ThinkFlood has released RedEye, their universal remote add-on for iPhone and iPod touch. The RedEye remote is a combination of hardware and software that turns your iPhone into a truly universal remote control for IR-based devices. I received an advance unit to take for a spin, and tested it out with my (modest) home theater setup and an iPhone 3GS.
The RedEye software [iTunes link] is a free download on the App Store. It detects RedEye units on the current network, and allows you to add multiple rooms, IR devices, commands and activities. Devices are easy to add from an extensive list, and most devices have commands presets available. New commands can be learned at any time by capturing the control signal from an existing remote. Activities combine commands for multiple IR devices into a single control panel with assignable buttons. Activities also have optional startup and shutdown macros, so devices can be turned on or off, inputs can be set, volume controlled, etc. when starting or stopping an Activity. Control panels can be built by adding buttons, assigning commands and icons to them and dragging them around to create your own remote. Ready-to-go templates are included for many devices/activities.
Ignoring my concerns about hardware quality for a bit, the functionality of the hardware/software combination is quite impressive. The premise is simple -- turn commands sent over Wi-Fi into infrared signals -- but the possibilities are endless. The large touch screen of the iPhone/iPod touch rivals that of the Harmony 1000/1100 or Pronto remotes. It lacks any hardware buttons, of course, but provides custom configurations limited only by screen space. The software setup is not as simple as I'd like, but the app itself is stable and reliable at this point. I think it would be well-served by a desktop-based application that could upload directly to the base unit. That would allow the user to build a remote/activity much faster than is possible with the iPhone, and decrease frustration significantly.
Google today took a step into online retailing with the launch of its new smartphone, the Nexus One, and a webstore to sell it directly to consumers.
Calling the touchscreen phone a "superphone", the internet search giant is aiming to challenge the supremacy of Apple's iPhone and offer consumers a new way to purchase their mobiles.
At the launch in Mountain View, California, Google.
Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger
Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz
Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)
512MB Flash
512MB RAM
4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)
Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
Digital compass
Accelerometer
3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
800 x 480 pixels
100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
1ms typical response rate
5 megapixels
Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
2X digital zoom
LED flash
User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions
UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
A2DP stereo Bluetooth
[1] Power
[2] 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
[3] Charging and notification indicator
[4] Illuminated capacitive soft keys:
Back, Home, Menu, and Search
[5] Tri-color clickable trackball
[6] Camera
[7] Camera flash
[8] Speaker
[9] Dock pin connectors
[10] Micro USB port
[11] Microphone
[12] Volume Control
This app’s user interface was by far my favorite, but at times it still felt a bit flawed. AccuWeather should have integrated typical iPhone gestures into the application as I often found myself wanting to swipe or enlarge something, only to discover that those features had not been implemented.
Despite this app’s shortcomings, AccuWeather still impresses me by the plethora of weather and climate information it provides. I love when things give me more than I need, it doesn’t matter what the product is. If I get more than I asked for, I am a happy customer, and AccuWeather sees to this.
One of my favorite features is its risk monitoring system, which breaks down severe weather conditions (rain, ice, fog, wind, etc.) and shows the chance of each of them happening over the course of the next 8 hours. Another feature that set AccuWeather apart was its indices feature, which shows UV, Air Quality, Flu, and Arthritis indexes for the day.
I’ve always been a fan Weatherbug’s desktop variants, and was pleased to find that the iPhone version was comparable. Weatherbug has all the typical bells and whistles you would expect from a weather app, with a few extras, one of which is a real-time wind tracking, which is updated every few seconds, showing wind speed and direction. I don’t fly many kites or participate in many nautical activities, but I still find this to be a cool feature. It has the simplicity of Apple’s Weather app, but with a few extras, and unlike other free weather apps, it isn’t ad-supported.
Being the No. 1 free weather app in the App Store comes with a bit of scrutiny. But what can I say? They are The Weather Channel, and they know what they’re doing. This app doesn’t give any more information than the Weather Channel web site, but it’s great to have such information at your fingertip while on the go. The map feature of this app uses Google Maps with a live update of radar, clouds, temperature, precipitation and UV index. I have very few complaints about this app, but my biggest is the large banner ad on top of the application. I understand that it’s a free app and they have to make money, but it’s a bitobtrusive at times.
This app is brought to you by The Weather Network, which is a Canadian company. Therefore, this app doesn’t have many of the smaller U.S. towns and cities. Regardless, I still liked it. It’s very similar to Apple’s Weather app in that it is as easy as “swiping” your finger across to switch locations. However, like many of its counterparts, Weathereye is ad-supported.
This app does a great job of covering Canada as well as larger U.S. towns and cities. If you live in rural America…sorry, you’re out of luck.
I have dabbled in aviation in the past, and have always found it interesting. In the end, my pursuit of aviation was a short-lived one. When I was up there, I could only imagine how crucial knowing the weather could be — literally life or death.
Pascal Dreer took this into consideration by giving us AeroWeather, an iPhone weather app designed with aviation in mind. AeroWeather is a full-service app that displays wind speed/direction, altitude, sunrise/sunset times, runway reports and more. This is the perfect weather app for anyone in the aviation field.
Evernote for iPhone lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time — from your iPhone, computer, or the web.
