iPhone or Remote Control?

The list of applications for your iPhone is becoming more and more fun, and in many ways, useful. Sure it's great to be able to practice guitar licks from your iPhone, but what if you could control your home automation system?  Networked audio system?  Even turn on and off lights when you're not at home?

Companies have been making systems that do this for years, but now they're folding their technology into an iPhone app to make it even more appealling, especially for people who never thought they would do an automated home.

While some companies want to see the iPhone as a way to monitor an existing system, why can't it just replace the main home controller, and do it all from the iPhone? Some companies known for doing it all, such as Crestron, are doing just that.

Keep reading to see what some companies are doing.

From a report on Electronic House:

“People depend on their mobile devices for communication and entertainment. Now those same devices can be used to control the home,” says Chuck Hudson, co-founder of Control UI, a software development firm that collaborated with home control systems manufacturer Control4 to develop a software application for the iPhone and iPod touch.

“Our HomeWorks processor has always supported ‘web keypads,’ which are a capability that lets homeowners access the system through a web browser,” says Phil Scheetz, Lutron home systems marketing manager. “The native iPhone application basically takes that same information and reformats it so that it fits perfectly on the screen of the iPhone.”

We're becoming completely dependent on our phones, now our homes can be as well. --Leslie Shapiro

Electronic House

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