We're starting to see universal solutions for controlling your home devices with your always-on-the-hip mobile phone. But this is the first we've seen that doesn't involve a clunky transmitter stuck to your sleek mobile.
The Audiovox Zentral works like a translator, receiving the Bluetooth signal from your mobile device and translating it to an infrared signal that most of your at-home tech; including theater equipment, iPods and garage doors;can understand.
That means that your iPhone or Blackberry, coupled with a Zentral app, could control nearly any device in your house without first searching for where you left that inconvenient IR dongle.
We can expect the Zentral product line to be out this spring. The AV remote, available for iPhone and Blackberry, should be $60. The Smartphone Jukebox for Blackberry is $70. The Smartphone Garage Remote for Blackberry should be $50.
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Comments (1)
Actually, there is a more elegant solution for the iPhone, though more expensive. ThinkFlood's RedEye (http://www.thinkflood.com) is an infrared repeaters that communicates with you iPhone via an app that connects over your WiFi network.
This allows you to control your A/V system from anywhere within your WiFi network. I've had one for about a month and works well. I can turn on and control my entire A/V system outside the front door of my apartment when I come home and have my favorite programming at the time welcome me home.