Just when you thought your smartphone is maxed out and can’t do much more, along comes the ThinkFlood RedEye mini dongle which allows your iPod Touch or iPhone to become a television remote control. An interesting note about this product is it plugs into the headset jack meaning sound is obviously used to communicate with the dongle which converts the noise to light in order to turn your TV on, off, etc.
This leads us to believe it is a simple matter of additional software to allow this same device to be attached to any other phone in the future. All you need is an additional app which supports your particular phone.
I have mentioned in the past that the ultimate TV experience may be using an iPad to preview multiple channels which can be flicked towards a television. This new gadget is a small step in that direction.
David Civera
March 8, 2010 at 9:32 pmThis comment about sound being translated into infrared is complete non sense. The third ring on the headphone plug allows for data. Guess how the iPod shuffle syncs over USB?
And by the way, infrared on phones is as old as ever! Apple just doesn’t include it because it’s really more of a useless gadget than anything! The editor would have done a better job at pointing out the price and the obvious question about device compatibility.
Rich Tehrani
March 9, 2010 at 11:03 amThanks for the tip — I did some searching to learn more about the data protocol but I didn’t find much on the net. Interesting points – I appreciate the feedback.
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