Power A's New Case Turns Your iPhone Into A Universal Remote
February 24, 2010
The two-piece $60 case does away with the dongle (like the L5 Remote uses) by embedding the infrared blaster in the bottom portion of the case, which gives you the freedom of not having to fumble around with a small piece of expensive hardware every time you want to use your iPhone as a universal remote. It's always readily available.
“The POWER A Universal Remote Case was designed to give consumers an effortless way to control all of their devices directly from one of the most in-demand iPhone accessories – a two-piece protective case,” said Eric Bensussen, President of POWER A. “The sleek case is designed to stay on the phone at all times, eliminating the need to attach a supplementary dongle or be tied to a single docking cradle to use the remote. It can be used in multiple rooms in the home -- or even away from home -- to quickly clone most existing IR capable device remotes, such as a TV, DVD, DVR, satellite and cable box, stereo, or even a home lighting system. We’re confident that iPhone users will appreciate the convenient design and the incredibly simple and straightforward setup process.”Power A's free Universal Remote companion app allows you to program commands from any infrared remote control into the app itself relatively easily. Just attach the case, fire up the app, and point the bottom of your iPhone at the remote you want to program commands from. When you press a button in the app, simply press the corresponding button on the physical remote. This will program the button in your the app to control the same function that your physical remote controlled. By using this method, you can program commands for multiple devices into a single remote screen. The Power A Universal Remote Case is compatible with the iPhone 3G and 3GS, and should be available any day now at Apple retail and online stores for $60. The company also intends to provide this new product at other leading retailers in the coming months.
