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Originally Posted by iraghava There's one & it's called a WIFE Since I believe you're getting one soon I think this will be taken care of!!! |
Good one, Ishan! I have one coming up soon so maybe I can save some money on such a gadget.
On a more serious note, I don't think a single Universal Remote Commander can control all the stuff you've mentioned. About music everywhere, I can offer some (wild) suggestions. Dunno much about video, though now there are a lot of WiFi video-streaming products in the market.
a)There is a solution called sonos (
Sonos Digital Music System to stream digital music wirelessly from PC to any speakers in your home) that will let you install speakers all around your house, stream music to them by WiFi and control them all with a single commander.
b) If you get an Apple Airport Express, you can hook up a hifi/amplified speakers to it. The Airport express can be in your bedroom, and your lappie in your study downstairs. You can stream Music to the speakers connected to the AAExpress from your laptop through iTunes. Though AAExpress answers only to iTunes' command, there is some free software (I've seen its reviews) that lets you hook it up to WMP also. But your laptop needs to be at hand's length and it needs to have wifi, as the lappie will be your commander/control station.
c) Taking sl no. 'b' a bit further, you can control your lappie remotely (over the internet) with a Windows Mobile PDA/Phone if you have Logmein (
www.logmein.com -- even the free version will do) installed on your Lappie/Desktop when it is connected to the internet. I do this in my place. But I don't yet have an Apple Airport Express. There are other software (usually paid for) available that lets you do this over wifi (but your lappie/Desktop and your WiMoPDA/Phone should be wifi enabled). Since my desktop (my media server) is connected to the net all the time with an unlimited connection, I prefer the internet way (and I don't need to buy the WiFi controller SW either)
d) Another thing that I do. I stream tunes directly from my Lappie to my Windows PPC 2003 PDA Phone over WiFi. I have 2 sets of powered speakers in 2 different rooms in my house. I can just connect my PDA to the speakers in whichever room I am in, and play the tunes streamed from my Lappie. Very limited range though. And this needs a Wireless Router or Access Point.
What you basically need is a wireless device to which all your surces of music can be connected (Lappie, Cd player, Worldspace Radio etc), and wireless receivers a la Airport Express in various places in your house (with powered speakers connected to them), and you're in business. Sonos (not available in India, though) could be a great solution.
A Slingbox is another similar solution.
Another solution is ORB -
MyCast your digital media with Orb 2.0 remote pc access software, but that needs your speakers to be connected to the net through some kind of interface. If you can move a Lappie/PDA around (to connect to the speakers, with the lappie/PDA connected to the 'net), and you have another machine acting as media server (this is getting too complicated), and if you have WiFi setup at home, that will work. [On second thoughts, forget this].
I went through this stage a while back, and after a lot of fiddling around with this and that, I realized that moving around with an iPod and audiophile quality earplugs was the greatest solution for locationfree music :-)