By Staff Writer – John Federico (@gadgetboy)

Through some clever apps, the iPhone and iPod Touch have been turned into remote controls for a variety of devices and software products including one of my favorite applications, boxee.

Today, Startup hardware company ThinkFlood released the RedEye universal remote control system for the iPhone and iPod Touch that controls everything exept your dog and the kids.

After downloading the free RedEye application from the iTunes App Store, (and forking over $188 for the RedEye base station) you place the unit in the same room as the equipment you want to control. The iPhone or iPod touch communicates with the base station over your wifi network to control TVs, DVRs, stereos, gaming equipment and other gadgety goodness.


Don’t know if, say, your cable set top box is supported? You can download codes from RedEye’s global code database, which is updated regularly. The RedEye also has a learning function, which enables you to program commands using an existing device remote.

The system offers “activity-based control,” which means you can program it to execute a series of commands with only one touch. Only the buttons appropriate to the activity appear on the screen.

Now for the really cool stuff: Multi-Touch!

RedEye supports Apple’s Multi-Touch gestures and accelerometer controls. For example swiping two fingers down the screen can reduce volume and flicking the iPhone forward can change the channel. (Videos of the unit in action are below.)

While all this sounds great, RedEye still suffers from the same inadequacies as all other iPhone or iPod Touch remotes. The app needs to be running and wifi needs to be active on your iThing. Once the device automatically turns off, you have to wake it up and reconnect to your wifi network before you can use it.

Of course, if you leave it on, it will suck your battery dry.

It looks like a great product but the limitations of the platform would still drive me toward purchasing a Logitech Harmonay Universal Remote or one of it’s brethren.

Still, RedEye looks like a very cool product. Will you buy one?

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Tags: DVR , Gadgets , Hardware , iPhone Applications , iPod Touch Applications , iTunes App Store , RedEye Universal Remote , Television. Game Consoles , ThinkFlood , TV , Universal Remote Control