POWER A Universal Remote Case

What’s in the box:

The package includes three halves of an iPhone case. There is one top half of a plastic iPhone protective case and two bottom halves. One bottom half incorporates the IR technology. The other bottom half contains no technology and just functions as the bottom half of a protective case. Also packaged is a user manual.

 

Set-up:

1. Plug the bottom half of the universal remote case into the iPhone’s dock connector

2. Slide the top half of the universal remote case onto the iPhone

3. Download Power A Universal Remote from iTunes App Store

4. Create a new virtual remote (there is a maximum of 20 virtual remotes)

5. Click edit and ‘teach’ the app every virtual button by clicking it and pushing the corresponding button on the actual remote control. This is how the app learns the IR signal.

6. Remember to save! It’s way too easy to press ‘back’ and erase all of your progress

Design:

The case adds some bulk to your iPhone, more so than a regular protective case would. It feels as if your iPhone is wearing a battery pack (which it is not). Aside from the added bulk, the design is pretty smooth. It’s nice that it isn’t designed to be a dongle sticking out of the iPhone dock connector, but rather that it is an entire protective case. Fortunately, an interchangeable end piece is included so that you can travel without the IR transmitter when you’re not using it.The IR transmitter is placed on the bottom of your case (by the dock connector), so to use the device, your iPhone is controlled upside down. The application orients itself, so this is not an issue. The device also has a little status light that indicate when signals are sent or learned.

App:

The app is very simple, but poorly designed. You can create up to 20 virtual remotes. All of the virtual remotes have the same default buttons, which resemble that of a DVR remote control. Buttons cannot be moved, resized, deleted, or even renamed. So if you want to program your ‘Sleep’ button, you will have to do so under a different button name. As previously mentioned all IR codes must be taught to your iPhone one by one. The app has no support to automatically download IR codes. In other words, you cannot automatically download a standard Cablevision remote to your iPhone. It’s beneficial that the app will learn any IR signal, but it would be nice to also be able to download remotes (for when you’re on the go [or at a bar]). The last thing worth mentioning about the app is that the virtual remote is not statically placed on your screen, it scrolls up and down to fit all of the buttons on your iPhone screen.

Performance:

POWER A Universal remote functioned as it should have. It learned all of the IR codes for a variety of devices. The range of the remote is about 10 feet, which isn’t all that great. Because the virtual remote lacks any customization, in order to set up your home theater you will likely need to create a few different virtual remotes for different devices. This can become cumbersome or confusing when switching back and forth between virtual remotes.

Conclusion:

POWER A Universal Remote is very cool in concept, but in practicality it doesn’t make a lot of sense yet for someone looking for a home theater universal remote. The IR transmitting case works pretty well, but the experience is spoiled with the complementary iPhone app. Currently the app does not support any customization of virtual remotes, meaning you’re stuck with the remote control layout and buttons that POWER A chose for you.  If you’re looking for a universal remote for your home theater, we recommend waiting for an app update. Also keep in mind, unless you have an extra iPhone lying around the house you will need to plug the IR case into your iPhone anytime you want to use this application. Fortunately, a version of the POWER A Universal Remote will be available for the iPod Touch soon as well. Meanwhile, the POWER A Universal Remote for the iPhone can be purchased from the Apple Store for $59.95 and it is certainly a lot cheaper than say a Logitech Universal Remote, but unfortunately the App acts as a crutch to what could have been a really unique device.

The Good: Can learn codes from almost any IR device, support for 20 virtual remotes, devices doubles as a protective case

The Bad: No virtual remote customization, weak wireless range, cannot download virtual remotes.

Set-Up:

LogMeIn was designed for even the least tech-savvy of us to use. Here was the process….

Step 1: Go to LogMeIn website and click Create Account

Step 2: Select the “Product Group” and choose “LogMeIn Access, Management and Networking”

Step 3: Enter in the usual information: name, email, password, country etc… and click Create

Step 4: Choose ‘Add this Computer’ and install the file

Step 5: Log in from LogMeIn Ignition on your iPhone

Step 6: That’s It!
There are some other settings and preferences you can tweak, but that’s all it takes to set up an easy to use and safe connection. After those 6 steps you’re ready to control your computer from virtually anywhere with your iPhone (over WiFi or 3G) or iPod Touch (over WiFi). You can even control your computer from any web browser. LogMeIn will run quietly in the background on your computer. It will display a transparent overlay to alert you of any active connections. Once again, there are no advanced router settings to fuss around with to get this to work.

The App:
Once you sign in to the app with your email and LogMeIn password you will see a list of your computers and their online/offline status. To login to one of your computers just click it’s name and enter in the log in info specific to that computer (LogMeIn will remember these credentials if you choose). At this point you will see your computer screen….on your iPhone….from anywhere…updating in real-time. It’s a beautiful thing. By default the mouse is always in the center of the iPhone screen and you use your finger to move the computer display (rather than moving the mouse). My recommendation is to change the default control setting so the mouse will move with your finger. It works very similarly to how your laptop touchpad works. Tap the screen to click, double tap to double click, two finger tap to right click, and use three fingers to scroll up and down (like a mouse scroll wheel). You can adjust mouse sensitivity, and the size of the screen on your phone, by pinching and zooming. There are a set of buttons on the bottom of the iPhone screen including disconnect, keyboard, right click/left click toggle, zoom, settings, alt-tab, and ctrl-alt-del. The keyboard button brings up the regular iPhone keyboard on the bottom half of the screen along with a row of other keyboard buttons not included on the iPhone keyboard.

I expected the control over WiFi (same network as computer) to be pretty smooth and fluid, and it certainly was. However, I did not expect the control over 3G to be almost nearly as fluid. It doesn’t react quite as quickly, but it comes very close. If I hover my mouse over an icon from my iPhone over 3g the tooltip pops up in under a second. You can also adjust the display resolution on Ignition. So if you find it’s too laggy, you can just lower the res, which will speed it up a bit.

Conclusion:
I’ve said it a couple times now, and I’ll say it once more: this app could not be easier to get up and running to control your Mac or PC remotely. The downside however, is that you’re certainly paying the price for the ease of use at $29.99. So it’s certainly one of the most expensive apps you may ever buy, but it very well might be one of the most useful. If you have a need for remotely controlling your computer(s) it will pay for itself rather quickly.
One feature I did not mention is LogMeIn ignition will also function as a pretty nice mouse and keyboard combo for your computer. This is great for media centers. Over WiFi the mouse movements are pretty smooth, although I will say they could be smoother. If you’re looking for just a mouse and keyboard combo to control your computer over WiFi you can use TouchPad Elite ($.99), which I highly recommend, or the Logitech Touch Mouse (free), which I’ve never tried. All in all I’m very excited that I have LogMeIn Ignition running on my iPhone; and I cannot wait to start using it on an iPad, controlling my computer with a big beautiful multi-touch screen.

The Good: Easy to set-up, easy to use, works with both PCs and Macs, very responsive over wi-fi

The Bad: Slight lag over 3G, $29.99 is much pricier than most iPhone apps

Key Features:
•    Bed shaker vibrates a bed or a pillow to wake up the heaviest of sleepers and includes a 3-level volume control
•    Built-in speakers featuring jAura acoustic speaker technology allow you to hear your music with depth and clarity
•    Dual Alarm function for 7-5-2 everyday, weekday or weekends wake options
•    Time-sync function that synchronizes time for your iPhone & iPod
•    Large easy to read digital display with 10 level LCD dimmer control
•    2 Way volume control – from the main unit or from the shaker
•    Integrated universal dock for your iPod plays and charges your iPhone and iPod

(via Perezhilton via MadonnaTribe)

“Our customers around the world have been asking for a Rush Hour app, the iPhone version was introduced in November 2009, and now the Android application joins the Rush Hour family,” says Bill Ritchie, ThinkFun co-founder and CEO.

And with the new apps, it’s not good enough to simply get your car out of the traffic jam, but rather in Perfect Score mode, your Android phone can grade you on how efficiently you got out of the jam. And of course, there is a solve button for those who cannot stand the traffic jam anymore!

And if you’re a hardcore Rush Hour Logic fan, you can unlock over 2500 new challenges with the purchase of the $1.99 version of the app, available in the Android marketplace or app store. With the regular app, you will get 35 puzzles. Find the Rush Hour/Android app for free in the Android Market on your handset – categories:  Games – Brain & Puzzle.

Currently FloTV’s portable touchscreen television (PTV) comes with 6 months of service and is $14.99 per month after that, but it is uncertain whether or not this monthly fee will stay the same for iPhone. FloTV’s iPhone expansion, through Mophie, will be released in the first half of 2010, and possibly in the first quarter. If it’s as great as their PTV device then we’ll definitely be waiting in line for one.

Nimbuzz uses VOiP to make cheap or free mobile to mobile or PC to mobile/landline calls over the Internet. It also connects you with all your contacts from all your favorite social networking sites. Whether it’s Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Twitter, Google Talk (and more), you will be able to see all of these contacts combined into one list. You can see exactly who’s online to chat with, send an offline message to, call, or send pictures, music, video, etc. without having to sign into each individual location, because everything is combined into one source.

 

What I like about Nimbuzz is the one stop shopping for all social networking tools. If you’re a social networking freak like me and you are constantly checking a million different apps to see what your friends are doing, Nimbuzz is the one app solution. Besides social networking, Nimbuzz is a cheap or free way to call both locally and internationally. Instead of using minutes or a costly international calling plan, Nimbuzz uses the Internet VOiP to make calls so you won’t incur incremental data charges the more you call. You will incur some low international calling fees, but it’s almost guaranteed that it will be cheaper than your regular international calling phone bill. And if you’re really worried about cost, you can just use Skype because that too is fully integrated into Nimbuzz.

Besides the one-stop social networking app, Nimbuzz enables location sharing so you can find your friends on a map. Finally, an app designed for  social networking can be taken into the real world realm with a face-to-face meetup thanks to the map feature.

The app is available in all major and third party app stores, the app can be used on thousands of phones (except the Palm Pre!) as well as any computer including PC and MAC.

You can’t buy pictures, or view other pictures, from the iPhone app as of yet, you’ll need to go to the website for that. But you can track the progress of your auctions from the app. FizWoz uses algorithms based on the category and keywords to determine how long to keep your auction running. They also have features built in to detect if it is an original picture or not. If it’s a doctored image in anyway it will just list as “unoriginal.”

I already put up a few of my pictures up for auction. Now I play the waiting game….Hey, who knows, maybe someone’s really looking for a picture of the Oscar Mayer Weiner truck chilling out in Times Square. Also what’s really neat is that all three of them are up on the fizwoz.com homepage as recently uploaded. I’m not even logged in—cool! Seriously—get your pics up now before it gets flooded and/or becomes a paying service or something. Videos work too!

We can see the endless uses for this little magical stick. Many new applications and more details are supposedly coming, but as per usual, availability and pricing is TBD so far.

Update 03/01/10: The Air Stash is now available to purchase for $99. You can also check out a video of the Air Stash in action, here.