Gizmodo has an intriguing article looking at the ins and outs of the TiVo remote control. Not from a technical standpoint, but from a historic one. Back in 1998, for example, TiVo wanted to develop a remote that looked like no other. But before settling on the "peanut" style design, the company considered remotes that looked more like spatulas, breadsticks, or toads.
The post has dozens of pictures showing early TiVo prototypes, remote controls designed by third parties for boxes like the DirecTiVo, and even a bunch of prototype shots showing early designs for the backlit TiVo Series3 remote.
Probably the most interesting bit is head of consumer engineering Paul Newby's look ahead at the future of the TiVo remote. Future models could have a QWERTY keyboard, a touchscreen or both.
How often has this happened to you? You're sitting in front of the tube watching a recording of last night's Daily Show and suddenly your cat comes scampering into the room and won't leave you alone until you promise to play with her. Being too lazy to get up off the couch, you stare at your remote control and wish it had a built in laser pointer. Well, AMEX has just the product for you.
The company's upcoming RM-mp1 remote control can handle Windows Media Center duties, has a built in laser pointer, and a touchpad for all your mousing duties. The 104 x 38 x 12mm remote will come in black and white models, and ships with a wireless USB receiver.
A little while back, TiVo teamed up with home automation software maker Crestron to allow TiVo users to control their light switches, thermostat, and other information through their Series3 and TiVo HD set top boxes. But it appears that a side effect is that anyone can now connect to their TiVo units via telnet, and blogger Dave Zatz figured out that means you can use simple command line codes to replicate TiVo remote control functions from pretty much any internet connected device. In other words, you can use an iPhone as a TiVo remote control.
The easy part is that all you have to do is figure out your TiVo's IP address, use Port 31339, and you can start entering commands. The complicated part is that you have to type out commands like "ircode pause," and "ircode thumbsup," instead of, you know, using your TiVo remote control and just pressing those buttons.
But now that we know this is possible, it's probably just a matter of time before we see third party developers writing TiVo remote control applications with pretty interfaces for the iPhone, Windows Mobile devices, and other internet connected gizmos.
If you've taken the plunge and plugged your computer into your television, you've probably noticed something: Most web sites and applications are really not designed for a remote control. Whether you're using an Apple remote or one designed for Windows Media Center, anytime you venture outside of the software designed to work with that remote control, you're kind of lost.
Gyration makes a line of wireless remote controls and mice that attempt to solve this problem by letting you move a cursor across the screen by waving your hand. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a Wiimote, but Gyration's been in this business longer than Nintendo.
The Gyration GyroTransport mouse is actually one of the company's older models. It's since been replaced with an improved version with a few extra features. But the retailers that carry the GyroTransport mouse still sell it for $80 or more. So when I saw that Woot had it for $35 today, I thought I'd pass along the news. If you're not familiar with Woot, the company sells just one item per day, at a deep discount. When it sells out, it's gone. So if you're in the market for a motion-sensing wireless mouse, you might want to pick yours up quickly.
Logitech is showing off a new miniature PC keyboard at CES that looks like a nice replacement for the standard media center remote control. The $149 diNovo mini-keyboard features a full QWERTY keypad, a ClickPad that can be used like a mouse, and page up and down keys for scrolling through your Windows Media Center menus.
The keyboard connects your your PC via Bluetooth 2.0 and supports a range of about 30 feet. There are also hotkeys for launching frequently used applications like media players and web browsers. Of course, there are also fast forward, rewind, stop, pause, play, and volume buttons. The mini-keyboard should be available in February.
If you've ever been frustrated at the limits of a traditional remote control when paired with a media center PC, the diNovo mini-keyboard could be a good solution. But I'm still a bit skeptical. Part of the appeal of a standard remote is that it doesn't take long to get used to the key placement so that you can use the remote without looking. But I can't imagine touch-typing on a keypad this small, which means you'll have to look away from your monitor/TV to perform certain functions.
Veronica Belmont of Mahalo Daily shot some video of the keyboard in action from CES. Check it out after the jump.
Sure, it's great news that Comcast is finally rolling out set-top-boxes to New England customers who sign up for TiVo service. But it would be nice if these new boxes actually worked the way they were supposed to.
Blogger Steve Garfield, who we've already pointed out is one of the first non-Comcast employees to get TiVo service on a Motorola box shot a little video to show off some of the differences between a Comcast TiVo and a regular TiVo that you would buy from a store. For example, the Comcast remote has a couple of extra buttons for controlling online features like filtering programs by category. Want to see just movies? No problem. Just kids programs? Easy. How about only HD content? Umm, yeah.
It took a whopping 53 seconds for Garfield's TiVo to filter out all of the non-HD programs. He reports that he has contacted Comcast and they're aware of the problem and working on a fix. But you'd think this would be the sort of thing they would have addressed before deploying the software.
How much would you be willing to pay for an attractive remote control that lets you interact with your media center PC even when your monitor or TV set is turned off? If you said upward of $250, have I got the remote control for you.
Sure, you can pick up a low end PC for less these days, but... yeah, I've got no but. That's just a lot of money any way you slice it. Still, if you've got $274 burning a hole in your pocket, you can preorder Ricavision's new VAVE100 SideShow remote control.
What makes the VAVE100 so special?
Universal learning remote control capable of controlling over 20 different devices from 50 feet away via IR
BlueTooth enabled with support for audio streaming
2.4 inch 240 x 320 pixel LCD display
Windows Media Center support
SideShow support (meaning you can use it as a secondary display for a Vista PC
The VAVE100 won't actually be available until late February. Ricavision is also announcing the VAVE50 remote control with support for Windows Vista Media Center, but no SideShow features. It's not clear yet how much the VAVE50 will cost or when it will be available for purchase.
One of the coolest underutilized features of Windows Vista is SideShow. Essentially, SideShow lets you access certain Vista feature from a secondary display. For example, check your email or calendar on your laptop without actually opening your lid. Or better yet, schedule a recording in Windows Media Center using a touch panel on the front of your PC case.
But very few hardware makers have really taken advantage of SideShow. We don't see it in many media center remote controls, which is where it would really come in handy for a PVR nut.
But the::unwired suggests that we could be seeing a whole lot more SideShow action soon if Microsoft develops a SideShow application for Windows Mobile. Suddenly your phone or PDA could turn into an awesome remote control for your Windows Media Center. You'd be able to play music, schedule recordings, or perform other basic actions without turning your TV on.
There've been inklings that Microsoft was going to launch a Windows Mobile version of SideShow since May. But now that Microsoft has released a new SideShow SDK that features support for QVGA screens and Bluetooth (read: features that many Windows Mobile devices already have), we wouldn't be surprised if a full release was just around the corner.
And you know what? I'm not really that impressed. Sure, it's pretty cool that you can order on-demand videos from Comcast and schedule TiVo recordings using the same box and remote. But as far as we can tell, the interface looks almost exactly the same as the first screenshots we saw almost a year ago.
I'm sure that over the last 10 months Comcast and TiVo have been working out a lot of the kinks under the hood and testing the heck out of this service to make sure it works as smoothly as possible. But I kind of would have expected a few bonus features to have been thrown in over the last few months. Maybe it's just me, but it's hard to get excited about something that kind of looks like last year's technology.
If you're in the market for a new Windows Media Center-compatible remote control, it looks like you can pick up a new Ricavision remote for $30. Actually, you can get the remote for $7, but if you want a Bluetooth/RC6 infrared receiver too you'll have to find $30 in your couch cushions for the bundle.
We first heard about these new remotes from Ricavision way back in February, so it's good to see that they're finally shipping. But it would also be nice if Ricavision would get around to shipping the high-end Sideshow remotes they promised last year.
Sideshow is a new protocol that lets devices like internet tablets and remote controls interact with Windows Vista machines to display things like program guides, music playlists, and weather forecasts on an LCD display without turning on your PC monitor. Somehow we suspect Ricavision's Sideshow-enabled remote controls will cost a bit more than $30.
In the market for a spare or replacement TiVo remote control? Normally a standard Series2 remote would set you back $30. But today Woot/Yahoo! are selling TiVo remotes for just under a buck.
If you're not familiar with Woot, it's a site that sells one item per day, usually at a deep discount. The company recently partnered with Yahoo! to offer a separate daily item, at sellout.woot.com.
Don't expect a fancy $50 Series3 style remote for your money. In fact, you're not even getting a standard Series2 remote. Instead Woot is selling a DirecTiVO remote. For all practical purposes, that just means you have a DirecTV logo where you'd normally see a TiVo logo. The remote will work just fine with any Series2 or Series3 TiVo. And tomorrow it will be gone.
If you've taken the plunge and plugged your computer into your television, you've probably noticed something: Most web sites and applications are really not designed for a remote control. Whether you're using an Apple remote or one designed for Windows Media Center, anytime you venture outside of the software designed to work with that remote control, you're kind of lost.
How much would you be willing to pay for an attractive remote control that lets you interact with your media center PC even when your monitor or TV set is turned off? If you said upward of $250, have I got the remote control for you. 
One of the coolest underutilized features of Windows Vista is SideShow. Essentially, SideShow lets you access certain Vista feature from a secondary display. For example, check your email or calendar on your laptop without actually opening your lid. Or better yet, schedule a recording in Windows Media Center using a touch panel on the front of your PC case.
It's finally happened. Comcast has started rolling out TiVo software to a handful of New England customers. Dave Zatz has managed to snag some screenshots of the interface, as well as pictures of the Motorola set top box and the co-branded TiVo/Comcast remote control.
If you're in the market for a new Windows Media Center-compatible remote control, it looks like you can pick up a new Ricavision remote for $30. Actually, you can get the remote for $7, but if you want a Bluetooth/RC6 infrared receiver too you'll have to find $30 in your couch cushions for the bundle.
In the market for a spare or replacement TiVo remote control? Normally a standard Series2 remote would set you back $30. But today Woot/Yahoo! are selling TiVo remotes for just under a buck.
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