L5 Remote IR Control App/Accessory for iPhone Hands-on -- TiPb @ CES 2010

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

If you ever held your iPhone in one hand, then got angry you still had to hold your big, expensive, horrible-screen universal in the other, L5 has an app -- and an accessory for that!

The process is straight forward. Download the app. Drag and drop in your custom control setup. Buy the infra-red (IR) dongle. Teach it your remotes' commands. Enjoy total iPhone or iPod touch power over your A/V components.

Video walk through after the break!

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

11 Comments
  • 50 dollars? seems pretty steep!
  • I think this is a huge miss, and highlight's the developer's misunderstanding of the iPhone platform. A small dongle - that's insanely easy to lose - that I have to plug into my iPhone? No. What would've been MUCH better is a small box that can be pointed at the devices I want to control, and communicates to the iPhone via WiFi or Bluetooth. I'm simply not going to plug something into my iPhone to control my TV/stero/etc.
  • Boring...this seems like circa 1999.
    What would impress me is if AT&T U-Verse app got a major upgrade and allowed me full control of my U-Verse DVR, including the ability to sync content stored on my DVR to my iPhone.
  • Id really want to use my own images rather than there ugly UI
  • The $50 price tag isn't exactly pennies, but it's not that bad considering the price of a quality universal remote with learning capabilities. I would pay for it, but I would be worried about losing the plug-in. I have insane difficulty with the fact that none of my "universal" remotes are quite able to handle the task of controlling my 3 TVs, 2 cable boxes, and 2 receivers because they're all different manufacturers and one TV in particular is an obscure manufacturer. I need a remote that can learn the buttons from each remote individually. It's a pain in the butt that I have to keep 1 TV remote on standby just to press 1 button that my other universal remotes somehow overlooked. It's especially painful that I have to hit that 1 button multiple times per day. And the problem with paying $50-$100 for a decent universal remote with learning capabilities is that when I lose that remote, I have to search then entire house of it and there's no telling which room it's in. I always have my iphone on me, so it would be with me whatever unit I need to control. The on problem is losing the attachment, which is a huge problem. The solution would be to put a charging dock on the backside or bottom of the attachment,so I could pretty much keep it on my phone and avoid unplugging it when I need to charge.
  • Does this seem like a solution looking for a problem to you?
  • What about being able to use BlueTooth to control a PS3 as well? If it could do that, then all my remotes could easily be replaced.
  • Julie Lewis -- what you're looking for already exists. Google "Red Eye" and you'll find the product. There's a base station that communicates with your iPhone over Wifi. It's not cheap, though -- $188 for the base.
  • Just get a "Leap Frog" It relays "any" IR signal. No programing no extra stuff and under $40.
  • 50$ Im Not Cheap Or Anything But Use The Fu*king Remote Thats In Your Hand!
  • So what is the "Greatest Thing" exactly?