Peel is looking at turning your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into a all bells and whistles universal remote control.
With Peel’s new Wi-Fi “fruit”, your iOS device will be able to find your favorite TV shows, recommend programs to you, also being able to operat your home theater system and posting your reviews on Facebook or Twitter.
Peel is the maker of a free iPhone app launched in October that’s like a mashup of TV Guide, Netflix and Flixter. The app lets you use your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to search for your favorite TV shows, giving you time and channel information. It recommends more TV based on the shows you liked and then hooks you up with social networking sites so you can chat about your favorites.
Peel has also taken the next step in turning the app into a TV controller. Instead of buttons and onscreen menus, you would use the iOS device’s gesture based interface. It finds the shows, changes channels, adjusts volume, all the controls you expect from a universal type remote control.
The Peel hardware consists of two pieces: the Peel cable and Wi-Fi-enabled Peel fruit. There aren’t a lot of details available yet on the system and we’ve pressed Peel to tell us more.
Peel says: “The fruit so named because it was designed by Yves Behar of fuseproject to look like an orange must sit within line-of-sight of a user’s entertainment system. The cable plugs into a power outlet and an Ethernet port on a wireless router.”
Like all universal controls, Peel also promises that its system works with thousands of models of TVs, DVD and Blu-ray players, cable and satellite boxes, Internet connected streaming devices like Roku, Tivo and Apple TV, and home theater receivers. It does however require iOS 3 or above.
As for the price, the company wants prospective customers to log onto its Web site and vote on what price they would be willing to pay although it does suggest that “comparable systems cost about $200″. The company say they have some test units that it’s willing to give away via a “Priceline like make me an offer” deal.
http://www.worldtvpc.com/blog/app-peel-aims-turn-ipad-tv-remote/