Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
We need to do something
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Want to propose special tax to every manufacturer producing anything that includes custom remote in their package.

    image

    Something around $1000 per item.

    If they use external and custom power supply, tax must be $3000.

    image

    As prophylactic measure I propose to select 5 engineers of each manufacturer to find suitable power supplies and remotes for each item in 200 ordinary homes.
    I know that life sentence is too much, but they are the authors...

  • 26 Replies sorted by
  • paulhoustonpaulhouston

    Could not agree more.

    Reminds me of Panasonic that makes great products in most categories and aspects, but they are one of the worst offenders in terms of the sheer numbers of different custom batteries and the associated chargers. For example, GH1, GH2, GF2, GF3 all have different batteries and chargers. That's nuts!!!

  • BuellerBueller

    Remotes have to be some of the worst designed products in history. I mean it's 2012.

  • punditpundit

    I had a Dell Laptop with a power adapter that contained a proprietary Dell data identification chip and a third conductor in the DC cable for data communication between the adapter and the laptop. This data conductor would fracture inside the cable after a few months causing the laptop think it wasn't connected to a genuine Dell power supply. The laptop would then resort to low performance limp mode as well as not charging the battery. In the end I had 3 power adapter failures (90 day limited warranty only on the $150 power adapters) and 2 GPU failures in 12 months and I was done with Dell.

  • RamboRambo

    Here's an idea. Iphone app that replaces ALL your remote controls.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    This data conductor would fracture inside the cable after a few months causing the laptop think it wasn't connected to a genuine Dell power supply. The laptop would then resort to low performance limp mode as well as not charging the battery.

    It seems like deapth penalty option is certainly required.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Here's an idea. Iphone app that replaces ALL your remote controls.

    It is very old idea that come to many many people :-)
    If you think a little about practical remote handling and usage you'l l realise that in reality it will be bad.

  • punditpundit

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev The Dell power adapter problem was/is very common. Many pissed off customers but Dell didn't give a toss. Dell sell many replacement power adapters at inflated prices with limited warranty. Good money for Dell.

  • TomasoTomaso

    Harmony Remote by Logitech is one Solution to the pile of remotes you normaly have. I have used it for manny years now. This kind of Solution could be implemented in an iPad or iPhone app.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    I have a Samsung Smart TV and they do an iPod app that communicates with the tv via wifi. It's great. I always have my ipod on me so it's easy to use (a plus is that you can enter text easily for doing vimeo / youtube searches, unlike the normal remote that comes with the set). You don't even need to be in the same room - although this has limited appeal unless you enjoy playing jokes on whoever's watching the TV.

    I don't know why more manufacturers don't do apps for internet-enabled gear - I think it's great.

    It's also useful when I plug my GH2 into the TV as I can use the ipod to navigate through the footage while the camera sits by the TV.

    Power bricks are a pain - I find I have to label them all up with my Dymo labeller just so I can find the right one easily.

  • johnnymjohnnym

    Great post. Capital offence then if not life sentence?

  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    How about no remotes and have people get off their asses once in a while ;)

    I think there was a move in Europe to force manufacturers to make universal power supplies for mobile phones, or was it that they much all charge via USB? Its at least a small step in all the madness.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    Or we could have an expanding pointy finger, that extends across the room and pokes the buttons on your equipment. That could work! It would be the first self-powered, device-independent universal remote.

  • dtrdtr

    The EU is slowly moving in that direction: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/06/10-companies-agree-to-standardized-mobile-phone-charger-in-eu/

    (I mean standardized chargers, not expanding fingers ;)

  • KihlianKihlian

    @dtr It was 2009, my Nokia phone bought in November still has the old Nokia charger and not the mini usb charger indicated as standard..

  • dtrdtr

    Samsung and Motorola do.

  • DazzaDazza

    Yes that is one good thing I noticed about cellphones recently, more of them are adopting micro USB as their charging interface. All this non-standardisation is just protectionist/anti-competitive behaviour by companies. Totally agree they should be taxed. The iphone doesn't have an integrated IR sender, unlike a lot of other cellphones. Not to worry, if Apple ever get around to introducing it, they'll announce it as revolutionary and groundbreaking

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    The iphone doesn't have an integrated IR sender, unlike a lot of other cellphones.

    I have doubts about "unlike a lot of other cellphones".

  • DazzaDazza

    well a lot of other cellphones in the same class, rather than comparing them with entry grade models. Though it has become less common nowadays than it use to be where you would have IR in every corporate laptop

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @Dazza

    Can you tell me modern smartphones that have integrated IR?

  • DazzaDazza

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    You're right IR has gone the way of the Dodo. The only smartphone that I could fine that had is is a Nokia 900.

  • ManceMance

    Interesting thread.

  • ppcroftppcroft

    All smartphone based IR remotes need an IR dongle to be attached to the phone to transmit IR signals, AFAIK. While this iPhone/iPad/Android based remotes can be cool to show off, they are just a pain in the ass to operate for regular viewing. Nothing beats hard buttons for remote operation and I don't like to look at the screen to press a button. There is also the question of using expensive smart phones to do the donkey work that remotes are supposed to do, especially where kids are involved.

    I am not even a fan of IR remotes, except for the fact that IR remotes can be learned by universal remotes. For relatively inexpensive solutions, RF remotes are the way to go and once used, there is no going back (Of course most RF based remotes only do RF-IR conversion). I used $50 Xsight18 RF remote with Nevo REX-433 RF base ($70) and now I control all my home theater including PS3 (with the help of IR to Bluetooth dongle) with it. No need for line of sight operation, you can hide your equipment and operate the remote even from bedroom to switch off the all equipment. All my OEM remotes are now gathering dust.

    I feel Harmony, especially their newer models, while having a great database and ease of setup are crippled and lacks some critical functions like macros. They are not great value for money either.

    Honestly if all manufacturer's can make the remote as an optional purchase and make available the IR code available on their website and also make it available to Universal remote code manufacturers, it will go a long way to save the remote clutter. Not that it is going to happen, since who will pass the cash cow to another company :-). There is also the practical side; it is very difficult to make one-fits-all kind of remote, especially in the rapidly changing electronics industry where newer features are added every now and then.

  • goannagoanna

    Obviously all the appliance manufacturers did their research by asking us what we wanted.

    I, for one, asked for a separate remote for each appliance, of approximately the same dimensions, and black. Black matches the other remotes. Black doesn't show the dirt, it's cool and it matches all the dark corners in the room.

  • jpbturbojpbturbo

    I have all my music ripped to a music server running XBMC and have used the XBMC Remote Android app to control it over my wifi. At my old job we had set up some of our smart classrooms with serial to IR adapters so that the consumer equipment like VHS/Laserdisc players could be controlled from the computer via a small application.

    One of the biggest problems to me is the devices that require the remote to access advanced control features. Why I can't select the component input on my TV without the remote is beyond me!

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    @goanna Also of course it must feature a one-way liquid ingress and retention function.

Add a Comment