Peel Turns Your Apple Watch Into A Universal Remote Control

Does it make sense to use your Apple Watch as a remote control for your media devices? Smart remote maker Peel thinks so, having just launched a universal remote control application for the Apple Watch which lets you operate over 400,000 models of home electronics, including not only televisions, but also DVD players, and even audio and streaming devices, like the Roku.

The Apple Watch app is actually an extension of the company’s existing smart remote app for iPhone. And while in a few cases the new Watch app will allow you to control your devices via Wi-Fi, for the most part, it will require the Pronto hardware just like the iPhone version does.

The Pronto 360-degree IR blaster is what turns the iPhone, and now the Apple Watch, into a smart universal remote control. A $49.99 piece of hardware about the size of a salt shaker, Pronto sits in your entertainment center to provide the IR capabilities required to operate your TV and other electronics. It also connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth Smart technology.

Meanwhile, Peel’s iPhone application offers a personalized TV guide featuring show and movie recommendations you’ll like based on your preferences and your past viewing behavior. Plus, the more you use the Peel app to tune into various programs, the better those recommendations become. The app also works to help you discover content across streaming services, like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.

To date, Alibaba-backed Peel has over 135 million registered users worldwide, the company says, and generates 10 billion remote commands per month.

Similarly, the newly launched Apple Watch application offers a smaller version of Peel’s visual program guide which you can scroll through right on your Watch’s screen. The guide will display the first three ribbons from the Top Picks tab in the Peel Smart Remote app, and, after you use it, it will display a “Channels You Watched” section, too. When you find something you want to watch, you just have to tap on the thumbnail image of the show to start your viewing.

The Watch app also lets you turn your devices off and on, control the volume, mute, and change channels through the app’s “Remote” section.

Peel’s Watch app actually quietly launched before the holidays, but wasn’t publicly announced until this week, we should note.

The company would not be the first to experiment with using the Watch as a remote control of sorts. Out of the box, the Apple Watch has the built-in ability to control the music on your iPhone, control your iPhone’s camera, or even control iTunes or the Apple TV.

Others have also rolled out their own remote apps as well, like BMW’s car remote,Telsa’s car remote, Pacemaker DJ, or the AMPLIFi remote for speakers and guitar amps.GoPro lets you use the Apple Watch to control its action cameras; Alarm.com lets you control your smart home from your wrist, as do others; and streaming media service Hulu lets you control video playback across a number of media players, including Apple TV. (To name just a few!)

That being said, while a wrist-worn remote control is a nice plus for current Watch owners, it doesn’t yet seem to be enough of a draw on its own to convince people to purchase an Apple Watch, if they haven’t already.

The Peel iOS app, which includes the Apple Watch app, is a free download on iTunes. The Pronto device is sold separately, and can be found at Amazon, Best Buy, NewEgg, and elsewhere.

Comments

SoftBank Lands $236M From Alibaba And Foxconn To Bring Its Pepper Robot To The World

Remember Pepper, the intelligent robot that SoftBank unveiled last year ? Pepper goes on sale in Japan this coming weekend, but in advance of that launch SoftBank has revealed that Alibaba and manufacturer Foxconn have invested $118 million each in its robotics division. That deal will give Alibaba and Foxconn 20 percent shares in SoftBank Robotics Holdings (known as SBRH), with SoftBank retaining a dominant 60 percent stake. “SoftBank, Alibaba and Foxconn will build a structure to bring Pepper and other robotics businesses to global markets, and cooperate with the aim of spreading and developing the robotics industry on a worldwide scale,” SoftBank said in its announcement. SoftBank isn’t short on money, of course — it is building up quite a portfolio of e-commerce investments across Asia — but its two partners bring know-how, strategy and global networks to the table. So, it looks like Pepper has eventual world domination plans. Or, at least, ...

Visa confirms Coinbase wasn’t at fault for overcharging users

Yesterday, we wrote that Coinbase customers were being charged multiple times for past transactions. While some speculated that the erroneous withdraws were down to a Coinbase engineering issue, Coinbase issued a statement saying it wasn’t liable for the duplicate charges. The blame, instead, rested with Visa for the way it handled a migration of merchant categories for cryptocurrencies, Coinbase said. While you can read my post yesterday for an in-depth description of what happened, the basic gist is that Visa refunded and recharged (under a different merchant category) a month of old transactions. Many users saw the recharge come through before the refund processed, making it look like they were double charged. Honestly, the issue was likely exacerbated by existing payment rails — it’s normal for refunds to take multiple days to show up on credit and debit statements. But here’s where it gets weird — this morning Visa issued a statement to some publications shifting the blam...

Five budget-friendly open source storage servers

Storage is essential for the enterprise: Data must be stored. Data must be retrieved. Data must be shared. Data must be secured. At the same time, storage must not consume the entirety of your IT budget. Fortunately, you can find effective solutions in the world of open source. Outside of cost effectiveness, one of the biggest benefits of these solutions is the ability to modify them to perfectly fit your needs. You can make minor changes or even roll your own storage solution based on one of these tools. If you want enterprise support and a "solution in a can" that will meet just about any enterprise storage need, you should turn to Red Hat or SUSE. Both Linux-based companies offer some of the most powerful enterprise-ready tools on the market. But if you'd rather get your hands dirty and craft something of your own—something that won't demolish your budget—these five open source tools are a great place to start. 1: ownCloud ownCloud ( Figure ...

Apple Releases First Battery Case To Eat Third-Party Accessory Makers’ Lunch

In a surprise move, Apple just announced an external battery case for the iPhone 6s. Named the iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case , the battery extends the battery life of your iPhone 6s by up to 25 hours. The new accessory is available in black and white for $99 starting today. Let’s start with the design. Apple is using silicone as the main material like on its other cases. The company doesn’t disclose the capacity of the battery except that you’re supposed to get 18 to 25 hours of extra battery. Like third-party battery cases, Apple uses a Lightning male port at the bottom to plug your iPhone. You can charge the case using a traditional Lightning cable — most third-party batteries rely on a microUSB cable. Apple’s accessory also works with the iPhone 6 and it looks like there isn’t a 6 Plus and 6s Plus version. The Smart Battery Case features an unfortunate hump at the back. Mophie’s Juice Pack design is a bit sleeker compared to Apple’s official accessory. Apple...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog