One Remote Fits All

Om Malik, Monday, December 26, 2005 at 1:00 PM PT Comments (9)

Florida-based OpenPeak is about to introduce a brand new remote (most likely at CES) that can do it all. According to their PR firm, “Simple Remote, is part movie/IM command screen, part electronic program guide, part VoIP phone, and an all-in-one remote that controls appliances, TVs, garage doors, and stereos. It’s WIFI enabled and music can be streamed to it by using headphones.” Sounds a tad too much, but it sure would be nice to get rid of everything that clutters the coffee table…

This is the kind of remote I had imagined could be a big opportunity, but apparently the money crowd didn’t think it was a good idea then. (Read, Remote, Mouse of the Digital Lifestyle)

In case you were wondering, like I was, can this be true? We shall wait and see, but apparently, Open Peak is the company that makes the software that goes inside Philips iPronto Netx 6400 WiFi-IR Bridge, a remote-WiFi bridge. The Boca Raton, Florida based company has some heavy weights on its board of directors including former Apple CEO John Sculley; J. Tomilson Hill III, Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group; and Mort Topfer, Managing Director of Castletop Capital and former Vice Chairman of Dell.

Rating: 60% Thumbs Up Thumbs Down

2 trackbacks so far

December 27th, 2005
2:00 AM PT
Gadget.nl said:

[...] (Via Gigaom.com) var star_green = new Image; var star_yellow = new Image; var star_spacer = new Image; star_green.src = ‘/images/layout/user_stars_green.gif’; star_yellow.src = ‘/images/layout/user_stars_yellow.gif’; star_spacer.src = ‘/images/layout/user_stars_spacer.gif’; function select_stars(selected) { var i; var image_id; for (i=1; i Log in om zelf te beoordelen. E-mail dit artikel | Link < Blu-ray-fikker [...]

January 27th, 2006
9:12 AM PT

[...] Anyway, I think there is a big market for all sorts of internet devices… not just laptops, desktops and phones. Some are going to be general browsing devices, like the 770, or application specific, like some of the stuff I’ve been reading about internet-aware universal remotes. [...]

7 comments so far

December 26th, 2005
3:15 PM PT
Anona said:

“heavy weights on its board of directors including former Apple CEO John Sculley”

Right there, kiss of death!

December 26th, 2005
3:32 PM PT
LG said:

Now if only they’d included Apple’s Jonathan Ives in that list, and they might have had a saleable product.
My god, that thing’s hideous! They’d have to pay me to put that thing in my house. I’m all for convenience, but I don’t think I could stomach looking at that thing

December 26th, 2005
5:02 PM PT
Xavier Itzmann said:

I like how it resembles my B&O remote.

If it can control my B&O, Lutron, and Apple products, I am sold.

December 26th, 2005
11:38 PM PT
Paul Jardine said:

Who are they competing with? Sears Tower? A few inches more and they’d be on the flight path.
Another ‘All things to all men’ solution. If they just made my Symbian/MS Mobile phone (which has IR) able to control my TV (or any other consumer IR device), then it would be fine.

December 27th, 2005
12:58 PM PT
John C said:

I saw it at a preview and it is a great size and also feels really nice and solid. The screen is amazing - it blew my mobile away. The setup they demo’d was cool. (as always YMMV)

January 30th, 2006
3:41 PM PT
ali said:

So this sounds great. But where can I buy it. Open peak doze not reply my mail and I cant find it some were else on the net. Do any one know if a company has OEM it ??..

February 1st, 2006
9:19 AM PT
ali said:

Any one know the price of this gadget…OpenPeak told me that it will be out in the market on OEM bases around aug…

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