Review: tvCompass Wi-Fi Smart Remote

If you haven't noticed, we really dig remotes here at TVSnob and I think most of us forget how important remotes are until we lose one. One remote that grabs our interest is the new tvCompass Wi-Fi Smart Remote which has quite a few cool features. According to Wi-FiPlanet, the basics of the remote are:

The $299 (MSRP) Smart Remote uses the familiar wand style that most people are comfortable holding, as opposed the tabletop or two-handed designs becoming more common. The remote sports a spacious 2.2-inch color LCD atop a pair of soft keys (whose functions change depending what's on the screen), while a numeric keypad and a familiar array of several dozen function keys round out the front of the unit.
Many universal remotes use common alkaline batteries, but a Wi-Fi-enabled device like the Smart Remote would likely suck them dry over the course of a day's programming. Therefore, the Smart Remote uses its own internal and rechargeable Lithium Ion battery (define), which isn't user-accessible and is rated to last about a week (our test unit's battery was still going strong after about three days of use). The remote we tested was connected to an AC adapter for charging, but tvCompass informed us that future units would ship with a more convenient charging dock.

Here's the really cool part of the remote:

Another feature that takes advantage of the Smart Remote's connectivity is click365, which uses RSS feeds to let you access info from news, sports, weather and shopping sites (such as Amazon.com) directly through the remote. You can't actually make product purchases through the remote (at least, not yet) and some feeds simply present an abstract and send more detailed information to you via e-mail. At the moment there are only a handful of feeds available and you can't add your own custom feeds, though tvCompass says that ability will be forthcoming.

While reading RSS feeds on a remote may not be for everyone, it's neat to see how remote controls keep evolving into mini-network appliances.

At Wi-FiPlanet.com

More at tvCompass Website

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April 13, 2007

Review: tvCompass Wi-Fi Smart Remote