Square Connect turns your iPhone into a remote control
Maybe the iPhone should be called the "Jesus Phone" after all. SquareConnect is creating an application that turns your iPhone (or iPod touch) into a remote control for all of the consumer electronics gadgets in your home.
SquareConnect chief executive Mat Henshall said that the company can turn the four-inch display of the iPhone into a virtual remote control for any consumer electronics gadget that ordinarily requires a separate remote. You could use an iPhone to control a DVD player, a Blu-ray player, an Apple TV set-top box, an Xbox 360 game console, a video cassette recorder, and your TV. Henshall unveiled the product at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
The solution is fairly simple. You download the Dot Control application to the iPhone or iPod touch. Since the iPhone doesn’t have an infrared control, the solution requires some hardware. This hardware box can take commands from the iPhone via Wi-Fi networking and then it converts the commands into IR commands. You can add new devices using your computer or the iPhone itself.