While the universal remote has served humanity with distinction, its days are numbered, and your smartphone is to blame. In the beginning, a universal remote had to control two or three things (typically, a television, cable box and VCR or DVD player). And for a handful of devices, a remote with all the buttons in one place worked just fine.
Over time, the universal remote expanded its jurisdiction as there were new devices to control: audio receivers, streaming-video boxes, digital video recorders and other home entertainment components.
The universal remote did only what it could: It grew more buttons. But that was a stopgap at best. With so many devices to manage—and so many buttons to use—universal remotes started to become ridiculously complex.
There was a solution, of course: touch screens. Devices using these interactive displays can change their layouts depending on the remote being mimicked. Several manufacturers put touch screens into their high-end remotes. But touch-screen remotes were—and are—expensive. A traditional universal remote costs $20 (around Rs1010) or so. Touch-screen models often cost in the hundreds. Some engineers got thinking: With a growing number of touch screens in the world in the form of smartphones, and with more and more entertainment devices being Internet-enabled—including smartphones— the latter wouldn’t even need infrared transmitters; they could control equipment using Wi-Fi.
Hence, we now have a bounty of applications and accessories that let us use the technology we already have to control the technology we already have.
This is not only frugal, but upgradeable and flexible. Whether you want to control your music, television or PowerPoint presentation, it’s possible to find a solution in your phone.
Music and video
Plenty of people use iTunes. And many of them use their computers to play music over their home stereo speakers. Knowing this, Apple makes a slim remote to work with most of its PCs. However, this remote has no screen and can perform only a few basic functions.
But a free iPhone application called Remote uses Wi-Fi to control the computer as if you were sitting in front of an iTunes window. You can browse and sort through entire music and video libraries, select playlists and adjust volume.
IPhone users who are also fans of Sonos, the multi-room audio system that works with all kinds of music files—not just Apple-approved—can download a free application called Sonos Controller for the iPhone. It works over Wi-Fi and mimics the hardware-based controllers Sonos makes. A similar free program, VersaZones Mobile (Versagroup.net), lets users control Sonos devices on a Windows Mobile handset.