Logitech Harmony turns iPhone, iPad into a remote

so.... its like the xfinity app but when i press a button it actually changes the channel instead of saying "continue prompt on television" or whatever crap i always get where i might as well have just used my actual harmony remote...

Considering Logitech have such a bad track record with Mac support, it amazes me that anyone would even consider this.

I bought a Peel. Using an iPhone or iPad seems like a great idea, but it isn't. It just doesn't work very well. My Peel is collecting dust like a fake piece of fruit at Grandma's.

The only downside to what looks to be a kickass remote control interface (suck on that, GoogleTV!), is that I don't want to use my iPad as a remote... even though it's got an otterbox defender on it, in our house, remote controls live hazardous lives and get dropped, slid, and generally misused by my kid and well, by me, too.

Plus if I bring out the iPad, the kiddo monopolizes it immediately.

Last thing I want to worry about when watching TV is the health of the remote control.

Does TUAW have any idea on a UK release?

For 99 dollars, I'm gonna just go get a new harmony remote if mine ever breaks. I don't get the desire to use your phone as a remote. Yeah yeah you can turn an old device into a remote blah blah, but c'mon now. Have to go through the unlock screen, open the app, wait for it to load/connect, and THEN you can use it. Some devices are not meant to be conslidated, just get a remote.

By the way, harmony remotes kick ass

Not sure why Logitech thinks almost all their Harmony products should start near $100. It's just a fancy universal remote that has awful setup software. It was worth that years ago when the idea was new but not now, especially with a lot cheaper alternatives in the smartphone IR blaster/app space.

DirecTV app on the iPad does the same thing and is free.

Price point does seem a bit high for essentially a Wifi antenna with an IR transmitter.

I'll be looking forward to some reviews. This looks like it hits all the right buttons, so to speak: WiFi, so you don't have to restart it every couple of hours. Plugs in, so you don't have to worry about batteries. Controllable from multiple devices, so everyone with a compatible device can use it. Is this the only one so far that has that feature set?

Looks like you've got a typo in this article - you refer to the "snakes" as IR receivers, but from the description of the device it sounds like they are IR transmitters.