DESIGN MIAMI 2011
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2011
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2011
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2011
You know we loves us some Apples here at Core77 - not an unnatural thing for an industrial design fan-boy site - so we were happy to try-out an iPhone remote control that recently landed on our West Coast desk.
The tiny device helps steer the iPhone and its Borg-like assimilation of competitive electronics into another sector of our lives: the living room. The "Re", as it is called, assumes the functionality of multiple remote controls with both efficiency and precision. Plug in the nondescript dongle and it prompts you to download the app. It installs and you choose the make of the various components of your AV cluster, testing them in turn with a code suggested by the App. All four of our tested devices worked with the first code offered. A few more screens in and you've created some Meta-remotes for activities like watching a DVD; combining the necessary functions of several remotes while discarding the superfluous ones.
The only issues with it - and likely, for that matter, any iPhone-based remote - stem from the choice of host device. Sure the ubiquity and coolness make market sense but as a platform the iPhone is compromised. The soft, button-less interface enables endless custom hybrid remotes but forces the user to scrutinize the screen anytime a specific control needs to be tapped - a no-look haptic feedback system is the only thing most remotes have going for them. In a limited way it is something that could have been compensated for - How about some basic accelerometer control!? or some finger-gesture macros! - but there is still the inescapable fact that your new remote is also your phone, and when it's up next to your head an idle scroll through channels is going to be near impossible. And are you really going to use it like you would a normal remote? - throw it to a friend when you grab another round in the kitchen? hmmmm.
So will the "Re" re-place your remotes? Probably not - it is a great addition to your existing remote line-up, eliminating the need to juggle them for multi-device entertainment. Will it move you up a notch as media-geek though? Affirmative.
Check it out at NewKinetix
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