Well, it's about time. That old IR standard has been around forever, and although it has worked pretty well, we are due for something better. I don't know about any of you, but I'm sick of waving my remote around aimlessly, flailing like some helpless camper shoing away a swarm of mosquitos, hoping against all hope that my wimpy little IR remote can command my stereo, TV, DVD player, what have you, to do my bidding just so I don't have to get my lazy butt off the couch.
Never mind that I probably could use the exercise. Never mind that it probably would take less time for me to get up and walk the five feet to my box and hit the power button. It's the principle of the matter. I want to be in control. I'm a man. And that's what we do.
Now, finally....FINALLY, we have hope. We the advent of TI's new low-power bluetooth, we should start to see a raft of new, radio-frequency [RF] based remote control systems which perform great, and don't cost an arm and a leg.
Now don't get too excited. There is still a lot of stuff that has to happen. TI will release the parts early next year. That means the earliest you'll see real, viable products will be Xmas 2010. And even then, they will be 1.0 products, which I never trust. Still further, remote controls need to be linked to a compatible receiver. That means, at least for your existing equipment, you'll need to buy a compatible box that links up to all your existing gear with IR repeaters. That's fine with me, since I do that already in order to hide by equipment in a cabinet. But you may not. In any event, I don't see a lot of folks scrambling to throw out all their old stuff just to get a cool new remote.
So this will take time, just like any new standard. But it will happen.
And when it does...no more arm flapping. Cool!
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