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ZigBee finalizes low-power, RF standard for input devices, could finally kill off IR for good
Over the years of idle channel surfing and menu browsing you've surely developed some finely-honed IR shootin' skills, knowing which surfaces will and will not reflect the signals from your under-powered universal remote control as you try to bounce that beam around a pile of magazines and soda cans on the coffee table. Those skills are on a fast-track to obsolescence thanks to the new ZigBee Input Device standard, which finally could bring all TV remote controls to the world of RF wholesale. Well, it could, if it finds more success than the already existing ZigBee Remote Control spec has managed. The new Input Device standard builds on that, said to require less juice than IR so those tired and mismatched AAs could last even longer. It'll also work with mice and keyboards and the like, but naturally we're most optimistic for remotes, even though this comes a little too late to let us turn off our PS3s with our Harmonys.
Universal Remote's MX-810 gets previewed
Universal Remote's company name leaves little unsaid about what its core competencies truly are, and its latest professional-series remote recently got a bit of hands-on time with the crowd at Electronic House. The MX-810 Pro Wizard was purportedly designed to work with setups ranging from a single room to an entire home, and sports a color LCD, 44 hard buttons, RF / infrared compatibility, rechargeable Li-ion, and hot keys for powering up select groups of components. Interestingly, this unit also includes 32MB of built-in memory to store commands that control "up to 24 activities for each of 24 different devices programmed into eight LCD pages." Of course, this also means that you'll need at least a week of vacation to actually program this $399 gizmo once it hits your doorstep in July.[Photo courtesy of Tony Scarpetta]
