We’ve got Wired.com’s Geek Dad blog to thank for drawing our attention to this useful gadget called the RedEye ($188), which turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a universal remote that you can use to control your TV, stereo, cable and DVD player, among other things (basically anything that can receive an infrared control signal). Each person in a household can use their own iPhone/iPod touch as a controller, and more than one can be used at once. One touch will launch any activity, and the RedEye can also control different rooms from any location in your home.
To use the device, you first have to download a free app from the Apple iTunes Store, and then use the app to register your chosen devices with the RedEye. Your iPhone/iPod touch can then start to communicate with the RedEye bridge, which in turn converts the input from your iPhone to an infrared signal, which will then interact with your audio/video device, according to Geek Dad. It all seems fairly easy to use, although Geek Dad refers to some mildly frustrating elements of the set up process in his blog, but there’s a video to follow on the ThinkFlood website if you’re not too sure what to do. And as the blog concludes, what you end up with is a high-end universal remote for a fraction of the normal price you’d expect to pay for such a thing, so it’s probably worth enduring a little frustration during the initial set-up.

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