptical—if not more—than all of you. We get false tips all the time. But after playing with it for about a week—the overall quality feels exactly like a finished, final ThinkFlood remote—and after disassembling the unit, there is so much evidence stacked in its favor, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none.

ThinkFlood first released information about RedEye mini in March of this year. Hardware renderings of the portable, super-remote were also released at that time.

Someone would have had less than three months to create their own functioning universal remote accessory that looks nearly the same as the renderings of the RedEye mini, and functions nearly the same as the original RedEye remote.

And if someone unaffiliated with ThinkFlood produced a working solution faster than ThinkFlood did,  and then chose to mark their creation with ThinkFloods logo… Well… Come on! Nobody would do that! Why would anyone do that?

Even more seriously though, considering how complicated it is to turn a standard headphone jack into a tiny modem that allows users to control any piece of infrared equipment in the world using an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad—something that’s never been done before—a pre-launch RedEye mini knockoff is pretty much impossible. Here are the reasons, one by one.

It has been reported lost

ThinkFlood-connected James Dellamort, Principle and Chief Engineer at design and consulting firm delResearch, says that ThinkFlood has indeed lost a prototype RedEye mini and they want it back.

So I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from ThinkFlood—a unit that they are very interested in getting back.

Obviously someone found it, and here it is.

The look
Here’s the most obvious reason why this little adapter is probably ThinkFlood’s RedEye mini (left): it looks a lot like the hardware renderings that ThinkFlood released in March (right).

It’s not exactly the same. The actual hardware is a bit more squared off than it appeared in earlier pictures. And the RedEye logo on the actual hardware is entirely black, not blue.

The real RedEye mini looks a little less like the antenna your phone had in 1998, and a little more like the antenna your phone wished it had in 1998.

The App
According to the person who found it, the mini and an iPhone were being used to control televisions at the bar where it was found—Watch City Brewing in Waltham, Mass. The person briefly saw a remote control button layout on the iPhone screen. We showed him several screen shots of the current RedEye app, and he confirmed that the screen he saw that night looked nearly the same.

How could the young man have been using what looked like the current RedEye application to control the RedEye mini? Easy answer—ThinkFlood informed us that all RedEye remote hardware uses the same application.

It’s likely that owner of the lost RedEye mini was running a not-yet-released version of the RedEye app, which included support for ThinkFlood’s new RedEye hardware. Since the company hasn’t submitted that software to Apple yet, we were not able to test RedEye mini hardware ourselves. [UPDATED - Minutes after we published news about the lost RedEye mini, ThinkFlood's crisis communications department got in touch and offered to share a version of their app that would support RedEye mini. According to ThinkFlood, they submitted the software release to Apple last week. See our demonstration of the RedEye mini in action at the end of this post.]

The camouflage case
The case the RedEye mini came in was an acrylic enclosure, possibly designed to make it look like the original RedEye remote.

However, it looks like they just pulled the guts out of a RedEye base station, put the mini inside and popped the top back on. It’s a perfect disguise.

The fact that it’s in the wild right now
Logic can also narrow down why this hardware is this year’s RedEye mini remote, rather than next year’s model or one from the previous year, just because it was found in the wild right now. It makes no sense for ThinkFlood to be testing 2011′s model right now, in super finished form—they wouldn’t be nearly done with it.

Since there’s no evidence to suggest that there was ever a 2009 RedEye mini, thinking such a thing would be a ridiculous exercise.

And for those of you who haven’t thought everything through yet, this device can’t be last year’s RedEye test model because a majority of last year components (based on original RedEye teardowns) were way different. The hardware we have in hand has no power supply, a much smaller board, no 30-pin dock connector, no Wi-Fi, no storage. That only leaves room for this to be the 2010 RedEye mini.

The guts, the definitive proof
And finally, when we opened it up, we saw multiple components that were shared by both the original RedEye and this new device.

Despite the RedEye mini’s much lower price tag, the folks at ThinkFlood appear to have kept the components bar high, using the same Vishay IR receiver modules and high-speed infrared LEDs across burgeoning product line.

Even if someone cared enough (and was clever enough) to create something that looks exactly like ThinkFlood’s yet-to-be-released RedEye mini, the chances that he/she would also care enough to use many of same key components as ThinkFlood’s original RedEye remote are slim.

How it feels
Freaking amazing. As a person who doesn’t actually have his own home Wi-Fi network, and who never really loved the hockey-puckish appearance of the (original) RedEye remote hardware, the tinier, sleeker, blacker, squarer design is super welcome.

It feels completely natural in your hand. And because it’s a lot smaller, it feels even nicer in your pants (I don’t care to explain why I ever attempted to carry a RedEye base station in my pants).

What all this means

It’s possible that the RedEye mini, at only $49, will perform better than universal remotes that cost three, five, even ten times as much. Not to mention the fact that those pricey home theater remotes aren’t meant for controlling everything, everywhere you go.
After spending a lot of time comparing the original RedEye and the RedEye mini side-by-side, it’s clear that the exterior of the RedEye mini is drastically different from that of the original RedEye.

Now you have a thinner body, a much more pleasant form factor with no wasted space. But the design isn’t the most important part that’s changed.

ThinkFlood has delivered may of the features that people have been waiting for—complete portability, for example—while at the same time upgrading everything else.

Folks who bought the original RedEye six months ago are now in the perfect position to add a RedEye mini to their system for controlling equipment in rooms without a RedEye base station. And of course current RedEye users who don’t feel like adding a mini to their system will still get to enjoy the other new features and improvements coming in ThinkFlood’s next software update.

ThinkFlood is really onto something with their futuristic line of remote controls. The iPhone SDK opened the door for their first products, but I’m starting to sense that in the not-too-distant future they will expand their offerings to include more mobile operating systems, and maybe even enter the realm of browser-based remote control and home automation.

Bottom line—RedEye mini is the thing that you always wanted, but hadn’t thought of yet. Okay, maybe you thought of it; but you didn’t make it happen, did you? It’s powerful. It’s cheap. And you’ll be walking around with the best party trick in town.

If you’re still asking yourself why this is appealing, here’s some inspiration:

• Don’t like those yappy (I mean lovely) ladies from The View? Feel free to change the channel at your mother’s house, even though she’s holding the remote. She’ll never know what happened.
• Desperately need to tune the nearest bar TV to the game that you actually want to see? Go right ahead. And when someone switches it back, you can feel free to change it again.
• Wish you could turn off all that noise when you’re the only one at the Laundromat and the TV is blasting at full volume? You can. You should.
• What about looking slick and completely together at your next important presentation? Only a true pack leader would unfurl the projector screen and control his slides with his phone.
• Upgrading to iPhone 4? Pack up that stack of remotes and use your old iPhone 3GS or 3G as your one and only controller.

If confirmed this summer, and if it performs as we expect, this next-generation RedEye remote looks like a winner. [UPDATED -RedEye mini performs as we expected. See video below of us using the lost RedEye mini with the RedEye software.]

The Complete Lost RedEye mini Saga

• This is ThinkFlood’s next iPhone, iPad, iPod touch remote—RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood lost the RedEye mini
• How ThinkFlood conceals prototype RedEye minis

The Dillinger Escape Plan is giving out 2,000 TV-B-Gone universal remotes with its upcoming album. Watch the anarchy unfold...

Hardcore (-ish) band The Dillinger Escape Plan recently announced that it will include a television quashing universal remote in limited edition box sets of its upcoming album, “Option Paralysis,” on sale March 22.

The band appears to be encouraging its fans to, “Be Here Now,” by arming them with the TV-B-Gone.

The TV-B-Gone is stripped-down universal remote that only controls one function, power. While it can turn almost any television on or off, The Dillinger Escape Plan only appears to encourage using the TV-B-Gone to shut down blaring televisions that are on for no particular reason.

How does it work? When you push the only button on the TV-B-Gone remote, it sends out a sequence of infrared power codes for nearly every television imaginable.

Users will find that 90% of televisions will turn off within 17 seconds of pushing the power button. It takes 69 seconds for the remote to cycle through all of its power codes; fortunately the device emits codes for the most popular televisions first.

Check out TV-B-Gone’s website for a hilarious collection of customer testimonials. Here’s an excerpt from one of my favorites:  “I can’t wait for the next time I go to my doctor’s office so I can turn off the continuous pharmaceutical ad video that runs in his waiting room. “

Dillinger has tour dates scheduled all over the world between now and mid-August; no region is safe. Watch out for unruly, remote-toting fans. I’m picturing Gizmodo’s TV-B-Gone hijinks at CES 2008, but on a much larger scale…

InstallCard actually offers quite a wide array of installation services from installing satellite radio to outdoor broadcast antennas (was not expecting to find that one). It seems that their business is much like Geek Squad but perhaps a bit more specialized and a little cheaper. Instead of just paying for a large general home theater setup you can order smaller individual setups. For example InstallCard has a card for AV Hookup, Flat TV, Bigscreen TV, Remote Setup, and Speaker Setup.  So if you only need your speakers wired you can just buy the Speaker Setup card.  They do have more general setup packages but there are multiple restrictions on each type of setup.

Which brings me to another point: if you choose to get the Universal Remote Programming e-InstallCard you should be aware of those restrictions. The service includes setup a single remote and up to 8 controlled devices. However, you only get up to 4 macros for launching activities. Also they will not actually touch any A/V equipment, and all your devices must be in the same room. So if you have two rooms with equipment you will have to buy another card in order to get the support person to walk into the next room. Or maybe you can just stack all of your stuff in one room and see what he does.

Somewhere, someone is missing the underlying problem — we need to make it easier to setup universal remotes. If you buy a Philips Pronto Remote for $600 you shouldn’t have to hire someone for another $250 to set the thing up.  That is almost $1000 dollars before you even get to turn your TV on (we actually have a testimonial on this from someone who has completely changed the way you live, but you’ll hear more about that when we are ready to publish the interview). For a thousand dollars my remote better be able to tell me what to watch and hold a decent conversation. At the same time. Both ways. Uphill. In the snow.

Everyone knows how awful it is searching through their Universal Remote’s instruction guide and trying to find the right code for your TV — trying each of the possible codes for your TV until one works, and then repeating it all over again for the DVD player.  Well the QuickSet from Universal Electronics (UEI) may finally put that hassle behind us with the help of an onscreen setup menu system and their XMP®-2 infrared (IR) protocol.

Typically remotes have had IR codes stored on an embedded chip, which has its limitations.  In order to get the remote to work you had to find and enter the right code for your brand of TV (or hope the auto-program function works, which it never does).  If your code wasn’t on there then, you were out of luck. QuickSet breaks that model by moving some of that processing off the remote — which has limited processing capability — onto the TV, which has much more significant processing power and the benefit of a visual display.  With a UEI QuickSet enabled device and remote, the user is prompted on-screen with the device name and type as well as a confirmation test to make sure the remote works. It’s that simple.

As we see it, UEI hopes bring high-end functionality to their remotes by shunting the processor and display muscle to the TV, which seems like a good idea. To make this work, they developed the XMP^®-2 infrared (IR) protocol –  essentially a two way IR network between the TV and the remote.  The majority of remotes today are one way IR and can only send signals and not receive them, which is why you had to find your code on the embedded chip by way of the user guide listings. Now new UEI remotes can just receive the proper codes directly from the device, guaranteeing a quick and easy setup.
Of course nothing is perfect.  In order to use UEI QuickSet you are going to have to buy all new equipment from select manufacturers that have partnered with UEI.  Plus not many people are willing to redo their entire systems just so they can program them quickly — as rewarding as that might feel. By comparison, a high-end remote costing $1,000 sounds like a bargain.

Because of these hurdles, it will take a long time for the system to really get going — if it even catches on. The fact is, major consumer electronics manufacturers could wallpaper the earth with their plans to introduce such approaches, but many never make it beyond a few experimental models.

I do like the idea behind UEI QuickSet and agree the code manual is obsolete, but I feel like most people would rather buy the nice high end remote for other added benefits such activities, macros, and touchscreens that pay dividends long after the setup process is gone from memory.

With all these “green” products being released now you would think the planet’s climate would be all set.  We’ve got everything from eco-friendly bikinis, big “green” bombs, and magically “clean” coal. Now One for All has joined the green product blitz with their Energy Saver Remote — a salvo against the “stand by power consumption” issue that has become a craze of late.

Basically the Energy Saver Remote is a fairly generic four-device universal remote with a big green button. This green button controls an outlet extender that you plug a power strip in for your entertainment system. When you are done watching TV, instead of having to manually switch off (or unplug) all the devices to fight the “vampire power,” this remote will simply shut off the power strip. Of course this prevents any of the devices from entering stand-by mode (well, almost — the outlet extender still uses stand by power, but not much…).

You might have been able to tell that I’m having a hard time getting behind this product. To me it just feels like “greenwashing” from top to bottom.  If you really want to be green, why not just flip the switch that’s already on the power strip instead of spending (GBP)£33 for another universal remote?  Use that money to buy a water filter. Or maybe a couple of those wireless outlets. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be vigilant on issues like stand-by power because every little bit helps, but our time and money can be spent elsewhere for a bigger effect. Wouldn’t manually shutting things off be more “green” than having these products created and manufactured to make shutting off a power strip easier?

Green issues aside, there are other problems here. For example, anyone with a set-top box for cable or satellite TV is going to have problems with this remote, because when these lose power, it takes about a half an hour for them to restore the channel guide information. Presumably restoring that data requires some server somewhere to send the information over – which probably consumers more electricity than all those devices on stand-by. Of course I could fix this by plugging it in somewhere else and not having it tied to the same power strip, but since it looks like these set-top boxes are leaders in stand-by power consumption, I feel like it would be missing the point completely.

Calling all Muggles. Have you ever wished you could just turn on your TV while sitting down with some magical device? Well I guess that’s already been done, but I bet you wished you could look like Harry Potter while doing it – and now you can.  Introducing the Kymera Magic Wand, a gesture controlled learning remote from The Wand Company.

The Kymera Magic Wand is limited to only 13 unique gestures meaning that you are pretty limited in your ability to control many functions or devices.  Unlike the much more capable Phillips’ uWand and LG’s Magic Motion Remote, the Kymera doesn’t have any on screen indicator or ability to control a cursor.  Instead you assign functions to gestures like rotate, flick, push, pull, and taps.  Users have to teach the wand these commands by programming it with their preexisting remotes, which is pretty simple considering there aren’t many functions to program.

This of course is not a real (or magical) solution for anyone who is serious about their home entertainment or doesn’t like swinging their arms and saying hocus-pocus.  With that said, this would be a fun gadget for kids, wizards, witches, and warlocks alike — but with the Kymera Magic Wand set to start making magic October 1^st with a £50 (GBP) price tag, I’m not sure if its magical enough for me.

Harry -- is that you?

The CEDIA Expo starts tomorrow, so we expect this to be a big week for home automation and remote control news. To get things started, Global Caché has announced its new iTach line. Similar to their existing GC-100 products in basic functionality (connecting an infrared or serial device to your LAN), the iTach has added Wi-Fi and infrared learning to the mix, which makes the iTach more suitable as a bridge between hand-held Wi-Fi devices (such as the iPhone) and your home theater equipment.

From a hardware perspective, this makes the iTach awfully similar to our RedEye remote control. Both have IR learning, and both work over Wi-Fi. The iTach has 3 built-in IR emitter jacks, whereas the RedEye is an IR blaster (a $45 add-on to the iTach). Overall, we think the iTach hardware is heading in the right direction.

We have to part ways on software, however. Currently there are a few companies that have written iPhone applications to work with Global Caché devices: Cremote’s Bobby, tin:b’s iRedTouch, and CommandFusion’s CF iViewer. While it is great to have some diversity of choice here, if there is a lesson we can learn from Apple, it is that products which integrate both hardware and software into one package are easier to use and can provide a more innovative approach than systems that must be purchased from (and supported by) multiple vendors.

I recently wrote an article about why cell phones can make great remote controls — as long as we don’t try to exactly mimic the way traditional remote wands work. I firmly believe that simply turning the iPhone into a touchscreen version of your TV remote is a losing proposition — it introduces new problems without taking advantage of new opportunities. I also believe that in order to take full advantage of new opportunities, it is important for the entire system — hardware and software — to be designed as a cohesive whole. There is a reason we included a charging dock on the top of the RedEye, and there is a reason that it is an IR blaster rather than just having emitter jacks, and there is a reason we chose to use Bonjour networking protocols to discover the RedEye device on the network rather than manual entry of IP addresses.

The iTach goes a long way to fixing some of the issues with the GC-100 — supporting multiple clients simultaneously, adding Wi-Fi, and including IR learning — but until it is fully integrated with the software applications that drive it, there will always be something lacking.