Use your iPhone as an Universal Remote with L5 adapter

Thursday, January 7, 2010

With CES 2010 currently in session we are about to witness an onslaught of gizmos and gadgets, some great and some not so great. L5 Technology is hoping theirs will be one of the great ones. Yesterday at CES they unveiled their offering to the techies, a way to transform your iPhone into a universal remote using an app in conjunction with a dongle-type adapter.

The people over at Gizmodo seem to like it and say “the idea couldn’t be simpler: You plug the L5 Remote adapter into your iPhone’s dock connector, it draws from the iPhone’s battery to blast infrared, and with the addition of bundled universal remote app, your iPhone can suddenly change the channel on pretty much any TV, cable/sat box or Front Row compatible device up to 30 feet away.” Caveat being this is only a line of sight system of up to 30 feet, not throughout the house.

Whether consumers will want to keep track of a tiny adapter instead of a fairly large remote remains to be seen. I have already lost a Nike+ dongle, and I am not sure I could be trusted to keep track of this one. It would be perfect if you have an iPod touch(1st or 2nd generation) or an iPhone (it must be 3.0 however) you could dedicate to this service, rather than having to detach and re-attach the dongle as you come and go from your media room. But then why not have a traditional remote? hmmmm… Some people have already indicated that there are other remote systems that may supersede this line of sight style remote with a wifi style. RedEyeRemote is more expensive, at $188US but it seems to have more bang for your buck if you are looking for an iPhone remote option, and you won’t have to keep track of a dongle. (But you will need to use a small docking station).

But if you’re confident you can keep track of a dongle then perhaps this is the universal remote for you! The L5 system will be available in February and will retail for $49.95US, which is relatively inexpensive and is sure to attract the gizmo and gadget crowd. Stay tuned for the reviews…

This is a cool iPhone accessories article by The Apps Machine