.KEYWORD omniremote
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE New weapon in the remote control wars
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY The universal remote control is probably the single greatest invention in the cause of relaxation. With it, you can manipulate your entire electronic environment from the comfort of your couch. However, a war is now raging in the realm of universal remote controls between home theater purists with their expensive, specialized devices and Palm device users, armed with the OmniRemote application. Michael Compeau has returned from the trenches of this heated conflict with news of a new weapon called ORDesktop that will surely make OmniRemote the ultimate victor.
.AUTHOR Michael Compeau
Forget about the teen scene and the thousands of Generation Y kids battling in lunchrooms over whether the Handspring Visor or the Palm m100 is the "organizer de rigeur" this fall. It’s irrelevant. The real story is unfolding in home theaters and living rooms across the globe. Home theater purists are waging their war with Palm device zealots intent on infiltrating the hallowed domain of the URC (Universal Remote Control) thanks to Pacific Neo-Tek’s OmniRemote application. The battle reports are regularly posted at a fascinating (and tremendously useful) Web site called RemoteCentral.com at http://www.remotecentral.com.
.H1 Our heroes
Throughout a thread aptly titled "PalmPilot is an excellent Universal Remote Control," at http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-remote/thread.cgi?45, Peter Sharpe and his comrades GregoriusM (Greg Mitchell) and PDD (Paolo Dominguez) fairly bubbled over with the advantages of their favorite PDA’s secret double life. They mentioned its ability to store whole databases of their video, DVD, and CD collections. They traded favorite Web sites for use with AvantGo to pull down movie reviews onto their Palm devices for immediate reference while browsing DirecTV listings. And they talked price. Incredibly low price, since, when compared to the cost of other touch-screen universal remotes, the price of a Palm m100 or Visor Solo is little more than pocket change.
And who are our heroes’ foes? The stick-in-the-mud purists who, well, just don’t get it. The detractors mustered all the ammunition they could find "OmniRemote’s only got six buttons," the traditionalists whined; "Yeah, and the beam is too narrow," the negativists chimed in. It was incredible. I enjoyed a solid two hours of great entertainment reading through the message threads on RemoteCentral!
By far the most common product compared to the OmniRemote solution is the Philips Pronto, pictured in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A The Philips Pronto is OmniRemote’s most common challenger.
The Philips Pronto could easily be mistaken for an ill-fated Windows CE device. Mistaken, that is, until you use it. This one is a whole lot easier to use and does what it’s supposed to do tremendously well. However, it costs $399. Given the $400 to $700 paid for competing URC products such as the Philips Pronto and Sony AV2100, you’d do a lot better with a lower-end Palm device or Visor for only about $230 including software.
.H1 A little history on OmniRemote
Pacific Neo-Tek wrote the popular Palm application OmniRemote over two years ago. (In fact, the ground-breaking application won a PalmPower Product of the Year award in 1998 which you can read about at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199901/aprodyear001.html.)
To quickly review, the application transforms your Palm device into an incredibly versatile infrared remote control for your CD player, DVD, satellite tuner, television, cassette tape deck, and even some ceiling fans using infrared (IR). A device equipped with OmniRemote is pictured in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B OmniRemote turns your Palm device into a universal remote control.
.H1 OmniRemote gets a sidekick
PDA D’OR is a newcomer on the scene with its PC software ORDesktop. So what’s it do? ORDesktop allows you to open the OmniRemote.pdb data file on your PC and simultaneously edit all the various category screens full of buttons. This allows you to copy, paste, and drag and drop buttons across screens. For example, you can copy your volume and mute buttons to every screen for instant access. ORDesktop is pictured in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C ORDesktop lets you easily edit your OmniRemote categories.
If you’ve endured an hour tinkering with OmniRemote, re-labeling and repositioning all the buttons, you’ll instantly appreciate the beauty of ORDesktop. Most importantly, ORDesktop promises to let you share your OmniRemote databases or individual screens with your friends and the world. Whole libraries of pre-set screens for controlling various home theater and stereo components can now be shared online because this tool will let you copy elements or screens from one database and save them in another.
.H1 From whence such inspiration?
Peter Sharpe, the visionary behind ORDesktop, wrote the application in his spare time while away from his job at SoftQuad, the creators of HotMetal and XMetal. Peter thought OmniRemote was an "utterly fantastic idea" when he first downloaded the demo. But Peter also thought, as I did, that creating all those buttons and moving them around was a royal pain. There had to be a better way. For some months, Peter had been drawing a following of like-minded PDA groupies in a discussion thread on RemoteCentral.com. Eventually, ORDesktop was created to solve the problem.
Pacific Neo-Tek and PDA D’OR aren’t affiliated in any way, but their respective products work together superbly. Jointly, the two applications-one for your handheld, and one for your PC-give Palm OS devices the magic necessary to compete with high priced universal remote controls for the honored place in the crack of your couch.
.H1 A great use for that old Palm device
You’ve got an old device lying around in a drawer, don’t you? You can even soup up your old PDA-even if it lacks IR-by buying an OmniRemote module from Pacific Neo-Tek or the IR Blaster from Talestuff.com for about $30. The OmniRemote module is pictured in Figure D.
.FIG D The OmniRemote module adds or extends your device’s IR capability.
The IR Blaster is pictured in Figure E.
.FIG E The IR Blaster will give you three times the range.
An IR enhancer module, a fresh set of AAAs, a quick download, and the reincarnation of your old Palm device will be complete. Even programming your new ultimate remote control will be easier as soon as all your fellow readers upload their OmniRemote databases to the ORDesktop.com Web site!
You’ll even have an enviable solution to that old "Where’s the remote?" problem. Simply set a few alarms to repeat through the day or evening, and your handheld will cheerfully remind you to pull it back up out of those cushions.
.H1 The Handspring ultimate remote is here!
Interestingly, just prior to publication, I stopped back at RemoteCentral.com. Site proprietor and Universal Remote purist Daniel Tonks must be quite pleased with the outcome of the birth of the new PDA forum that now exists there. I noticed Handspring is now a principle banner advertiser on the site!
It’s a valid positioning in my opinion. I was trying out the ORDesktop with the new OmniRemote Springboard module from Pacific Neo-Tek, pictured in Figure F, and was duly impressed with the power of the IR in the module.
.FIGPAIR F The power of the OmniRemote Springboard module is impressive.
I could point the Visor at the opposite wall or windows and still control all my components! Incredible.
.H1 Macros for multiple instructions
While it doesn’t really make programming your VCR easier, OmniRemote does have an amazing ability to create lengthy "macros" of multiple instructions. This is made even easier through the use of ORDesktop. Combined with the easily overlooked ability to trigger these macros through integrated timers, my Visor can let me rest comfortably on the couch like a vegetable all night. It let me write this article, play a game of chess, record a favorite show off the satellite from 6-8pm, turn on the overhead fan at 7pm, and, with a little help from X10 technology, turn on the room lights at 10pm and then off again at 11:30! Try that with your Philips Pronto!
.H1 The recommendation
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a new PDA but your spouse (or better judgment) has been getting in the way, you’ll want to listen up. You can have it all because now you’ve got an excuse. You need another Palm OS unit! After all, if you buy that Handspring you’ve been ogling in Staples or at OfficeMax for the past eight months, you can pick up the OmniRemote Springboard for only $60 and have the Ideal Remote solution. Add ORDesktop for $20 more, and you’re set.
Those who would like to have a single device to use for everything from keeping Aunt Helen’s Macaroni Hotdish recipes to changing television channels to storing their CD and DVD databases only have one reasonable choice: The Handspring Visor with the OmniRemote Springboard and ORDesktop. See the Handspring Visor at http://www.handspring.com. On top of the advantages the Palm OS offers, the flexibility of the Springboard slot makes the potential for this universal remote control unmatched.
.H1 One little postscript
I found this just a bit ironic. While I’ve been gushing here at PalmPower about the thrill of running all my entertainment components with my Palm device, my associate Greg Lea has been helping Pocket PC Life readers to discover the pleasure of actually watching movies on their Casio E-115s and Compaq iPAQs with PocketTV (at http://www.windowscepower.com/issues/issue200008/pockettv001.html). Hummpf. What he doesn’t know yet is I think I figured out how to change his channels
