Filed under: Reviews

There are a few options for turning your iPhone into a home entertainment remote control, but I recently got a chance to try out the POWER A, and it's become my current favorite. The hardware portion of the POWER A package has been available for a while now, but the iPhone App that accompanies it has a new version due out any time now. It was submitted to the App Store on Monday, but I got a chance to try it out with a review unit and put it through its paces.

The hardware portion, which works with the iPhone 3G and 3GS, is great: it's a low-profile, hard plastic case that fits around the iPhone. Unlike other solutions which leave a dongle sticking out of the iPhone, it gives you a smooth, solid body with nothing to break off. It uses next to no battery power, and the increase in the phone's form factor is minimal.

The case comes in two halves which slide onto either side of the phone, connecting in the middle. It even comes with an additional, non-IR half, just in case you like the case so much that you want to use it even when it's not functioning as your universal remote.

The IR blaster is positioned on the dock end of the iPhone, and the resulting upside-down-factor is compensated for in the software by auto-rotating your screen when it launches. Despite the appearance of frailty that might be perceived in its translucent plastic, it's been a very sturdy piece of hardware that has held up quite well to my clumsiness (and my dogs' curiosity).

While vital to the package, the hardware is nothing but pretty without the software ...

Let's face it: paying bills is not fun. There's the $75-plus monthly AT&T bill (assuming $40 voice + $30 data + $5 text messages) for your iPhone, the $25-plus broadband bill that your iPhone, iPad, and Mac use, as well as a host of other recurring bills that make life that much more fun and, well, livable: gas, electricity, water, car payments, etc. While paying your bills and watching your bank account decrease at the same time may not necessarily be fun, LittleFin Software's Chronicle makes it a bit more enjoyable.

I'm writing this at the Minneapolis airport, waiting to board a plane to head for Atlanta. You see, back in 2009 we got a call from Big Nerd Ranch asking if we could send a blogger for a week, have him take part in the computer programming classes they offer there and report back on the 'developer boot camp' experience for our readers.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity -- I'm headed for the iPhone programming course now -- but I want to let our readers know up front that this week is on Big Nerd Ranch's dime. When TUAW receives a review unit or license, we return it or give it away to the readers after the review is finished. I can't return this one, though, and I can't give it away, as much as I'd love to.

There will be a standard disclaimer on the posts to follow that will reiterate the facts. On a personal level, however, I'd like to let you know that in the interest of as much objectivity as possible under the circumstances, I'll be letting the ranch speak for itself. I'll be doing interviews, shooting video and writing posts that focus on the content and the experience, rather than the quality of the courses or the advantages/drawbacks of the BNR approach versus other iPhone development training options. We report, you decide, right?

I'll be sitting down for interviews with Aaron Hillegass (Cocoa instructor, CEO of BNR and author of Cocoa Programming for OS X), as well as other instructors, staff members and hopefully some classmates. You'll get a look inside (and outside) the facility, and a peek at what goes on behind the scenes. I'm looking forward to the experience, and I hope you all can benefit by coming along for the ride.

For more detail on TUAW's policies with regard to disclosure and conflict of interest, please see here.