Hasta La Gadget!

Come one, come all — we’re guessing you won’t want to miss the most comical business arrangement since the latter part of 2007, when ROK acquired a majority share of Rock. Believe it or not, iControl and uControl have somehow put their selfish ways aside to come together as one, but it’s pretty clear who’s really in control. The merged company will forge ahead as iControl Networks, leaving u with nothing but fading memories and half a bottle of Jack. In all seriousness, this melding of minds could definitely give the home automation world a boost it’s badly in need of; fragmentation and a lack of universal compatibility (not to mention stratospheric pricing) has severely hindered adoption in the consumer universe, and we’re hoping that these guys can somehow make ZigBee, Z-Wave and your ZR1 talk to each other sans any hoop jumping. ‘Course, we wouldn’t expect any sort of quick collaboration — these two have to get on speaking terms before any magic happens, you know?

Continue reading iControl and uControl engage in home automation merger, domestic disputes seem inevitable

iControl and uControl engage in home automation merger, domestic disputes seem inevitable originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Nov 2010 05:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long, long time coming, but OnOne has finally gotten around to making an iPad version of its handy DSLR Camera Remote for the iPad. The app, previously available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allows you to remote-view what your SLR sees on the iPad’s screen, and also control most aspects of the camera therefrom.

Actually, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the imaginatively-named DSLR Camera Remote HD to hit – it’s due late November, but that does’t stop me getting excited. The iPad’s jumbo display is the reason: the iPhone’s screen isn’t much bigger than that of a modern-day SLR, so it made little more than a fancy, if useful, remote. Now you can preview and compose your shots on the iPad’s big screen, which opens up many more opportunities. Hell, in the studio, where portability isn’t a big deal, you might even use this right next to the camera just for that big preview.

Sadly, DSLR Remote still can’t fire the camera directly. You need to tether it to a computer running the companion server app. From there, you can peek your camera’s live-view, adjust exposure, focus and even use the iPad as an intervalometer for those time-lapse sequences you’ve always wanted to do.

There are some new features for the iPad version, too. You can now use gestures to pan and zoom the image for closer inspection, and also choose to save a low-res version of the picture to the iPad’s camera-roll. Finally, you will b able to shoot video and even monitor it with compatible cameras. The iPhone version will also get these additions in the next update.

Sounds great, right? You may want to sit down. The iPad app will cost you $50. The update to the iPhone app is free ($20 to buy new), but you’ll have to pay another $10 in-app to get the video-shooting functionality. Canon and Nikon only.

DSLR Camera Remote HD [OnOne via Rob Galbraith]

See Also:

• Hands-On With DSLR Remote for iPhone
• Camera-Triggering iPhone App Allows Remote Viewing
• Remote Display Lets You Use Camera from 500 Feet
• ShutterSnitch and Eye-Fi: Wireless Camera Tethering for iPad …
• The Eye-Fi Pro and the iPad? Forget About it

In yesterday’s roundup of the good, bad and ugly in new remote controls, we included one photo of a vintage remote: the Zenith Space Command. We identified it as the first TV remote, gave some details on its ultrasound-frequency tech and included a CC-licensed photo of an early model.

However, the Zenith Space Command we included was not, in fact, the first version of the device. The post prompted this friendly email from Wired.com reader Dan Turkewitz:

You’re right that the Zenith Space Command is the first commercially available remote. But the model you have pictured is one of those fancy “new” models! This is the original.

Sadly it doesn’t work very well on my 46″ plasma. But it has a place in my home theater setup anyway.

The next model up from this had a huge advance–four buttons: on/off, channel and volume up and down. That one sits on my brother’s desk.

As to its “Tired” features: the channels on the TV could also be changed by jangling a hand full of quarters, which made the same frequency sound as the metal bars in the remote. A trick my brothers and I all used when we weren’t happy with the channel choice of whoever had the remote. Which usually resulted in some fights.

I don’t know; given the current Apple-driven minimalist drive to pare down device controls to the smallest size and fewest number of buttons possible, you could easily argue that this first model of the Zenith Space Command was ahead of its time in more ways than one.

All images and email via Dan Turkewitz.

See Also:

• Apple Redefines Remote Control — Now, It's Your Cellphone
• Three Futures of Remote Control: Apple, Sony, and Samsung
• Our Remote Controls Are Amazing, Yet Nobody's Happy
• Man Creates Huge Online Museum for Vintage Calculators
• Tracing the Army Knife's Swiss History
• Wired Test 2007: Gadget Hall of Fame 1956 – Zenith Space Commander …
• Remote Controls to Get a Wireless Upgrade

Today, Apple updated its iOS Remote application to version 2.0. The free Remote app is now optimized for the iPad’s larger display and supports streaming from shared libraries over wireless networks with computers running iTunes and the new Apple TV using AirPlay.

But Apple’s vision of using your iPad — or iPhone — to play virtual DJ is just one of several competing ways of reinventing the remote control.

Earlier this week at CEDIA 2010, Sony showed off AV Receiver Remote, a similar (and similarly free) iOS universal remote application for its wide range of media appliances. While Apple’s Remote application allows you to queue up music from your library and control speaker volume, Sony’s allows you to do that and more: You can also control room lighting, and stream internet, satellite, or broadcast radio. Christopher MacManus was able to record a hands-on for Sony Insider:

Just as Apple’s remote application leverages its strength in high-end computers and media players, Sony’s app leverages its strength in home theater appliances. Apple can send a movie to your television, but it didn’t make your television (or the receiver your TV might be connected to).

And last week at IFA 2010, Samsung used its new Galaxy Tab to demonstrate its Home Watcher app for Android, which leverages the Korean tech maker’s even more ubiquitous position in home appliances.

As Vivian Kim observes, writing for Apartment Therapy Unpluggd, Samsung’s “washers and dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, ranges, and home entertainment devices” can allow them to position their phones and tablets not as Apple imitators, but as genuine home automation solutions.

You’ve never had a remote control for your refrigerator before, and maybe you didn’t even know you wanted one. But once it’s within the realm not just of the possible (it always has been, for high-end early-adopters) but reasonably attainable for Samsung’s global middle-class consumer base, something has changed.

How much will we want to do with a single remote when that remote is not an infrared box wrapped around two AA batteries, but a powerful computer with an intuitive interface?

In different ways, that’s the future towards which Apple, Sony, and Samsung are all pointing.

See Also:

• Apple Redefines Remote Control — Now, It’s Your Cellphone
• Sometimes the Remote Pushes Your Buttons, Too
• It’s Another QWERTY Keyboard, Now for TV
• IR Dongle Turns iPhone into Universal Remote
• How Google Instant Could Reinvent Channel Flipping
• Samsung Tablet to Debut on Big Four U.S. Carriers