VooMote Zapper Universal Remote Control for iPad review

Tired of having to search for all of your remote controls and don’t want to pay the high prices for a dedicated universal remote like the Harmony series from Logitech? Well VooMote offers a solution that might be of particular interest to iOS users.

Once you attach the VooMote to your iPad or older generation iPhone or iPod touch (the kind with a traditional 30-pin Dock connector),and run VooMote's proprietary app from the App Store, the combo allows you to gain control of infrared controlled devices such as TV’s, DVD players, DTV receivers and Stereos.

Setup is straight forward. You’re able to either download pre-configured name-brand signals, or you can teach the Voomote any number of controllers using the original remotes. The VooMote also has the ability to create custom controls, using multiple virtual remotes, in one view. There's even a one-touch option that will turn on or off multiple devices at once, and an option for gesture controls.

Although they advertise a 30 second setup, any unknown devices can be a chore to setup. Once saved, however iCloud can sync those settings to all your iOS devices. Another seemingly neat feature is the interactive TV guide. However, even though my postal code was found, I could never save my settings to the app to get this feature working.

Overall, I can’t say I recommend the VooMote as a replacement to your regular remotes. I found it more tedious to swipe through the different virtual remotes than to simply just use my real remote. I also don’t think that many people would want to devote a dedicated iPod touch or iPad to Voomote, and it's annoying to keep having to stop what you're doing and switch back to the Voomote app on your iPhone when you're trying to do other things.

iOS as a remote control is a great idea. The VooMote just isn't a great implementation yet.

$39.95 and up - Buy now

Anthony Casella