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, ...

Check this cool Fun Apps

How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively...

Apple to release new small phone before iPhone 7

Apple to release new small phone before iPhone 7 Apple is to create a smaller, cheap version of the iPhone, persistent to the 4 inch size of the iPhone 5. Apple is testing 5 different iPhone 7 models. It will sell next to Apple’s existing phones however mark the first time that Apple has ready a latest phone smaller than the one it locate on sale before. There will be the choice of 2 or three colours likely the gold, space grey and silver options that mainly Apple products now coming up. Other than inside there will be very much better components. The flagship improve will be the addition of the A9 chip that powers the iPhone 6S. There may also be a number of changes to the outside. The most able to be seen is apt to be the addition of the somewhat curved edges that are found on the iPhone 6 and 6S. careinfo.in Apple dropped the iPhone 5C previous this year. A number of hoped that it would be replaced by a 6C, though reports at the time made clear that we...

Trump cites Facebook exec’s comments downplaying Russian ad influence on election

You’d be forgiven for missing Donald Trump’s multiple retweets of Facebook executive Rob Goldman over the weekend. Perhaps you were spending time with family, watching Black Panther or just attempting to forget politics for a moment by ignoring the manic flurry of social media updates from the leader of the free world. But in amongst a deluge of tweets that blamed Democrats for failing to preserve DACA, called out the FBI over the recent school shooting in Florida on the FBI and affectionately referred to a member of congress as “Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control,” the President cited Facebook’s VP of Ads as evidence against claims that his campaign colluded with Russia. “The Fake News Media never fails,” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!” Trump was citing Goldman’s own Twitter dump over the past week, responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog