Universal Remote Control, Inc., the leader in control system design and manufacturing for home and professional entertainment systems, will introduces the wireless, dual-use KP-900 Wireless Keypad at this Spring’s Electronic House Expo, beginning Mar. 13 in Orlando, Florida.
The KP-900 is a powerful keypad remote that controls all audio and video equipment in a home, simplifying and automating the operation of even the most complex Home Theater system to achieve an extraordinary combination of power and flexibility. It can be mounted on a wall AND used as a handheld remote, making it ideal for retrofitting into homes with existing entertainment systems, as well as for new homes.
Universal Remote Control’s KP-900 Wireless Keypad
Four simple screws attach the KP-900’s bracket to a wall, eliminating the expense and inconvenience of running new wires or opening the wall to add new wires. The keypad can be mounted in any room, and anywhere in a room. It can be used on the wall in its bracket, independently as a handheld, or affixed to a refrigerator or other metal surface thanks to a built-in magnet. The keypad is compatible with iPods and other portable music players, and comes in three decorator-friendly finishes — white, light almond and black.
The KP-900 is equipped with a bright, easy to read, backlit LCD screen, and injection-molded backlit buttons with laser-etched labeling. Six buttons to the right of the screen are labeled based on what a user is watching or listening to, and change accordingly. Someone ‘Watching TV,’ for example, will see a list of buttons useful to that activity. If he selects ‘DVD,’ the buttons will automatically change to control the DVD — making operation of the system simple, fluid and intuitive.
To further enhance customized installation, the keypad comes with three sets of keycaps for the top buttons. One set has no labels. The other two simplify volume control (Volume Up, Mute and Volume Down) and transport control (Seek–, Shuffle and Seek+). They help installers more perfectly adapt the keypad to specific systems and user preferences, and cannot be removed once installed.
Any Room, Anywhere
Newer Technology, Inc. (NewerTech) announced its new NewerTech iPhone Accessory Line consisting of six products that add iPhone functionality and user convenience. The NewerTech iPhone Accessory Line will be debuted at Macworld, held January 15-18, 2008 in San Francisco.
The NewerTech iPhone Accessory Line includes:
- NewerTech iPhone Speaker Dock & Hands-Free Mic – speaker phone.
- NewerTech Hands-Free Mic & Earbud – hands-free communication while driving.
- NewerTech iPhone Mic Extender Cable – mic extender for hands-free use.
- NewerTech Bass Response Earbuds – noise reduction and sound quality enhancer.
- NewerTech iPhone Headphone Jack Adapter – links to headphone connectors.
- NewerTech iPhone and iPod Auto Charger - charges an iPhone or iPod while driving.
Universal Remote Control, Inc., the leader in control system design and manufacturing for home and professional entertainment systems, introduces the MX-810 Pro Wizard Remote Control, bringing a new level of programming sophistication to the operation of Home Theaters.
MX-810 Pro Wizard Remote Control
Stylish and state-of-the-art, the MX-810 provides Home Theater owners and professional installers with dedicated, custom control over single-room Home Theaters or AV entertainment systems. It’s an ideal remote for single-room Home Theater systems, as well as homes with multiple AV systems and more than one remote control, as each MX-810 remains dedicated to a single room’s equipment, complete with a user-changeable label identifying the room.
The MX-810 is also pragmatic — as easy for owners to use as it is quick for installers to program, achieving a unique synergy of power and flexibility that automates and simplifies the operation of even the most complex Home Theaters.
Featuring Radio Frequency (RF) addressability and a bright, color LCD display, the MX-810’s readiness for programming allows custom installers to put any command on any LCD page, and fully personalize the screen’s iconography for any and every user. The RF capability also eliminates the need to point the remote at whatever it’s activating, or even remain in the line of sight of any equipment. It can control components up to 100 feet away from locations throughout a home, even components concealed in cabinets or behind doors.
Power Plus Compatibility
Equally important, the MX-810 is fully compatible with URC’s pioneering MSC-400 Master System Controller. The MSC-400 seamlessly harnesses the power of sophisticated home entertainment systems, providing installers with options and advantages not otherwise available. It offers triggered macros, RS-232 and relay control, video and voltage sensors, rock-solid Narrow Band RF and many more features — taming systems’ complexity, while delivering unmatched flexibility, automation power, installation speed, and diagnostic capabilities.
The remote’s addressability feature lets it communicate with a specific location or device, like the Master Controller, and comfortably co-exist with other RF remotes in a home, and AV systems in other rooms. Read the rest of this entry »
So much is being said about the iPhone and how great it will be but interesting enough, those that can truly afford this luxury, Corporate America, is the one being ignored in all the hype. As previously stated on SvenOnTech, the iPhones lack of support for BlackBerry and Exchange Direct-Push is going to be one dubious problem for Steve Jobs to hit that announced 1% of market share by next year (2008.) At a staggering $500 a pop, most tweens are going to be left wishing they had an iPhone instead of owning one. What Steve Jobs forgot to mention at his Keynote back in January was the majority of smartphone buyers are not tweens but rather “suits”. And what are the suits looking for? E-mail. Not Yahoo e-mail, corporate e-mail. You know, stuff that plugs into HQs Exchange server or BlackBerry service without a hitch.
Without support for these two mainstream e-mail services, you can pretty much figure the iPhone is going to have issue maintaining a rise in the market share. Sure, the iPhone is going to sell out on the 29th, but that’s what happens to a limited supplied product on its premiere day after months of hype before it. But when these phones get in the hands of those users and many find no way to connect to their Exchange server, whelp, refreshed stock will be met with returned day-one sold iPhones. Heck, that’s my plan if the iPhone doesn’t support my Exchange server and I know many other professionals will be doing the same thing.
One feature the iPhone is certain not to have is the ability to remotely synchronize like Windows Mobile phones do. Boy, has this been a life saver for me more than once. Out in the middle of no-where, my phone required a hard-reset and gone is all my data. Thankfully I was able to configure my Exchange Server information and in 20 minutes, I had all my contacts, calendar, and e-mail back to where it was previously. Actually, new e-mail had arrived. The iPhone won’t have this luxury and trust me, you’ll have to do a hard-reset on the iPhone, too. As good as Apple is, nothing is perfect.
Topping it off, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated today at WWDC that they “hope” to have an SDK (developers kit) out for the iPhone (someday?) which basically means that a third-party won’t be able to even make an application to do the Exchange or Blackberry connect if it wanted to. This leaves little hope for Exchange and BlackBerry support. One can only pray that Jobs just felt like not acknowledging the support for personal reasons (hates Microsoft) and professional ones (Yahoo was on stage, not RIM). Honestly, I’m still baffled why Yahoo Mail is even supported at all! But I digress.
In short, I’m not the only one that feels this way. Forbes released a very in depth article stating all the issues with the iPhone (battery, scratches, keyboard, etc.) It’s nice to see not everyone is blinded by the hype.
I use LogMeIn for all of my clients PCs but have actually had to drop some of them from my companies support services when they moved to a Mac due to the lack of OSX support. Well, I’m happy to say, LogMeIn now offers a preview release of its superb remote control software for the Mac! Working on both PowerPC and Intel chips, LogMeIn will allow you to log into any Mac from any Mac or PC with an Internet connection. From within your browser, you’ll be able to click, drag, and type on your remote Mac’s screen. Help friends, family, or clients with computer issues by logging into remotely or connect to your Mac and edit files while away from your Mac. All for free.
I’ve already installed it on a Mac and tested the remote control feature from my Windows XP PC in Firefox as well as from my MacBook Pro’s Firefox browser. Like any other PC I’ve worked on, the Mac version worked like a charm. All features supported on the PC are replicated on the Mac, too.
Users will be able to install LogMeIn for free on any Mac by simply creating a free user account. Monthly subscriptions are offered as well which gives you features that IT departments thirst as well file transfer and printer use for a smaller monthly fee.
Thank you, LogMeIn for bringing your awesome software to the Mac! Now lets fix the screen redraw problem in the Java Viewer for the Mac! 
Many Mac users probably don’t realize that their Mac OS X has built-in capability to be remotely controlled from another Mac anywhere in the world. With Apple’s Remote Desktop, controlling anyones Mac is as easy as few clicks of approval on the host Mac. But…it’ll cost ya. $300 (minimum.)
Now, for those who do have a desire to control other Macs in their household of family members Macs in another city to assist in some technical support but wish to avert the high price, there is an alternative. A free product called Chicken of the VNC gives you the power of Apple’s product at the great rate of free. Add in HamachiX and now you’ve got free secure remote desktop control!
If you’re looking to control Macs in your local network, say work or home, then you can get the even easier Teleport. With a double click of Teleport and a firewall rule addition, you’ll be in remote control business.
Now, if you’re looking for in depth instructions and a bit more detail on these apps, then take a look at the great write up over at 5thirtyone. Derek does a fine job explaining this all and it’ll surely help you better understand these fine free applications.
BeInSync, a company that provides an all-in-one solution for consumers and small businesses to access, share and protect their data, today announced BeInSync Pro Version 3.0. BeInSync Pro Version 3.0 includes new simplified file sync, instant file sharing, remote access via a Web interface, automatic online backup and support for Microsoft Windows Vista. BeInSync leverages the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) from Amazon Web Services as the solution’s underlying infrastructure to provide its users with up to 5GB of highly reliable performance and available storage.
Managing personal and business data can be difficult and time consuming. Many users work on multiple computers and in multiple locations, travel frequently, interact and share files, needing to maintain the integrity of their data. BeInSync Pro Version 3.0 relies on patent-pending, secure peer-to-peer networking technology to create a user’s own private data network that makes it easy to stay connected and always in sync with colleagues and friends, remote files and computers. This technology eliminates the need to install costly servers, configure complex Virtual Private Networks or other remote access solutions in order to mobilize data.
Key features of BeInSync 3.0 include: Read the rest of this entry »
I’m always telling people, “It’s the little things that makes Apple stand far and wide beyond the competition.” From the way it packages its product to the ability to make any of its computers an external hard drive with a press of a key. Man, I wish all the time that I could put Windows-dead PCs into Target Mode instead of having to physically take apart the PC to gain access to the hard drive with my IDE-to-USB connector. Dell, are you reading?
Today I found another sweet “little thing”. Many Apple users know that if they have more than one bootable partition on their hard drive, they can select which on to boot from at power-up. By holding the OPTION (or ALT) key down after the Mac tone plays, a screen will appear with the various boot up options (including bootable CD or DVDs if present in the drives.) Well, what’s one to do when they purchase a non-Apple keyboard that doesn’t respond in time or the Bluetooth keyboard hasn’t yet bonded? Dig out the original keyboard? Nope, find their remote!
If you are unable to select your bootable partition with a keyboard, then simply press and hold the Menu key on your Apple Remote after the boot tone. Within seconds, you’ll see that familiar boot manager and then you’ll be able to use the volume up (+) key to make your selection and then the Play/Pause to accept that choice. Presto! Up starts your Mac in your selected drive.
Knowing that there had to be further goodies with the remote, I searched and found Wikipedia is there to give you all the delicious things you can do with your Apple Remote. Enjoy!
When I purchased my MacBook Pro the day it came out, I was really excited to try out Front Row and use the remote. The remote was the sum of all things Apple: simple. Any boy was it simple to use. No manual needed, just press and enjoy. Of course, I was bummed when we would watch movies on my wife’s Mac mini (PowerPC) due to the lack of the Apple Remote on it. While nearly every new Mac for over a year have come with an Apple Remote, the Mac Pro still doesn’t. For those with older models, like my wife’s Mac mini or my TiBook, we were pretty much out of luck.
Now you can use an Apple Remote on any Mac, past or present, with the help of one Twisted Melon. The Toronto-based company makes an infrared receiver called the Manta TR1. The receiver not only allows one to use third-party remotes with their Macs, but it also works with the Apple Remote right of the box! With links to certain sites that get you certain Front Row downloads, you can make any Mac feel like a special new Mac with that white candy-bar remote with its chocolate tip. For about $20, my wife’s Mac mini, my TiBook, or your Mac Pro will now be accepting commands from an Apple Remote!
Now that all the game consoles play DVD or Bluray discs, it seems funny that there isn’t a stream of universal remotes out there that support the PlayStations, Xboxs, and Media Center. Well there is at least one that does and its name makes sure you understand its intention: GAMER.
UR7-G2 Universal GAMER is the first universal remote control that not only works with many audio and video components in your home but also comes with keys specific to game consoles such as Xbox 360, PlayStation, PS2 & media center PCs. To be announced tomorrow in Las Vegas at CES, Universal Remote Control, Inc. will finally give gamers and audiophiles alike to use one remote. Isn’t that what a universal remote is for anyway? The GAMER will let you play, pause, and commit other movie functions as well as play a video game. Since the remote is well thought out, both lefties and righties will be able to use the remote without issue.
The Universal GAMER also packs two new features, MacroPower and SimpleSound. MacroPower ignites (or extinguish) your A/V components with a single button along with switching sources and inputs. SimpleSound gives you the “one-touch” control over volume including devices that do not have volume control natively such as TiVos, DVD players, and VCRs.
For just $49.95, this universal remote with 64 KB of non-volatile Flash memory, that’ll give you 9 dedicated macro buttons (supporting 20 commands each) that will work from 30 to 50 feet away seems mighty nice. Game on.