1702HTPC
January 30th, 2010, 02:31 PM
I'm a bit of a tech geek in general, but I stumbled upon this incredible application and it's the best find since boxee beta.
"Gmote (http://www.gmote.org/)" or "Droid Remote (http://phandroid.com/2009/01/05/control-your-home-computer-with-remotedroid/)" (I've used both successfully).
I have never had an Iphone, but I imagine there are similar software "apps" for iphones out there.
They allow the option to control your HTPC via your home network, or if connected to the internet like 99% of HTPCs, you can do it via your edge/3g network......in case you want to turn on your home TV from your office?
I used to use a harmony 550 remote and logitech touchpad keyboard for most/all of my home theater PC control duties.
http://base0.googlehosted.com/base_media?q=FroogleCatalog_CNETI423993.jpg&size=18&dhm=3d2a90e7&hl=en http://base0.googlehosted.com/base_media?q=http://digitalcontent.cnetchannel.com/04/b2/04b28a4d-ad2b-492d-b422-db8551d5d6f9.jpg&size=18&dhm=7cbdbbfb&hl=en
So I've got an android Cell Phone (HTC Dream, with Rogers in Canada) and its in my pocket 95% of the time. I've been using a harmony 550 remote to control my home theater system up until yesterday.
But now I'm using my cell phone, over my home network to do most of it. It's fantastic.
Without going into a lot of detail, Rogers in Canada has been having a lot of software problems with this phone and 911/GPS functionality, and are offering to buy back or 'free upgrade' a lot of HTC dream phones. In a month or two, the market will be full of cheap ($100) used HTC Dream android phones that can be used as a touch pad and full keyboard remote for your boxee player.
HTC Dream phone....soon to be available dirt cheap 2nd hand in Canada
http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/t-mobile-g1-htc-dream.jpg
No sim card or data plan required. All the software and control is done through wifi. I took the sim card out of my phone to see if this was possible, and now I'm looking for a used android phone to use as a dedicated home theater controller.
The main downfall of this is battery life. Most droid smart phones are only good for 24 hrs of daily use (i'm a heavy data user on Edge/3g, and do lots of tasks on my phone at work).
But there are plenty of fancy USB or 12v charging docks that would fit in nicely with any modern home theater setup.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N%2BFe-ZQ3L._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Hope some others try this out. If I can find a cheap android phone in the next few days, I'll be selling my harmony 550 remote and logitech touch pad keyboard.
I'm not much of a software guy, but with an IR blaster and a little bit of XML, even I'm able to get my phone on wifi to do pretty much everything my harmony can do (control my stereo, change TV channels, pause play movies, navigate through boxee, etc etc).
It even lets me stream movies from my NAS to my phone over edge/3G. I can stream my own content to my phone, anywhere!
I'm not sure how much cross pollination exists between boxee and android users, but there's a big potential for some software/app development here with the growth of android as a competitor to the Iphone. I'd speculate that inside of a year, there will be more android phones than Iphones on the market, as more and more cell manufacturers adopt android.
Cheers
1702HTPC.
"Gmote (http://www.gmote.org/)" or "Droid Remote (http://phandroid.com/2009/01/05/control-your-home-computer-with-remotedroid/)" (I've used both successfully).
I have never had an Iphone, but I imagine there are similar software "apps" for iphones out there.
They allow the option to control your HTPC via your home network, or if connected to the internet like 99% of HTPCs, you can do it via your edge/3g network......in case you want to turn on your home TV from your office?
I used to use a harmony 550 remote and logitech touchpad keyboard for most/all of my home theater PC control duties.
http://base0.googlehosted.com/base_media?q=FroogleCatalog_CNETI423993.jpg&size=18&dhm=3d2a90e7&hl=en http://base0.googlehosted.com/base_media?q=http://digitalcontent.cnetchannel.com/04/b2/04b28a4d-ad2b-492d-b422-db8551d5d6f9.jpg&size=18&dhm=7cbdbbfb&hl=en
So I've got an android Cell Phone (HTC Dream, with Rogers in Canada) and its in my pocket 95% of the time. I've been using a harmony 550 remote to control my home theater system up until yesterday.
But now I'm using my cell phone, over my home network to do most of it. It's fantastic.
Without going into a lot of detail, Rogers in Canada has been having a lot of software problems with this phone and 911/GPS functionality, and are offering to buy back or 'free upgrade' a lot of HTC dream phones. In a month or two, the market will be full of cheap ($100) used HTC Dream android phones that can be used as a touch pad and full keyboard remote for your boxee player.
HTC Dream phone....soon to be available dirt cheap 2nd hand in Canada
http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/t-mobile-g1-htc-dream.jpg
No sim card or data plan required. All the software and control is done through wifi. I took the sim card out of my phone to see if this was possible, and now I'm looking for a used android phone to use as a dedicated home theater controller.
The main downfall of this is battery life. Most droid smart phones are only good for 24 hrs of daily use (i'm a heavy data user on Edge/3g, and do lots of tasks on my phone at work).
But there are plenty of fancy USB or 12v charging docks that would fit in nicely with any modern home theater setup.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N%2BFe-ZQ3L._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Hope some others try this out. If I can find a cheap android phone in the next few days, I'll be selling my harmony 550 remote and logitech touch pad keyboard.
I'm not much of a software guy, but with an IR blaster and a little bit of XML, even I'm able to get my phone on wifi to do pretty much everything my harmony can do (control my stereo, change TV channels, pause play movies, navigate through boxee, etc etc).
It even lets me stream movies from my NAS to my phone over edge/3G. I can stream my own content to my phone, anywhere!
I'm not sure how much cross pollination exists between boxee and android users, but there's a big potential for some software/app development here with the growth of android as a competitor to the Iphone. I'd speculate that inside of a year, there will be more android phones than Iphones on the market, as more and more cell manufacturers adopt android.
Cheers
1702HTPC.