“Apple has shown interest in building a new, simplified remote control that would automatically control a variety of devices while reducing setup and frustration for the user,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The concept was revealed this week in a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider,” Hughes reports. “Entitled “Apparatus and Method to Facilitate Universal Remote Control,” it describes a touchscreen-based controller that would reduce the confusing clutter found on current universal remotes.”
Hughes reports, “Various reports have suggested that Apple’s television could be controlled through Siri, Apple’s voice recognition and personal assistant software currently found on the iPhone 4S. But at times when voice control would not be ideal, Apple could also allow a back-up remote much like the one described in the newly unveiled patent application.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Can anyone tell me quickly how this is different from a Logitech Harmony? Not saying it isn’t, but I’m pretty sure the latest models in that line have dynamic touchscreens.
(Or are they just dynamic displays?)
——RM
I’ve seen some (could be Logitech?) that had touch screens but they still seemed pretty convoluted to me. I’m hoping Apple will be able to do what they do best – simplify and make it elegant.
I have, and enjoy, my Harmony; good product. That said, it has a touch screen, but not multi-touch. If you’ve used the Apple Remote App with an TV you can see the difference in function. Siri could be useful, but it has to incorporate some locally executed functionality. I don’t want to wait for Siri to go online and communicate with remote servers for answers to simply switch on my stereo, dim the lights, or adjust the thermostat.
Similar idea of the Universal Remote came from Steve Wozniak and frogdesign in 1985. Remember this?
I still don’t accept Siri as Apple’s secret weapon for TVs. This simplified Harmony-type remote seems like a much better fit.
As I said a whiles back- “I just do _not_ want to talk to a remote, sorry. It’s bad enough how often I talk back to the TV, period. I do want a remote that _knows_ what my TV has available, though, and will let me switch, instantly, to other channels or sources, with a preview function in the remote itself, and have it able to control _any_ other device connected. Big pluses would be one-touch contrast/brightness and, yes please, auto-mute for commercials, and some way to block certain programming (not channels), like religious crap and ‘reality’ TV.” – and what I was thinking was more in the line of an iPhone/iPad app, really.
Siri and a simplified remote would not be what Steve Jobs had come up with to “solve” the TV problem. It’s got to be more than that, and I’m sure iCloud is involved in some way. I’m still not convinced that Siri is going to work well with a TV, particularly when a program is playing and having to sift through the ambient noise of a typical household with kids, dogs, etc.
You heard it here first folks, Apple wants to bring back the video tape and videodisc.
Be kind, rewind.
But it doesn’t actually control the Universe, right?
This is Apple renewing an old 2005 patent of theirs and nothing more. There’s no new tech here. So why is this news?