Has anyone used this?

With the price of a Harmony or similar remote I'm thinking of using something like this in the new house. I guess you could programme it to turn TV & amp on/off together etc?

I have a similar concept on my Android phone however it uses the Wifi to access the LAN and talk to my MythTV's TCP control port. Works great for control and is responsive etc.

However the issue is that you can't leave the screen backlight on all the time or it will run the battery flat in some hours. So when the screen goes off, it locks the screen which means each time you pick it up you have to unlock it. I guess you could disable the lock screen temporarily or it might be an old device you are using.

Would probably be OK for one off events such as setting an air conditioner on or bringing down a motorised screen. Or maybe just the "off" and "on" processes of your system. You'd then use the regular remotes. Kind of half baked then.

The other issue is the touch screen is not so easy to hit the right buttons when you're looking at the TV. This is where you kind of need physical buttons to help guide your fingers. Even with quite large soft buttons on the screen your fingers can get lost if you aren't looking particularly if you need to change buttons.

I'd probably say get a Logitech, URC or Philips type universal remote. They can be quite cheap and are quite powerful.

Do you not think their 'mini' product is incredibly clumsy and badly thought out? Why would you want to have that great big infrared emitter sticking out the top?

Their wifi-based products look to me to be a much better idea. There are several other products on the market like that. I very briefly thought at about buying this one. I ended up buying a Harmony 700, as Shonky has eluded to, real buttons are great when you're not looking at the remote.

Well, the thing sticking out of the top isn't ideal, but it is one less "thing" to have cluttering up the place. I was also thinking that it might be the tool to set up easier ways to let my in laws play radio etc without external intervention. Maybe a nice big onscreen button that said "Radio" that turned on the amp and let them tune into the shouty talk show station of their choice.

I'll take a look at the Harmony too, but my biggest concern was ease of use. Neither MIL or FIL can work our old style OFA remote without a bit of help, and they're clueless when it comes to radio off the squeezebox.

Just looked at the 700, that many buttons on a single device would send MIL & FIL into shock.

see my posts here about the L5 remote dongle. it works. i like. can do macros.