NewKinetix LLC, of Portland, Oregon, will be demonstrating their Universal Remote Control, RēTM, at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The Rē infrared (IR) hardware accessory plugs into your iPhone or iPod touch mobile digital device and the user interface will be provided by a supporting Rē Universal Remote iPhone application planned to be offered free on the App Store. As users are turning to their iPhone for information and entertainment, an IR universal remote accessory for the iPhone has been highly requested throughout social media platforms, as in mobilecrunch.com’s “5 iPhone Accessories We’re Still Waiting For.”
As a plug-in accessory, the Rē Universal Remote requires no cables, batteries, charging, or network connections to provide complete control of your TV, stereo, DVD player, or most any remote controlled device. Its portability allows you to use it anywhere you go, and it is set up and ready for use with any IR ready AV entertainment device within minutes. The Rē accessory includes an extensive database of IR codes that will control most popular AV entertainment devices. Not only will it eliminate remote control clutter by consolidating all of your remotes into a single unit at your fingertips, but the smart design and functionality of the application software is intended to offer extensive personalization capabilities including:
• Create remotes automatically for each device to be controlled • Customize Activity Remotes to control entertainment activities like “Watch TV” or “Watch Movie”
• Edit button images and button layout on the touch screen • Add buttons and learn IR codes to enhance device remotes
• Setup and playback of button sequences to provide automated device control • Create “Favorites” lists that span multiple sources, so quick access can be personalized for TV channels, CD tracks, movie scenes etc. The Rē is planned for initial availability in North America. For more information on the Rē, you can check out the new Rē web site.
TASER International Inc., a market leader in technologies that protect life, will introduce a groundbreaking new family safety platform called PROTECTOR during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that runs from January 7-10 in Las Vegas, NV.
PROTECTOR is a revolutionary toolset that gives parents the ability to supervise their children’s mobile phone usage and driving behaviors. Parents can manage the contact lists and content of their child’s mobile phone – including calls, texts, emails, photos and video, and can automatically limit phone functionality to prevent dangerous distractions while driving. PROTECTOR uses integrated GPS, allowing parents to track their child’s location, monitor driving habits, and release vital records to the authorities in emergency situations.
“Our mission at TASER International is to protect life – PROTECTOR is our latest technology breakthrough to further our mission by empowering families to protect the most precious of lives: our children,” says Rick Smith, CEO and founder of TASER International. “Auto accidents are the leading cause of death among American teenagers, and distracted driving is becoming a major factor in these accidents. PROTECTOR will play a significant role in addressing this national tragedy.”
“Keeping my family safe is crucial, but being engaged and staying involved in my kids’ lives is important too. With PROTECTOR, I can do both,” says Smith. “Many kids spend more time with their mobile phone than their families, and most parents have been helpless, in the dark as to who their kids are interacting with and what kind of content their kids are exposed to every day. PROTECTOR empowers parents to stay involved and provide parenting guidance in a fast moving, mobile world.”
PROTECTOR works on multiple devices, each managed through an intuitive control panel accessible through a smart phone, PC, MAC or smart TV. Parents can control who their children interact with and monitor their mobile phone activity and driving behavior at any time – and change permissions and settings in real time. PROTECTOR is carrier-independent and seamlessly connects parents and children, even if they’re on different cellular networks.
Smith adds, “It’s unlike anything on the market today. PROTECTOR is a technologically advanced, yet flexible product suite that grows with the family by providing controls as needs and situations change – from a child’s first mobile phone through the critical teenage years. PROTECTOR adapts as children mature. Through a simple, user-friendly interface, parents can modify parameters or rules anytime.”
TASER will introduce PROTECTOR at CES from booth SOUTH 4 36200 in the Las Vegas Convention Center Thursday, January 7 through Sunday, January 10, 2010. PROTECTOR is anticipated to launch as a subscription service in mid 2010. More information will be available at www.PROTECTOR.com on January 7, 2010.
If you’re interested, you can purchase the mount for $19.99 today from NewerTech or OWC direct by visiting http://www.newertech.com/products/iphwinmount.php.
SvenOnTech is requesting a review unit and will let you know how this works out once we get it.
Magellan, one of the leading GPS brands, today announced an innovative new vehicle mount for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and second generation iPod touch. With a built-in GPS receiver for improved navigation accuracy, the Premium Car Kit features an amplified speaker for crystal clear directions and enhanced Bluetooth hands-free calling and clear turn-by-turn directions.
For iPod touch 2G users, the GPS receiver in the Magellan Premium Car Kit allows true navigation functionality, turning the iPod touch into a complete car navigation system. Once the iPod touch is connected to the Premium Car Kit, a separate Bluetooth enabled mobile phone can be connected to it via Bluetooth for hands-free calling.
“Building on the ease of the Magellan RoadMate app, we are proud to introduce a cutting-edge Premium Car Kit that gives our consumers the entire in-car navigation experience from their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Peggy Fong, Chief Operating Officer for Magellan.
Features of the Premium Car Kit include the following:
Secure vehicle mounting for iPhone or iPod touch
Accommodates most silicon skins and hard shell cases
Adjustable mount securely rotates iPhone to either portrait or landscape mode for optimal positioning and widescreen route display
Recharges battery via the vehicle power outlet
Amplified speaker with volume control for loud and clear phone calls and directions
Noise canceling microphone for full duplex speakerphone operation
Auxiliary audio output (for connection to your car stereo)
Works with all navigation applications (including the Magellan RoadMate for iPhone application)
Bluetooth enables hands-free calling
Available now for pre-order, the car kit will retail for $129.99 and will be available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, and MagellanGPS.com.
Good.iWare announces the launch of GoodReader Lite, a free version of its document viewer for iPhone and iPod Touch. GoodReader Lite is identical to the full version in the number of features, but limits the user to storing five files only at any given time.
As with the full version, GoodReader Lite excels at enabling iPhone and iPod Touch users to open and view very large PDF and TXT files. The app offers text search capabilities, plus active hyperlinks, enabling users to more easily navigate within the document or launch a linked document or website.
GoodReader Lite also simplifies reading large TXT documents with its Auto-scroll feature, which offers variable speed controls to make reading the document an easy hands-off operation. To make it easier to view large PDFs, GoodReader and GoodReader Lite both offer “PDF Reflow” – a long sought-after feature in which text is extracted from a PDF page (stripping out pictures) and displayed as a simple TXT file. While in PDF Reflow mode, both versions of GoodReader eliminate annoying page margins and offer word-wrapping and formatting features such as font size and text color.
File sharing and management are simplified with the ability to Zip / Unzip files, as well as standard file operations, such as copy, paste, rename and delete, providing a computer-like file management experience. GoodReader and GoodReader Lite both provide access to MobileMe iDisk, box.net, MyDisk.se, and many other file-storage servers for both downloading and uploading files.
GoodReader Lite is available as a free download from Apple’s App Store. The full version with unlimited document viewing is regularly priced at US$4.99, but is available for a limited time at only US$.99.
Electric Pocket has released FestiveTones — a holiday version of its MailTones app for iPhone — so now you can set certain holiday tones to play when specific people send you emails. The collection of alert tones include sleigh bells, brass bands and carols.
With FestiveTones, iPhone users can set a holiday tone for a specific user, or one for all incoming emails from a specific domain – making it easy to recognize incoming emails from work colleagues, family members, buddies, or customers.
FestiveTones can optionally pop up on the screen and display the sender and subject of an incoming email so you can know instantly whether or not they need to launch the Mail app to read the message.
The link to the iTunes App Store page is http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/festivetones-holiday-email-sounds/id343008779?mt=8. The MailTones website is www.mailtones.com. The app retails for US$1.99.
If you’re looking for a case to slip your iPhone into or better yet, one to hold your iPhone while jogging, then we have two Uniea cases for you to take a look at. The U-Motion and U-Touch are fine examples of quality workmanship but how do they hold up, um, holding your iPhone?
Read the U-Motion review for the digs on ultimate joggers case for the iPhone.
Read the U-Touch review to see if your iPhone should slip into this Uniea case.
So you’re sitting in the comforts of your warm home and your car is parked out front all cold and uninviting? Bundle up and tackle that frigid automobile until the heater makes things nice or you can pull out your iPhone and just start it from your couch!
Viper has just announced the Vehicle Remote Start & Security application for the iPhone (with limited support for the iPod touch) that when coupled with a $500 box installed to your vehicle will let you remotely start the car, toggle the locks, pop the trunk, and beep the horn. The application works with multiple vehicles equipped with the Viper hardware and is only limited to cellular connection for the vehicle and Wi-Fi or a cellular connection on your iPhone.
Viper has a pretty sweet demo on its Facebook fan page with an option to win one of these cool remote devices.
While I love this whole set up, I have to say, $500 is a pricey for just starting your car and unlocking it. Still, really cool idea and makes OnStar that much lamer. 
Hey, if you’re looking to notified via a pop-up message and a unique sound from a specific person, group, domain, or by subject line, then you’ll need to take a look at our review of the program for the iPhone called MailTones. Fully utilizing Apple’s Push Notification, MailTones will help you keep up on who’s emailing you without having to even pull your iPhone from your pocket.
If you in search for some sweet sounds coming out of your iPhone, or any other music device, then you must read the review we just put up for the AKG K 450. Impressive stuff from a well known audiophile company, the AKG K 450 may well be just the best solution for your sweet ears while jamming to the latest from the iTunes store.
Keep your eyes posted to our site for more great reviews coming your way!
In the recent return of Steve Jobs running the dog and pony show for the Designed in Cupertino company, Apple’s iCEO positioned the iPod touch, running the iPhone OS, as a gaming device more than just an iPhone minus the phone at last months iPod update gala. That said, there was no mention of taking games to the next level with a gamepad accessory that would just attach to that connector port on the iPod touch or iPhone. One will find a developer showing off their, excuse the pun, fruits in the tune of a video featuring the iControlPad playing a first-person shooter…via a jailbroken iPhone…with no availability date. Proof of concept but Scott Forstall of Apple did the same thing with the blood pressure slide at the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement, too.
But wait! There is hope. TomTom has a nice video on its site featuring a cradle for the iPhone that assists its iPhone GPS application that I told you about way back in March. My source at TomTom tells me that this cradle, which possess a GPS antenna and speaker, that uses the iPhone Connector will be out sometime this month. If this become reality, then TomTom will be the first application to speak to hardware via the iPhone Connector on the market. I would caution you not look for it at Best Buy anytime soon but it might just show up in your pillow case while trick-or-treating at the end of the month….at Best Buy, of course.
Hopefully we’ll see a flurry of hardware devices that will take advantage of Apple’s gateway to all-things accessories such as keyboards, gamepads, speakers, and maybe even monitors for video viewing (Virgin America are you reading this?!) I have to think that Apple didn’t just put an API into the iPhone to only let a good thing die. No, I think something wonderful is upon the horizon but gosh darn it, I want it now!