CES 2009

(Credit: Amulet Devices)

I've got a pretty awesome remote control. I'm a home theater nerd, so it's a must. But the new Amulet Remote by 2-year old Irish start-up Amulet Devices does something mine does not: respond to voice commands.

I can see why this device--demoed this week at CES--would be handy to some people. Even if you lose the remote in the couch cushions, you can still yell, "Turn it up!" and not have to leave your La-Z-Boy.

The downside I can easily see is that if your family is anything like mine was growing up, this thing would go schizoid. I'd be yelling for Transformers while my brother would be yelling for Thundercats. If channels 11 and 12 had just scheduled them in different time slots my brother wouldn't have that scar on his chin.

Anyway, the remote is for more than just changing channels. It's smart enough to run your Windows Media Center. That part is pretty cool. According to the company, you could, for example, tell it to "Play Coldplay," and it would. (We'd recommend a less rip-offy band though.)

It's not the first voice control solution for Media Center, but combining the technology into a remote you'd need anyway makes for a pretty slick device if you're going that route. No word on pricing yet, but the Amulet is set to ship in March.

I hope I can hack it to work with my Apple TV.

TrueMotion remote is set to ship in December.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Imagine playing baseball on Nintendo's Wii Sports and being able to pull the ball to left field or lay down a bunt instead of just randomly smacking doubles or home runs.

A Silicon Valley company says its take on motion-control technology will offer far more accuracy to such games. CNET got the first look at the technology here at CES 2009.

Sixense Entertainment, based in Los Gatos, Calif., makes the technology called TrueMotion, which was first developed to track the head positioning of F-16 and F-18 jet pilots. It consists of a handset and a base station. The controller tracks movement along six different axes, and the base station generates a very weak magnetic field. The data is used to determine the exact position of the cursor on the screen.

Nintendo's Wiimote, by contrast, uses three axes and measures the acceleration of the handset, not the absolute position of the remote. Using the absolute position allows people playing motion-control games, such as baseball, bowling, or soccer, to "use real world skills," said Sixense CTO and Chief Architect Jeff Bellinghausen. As in, if you know how to play baseball, TrueMotion lets you make strategic plays, like hitting a bloop single to left or a double to right.

But TrueMotion also makes a difference in how games are developed, according to Sixense CEO Amir Rubin. TrueMotion measures the exact degree of position of the remote every 10 milliseconds. When developers know the exact position of the cursor, there's less need to develop complex algorithms for games just to compensate for not knowing where the cursor is.

The first incarnation will be available in December for PC gaming. It will be backward compatible with a number of popular gaming titles, such as Crysis, Call of Duty 4, and the Madden and NBA Live series.

Big game makers have already had the TrueMotion development kit for a year. By the time the PC gaming version is released, they will have had two years to play around with it.

And although it's not announcing anything yet, Sixense says it is in talks with all three console makers--Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo--about licensing its technology. TrueMotion for console games won't be available until 2010 at the earliest.

Here's a video I took of Bellinghausen, demonstrating how TrueMotion technology works.

LAS VEGAS--Verizon will soon allow some Fios TV customers to remotely access their DVRs online from a computer or via a Verizon Wireless cell phone, the company is expected to announce Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show that it.

Using the remote access service, Fios TV subscribers are able to remotely review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listings, and set parental controls.

The remote control service can be accessed through the Fios TV Web site or by using downloadable software on select Verizon Wireless handsets, including the LG enV2, LG Voyager and LG Chocolate 2 handsets. Other handsets will get the remote DVR capability in the future, the company said.

The new service is free to subscribers who have the Home Media DVR, which allows subscribers to record a show in one room and watch it in up to six other rooms.

Verizon demonstrated the new service in October at a special press event held at Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir's Manhattan apartment. Cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications, had high hopes of offering a similar remote DVR programming service through a joint venture they had formed three years ago with Sprint Nextel. But that initiative never really got off the ground.

Tivo, which essentially invented the DVR market, announced in November that it is launching a cell phone-friendly Web site that will allow users to search programming and set their TiVo DVRs remotely. TiVo Mobile will be a free service available "with any Internet-enabled phone through any network, regardless of carrier," the company said.

In addition to the remote DVR function, Verizon also plans to announce Thursday that it's now offering 100 or more channels of high-definition (HD) television in every market where the TV service is offered.

The Acoustic Research XSight Touch AARX18G (with cradle) may give Harmony a run for its money.

(Credit: Acoustic Research)

Acoustic Research (a brand of Audiovox) has unveiled two new universal remotes that users can program directly (using a built-in code library) or via a PC. Both new models--dubbed "XSight"--look to be worthwhile contenders to our current favorite universal remote, the Logitech Harmony One.

The XSight Color AARX15G is the step-down model, but it still packs a wallop.'

(Credit: Acoustic Research)

Like that Logitech model--which costs between $200 and $250--the designs of the Acoustic Research XSight remotes mix hard buttons and color screens, and allow for task-based macro programming ("watch TV," "watch Blu-ray movie," etc.). But the XSight models one-up the Harmony with multiple user profiles and favorite channels lists, and the flexibility to be programmed directly from the remote or via a PC, depending upon the user's preferences. The built-in setup wizard lets you choose the make and model of your components, and cycles through possible control codes until it hits the right one.

The top of the line XSight Touch (model ARRX18G, $250) includes a 2.2-inch color touch screen and controls up to 18 devices. It includes a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and the included charging cradle is angled so the remote can still be operated even while it's docked. But the big improvement over the Harmony is the inclusion of built-in RF capability; add the $100 RF Extender Kit, and you can operate components outside your line of sight (such as those in a closed cabinet, or even in another room).

The XSight Color (model ARRX15G, $180) is the step-down model. It's the same basic design, but it controls 15 devices rather than 18, its color screen isn't touch sensitive, it uses standard AA batteries (no charging cradle), and it's got no RF option.

Both remotes should be available in the spring of 2009. We'll have complete reviews of them once they're released.

(Credit: Logitech)

When Logitech released the Harmony 1000 in 2007, we were disappointed that the tablet-style remote wasn't easily customizable and that the response time of its 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen wasn't quite as zippy as we would've liked. Two years on, it looks like Logitech has finally taken those criticisms to heart. The new Harmony 1100 includes the ability to customize the on-screen buttons, and its new Flash-based OS (and faster processor) should make for a smoother user experience. Those improvements--plus the black color scheme--look to be the only major changes from the 1000, so the new model should have all of the now-standard perks we've come to expect from Logitech's Harmony line (Web-aided programming via Windows and Mac PCs, task-based control, compatibility with tens of thousands of devices). Unfortunately, the Harmony 1100 will retain the original model's sky-high $500 asking price when it debuts in February 2009--and anyone wanting to take advantage of the remote's RF control features will need to invest another $100 or so in a separate RF-to-IR dongle. Meanwhile, those of us waiting for an update of the Logitech Harmony One that offers RF (or maybe even Bluetooth, for those pesky PS3s) are out of luck; the Harmony 1100 is the company's only new remote for now.

Note: This post has been updated to correctly reflect the features of the original Harmony 1000 model.

(Credit: Philips)

The Philips universal remote line has a new top dog. The Prestigo SRT9320 combines a 2.8-inch color touch screen on the top half with hard buttons on the lower portion. The screen handles both channel favorites (replete with familiar icon logos) and customized commands. The SRT9320 can control up to 20 devices, and it's completely programmable as-is--including learning modes and multidevice macros--without the need to connect it to a PC. (A USB port is included only for future software updates--presumably things like additional channel icons.)

While the Prestigo SRT9320 has a premium $249 price tag, it's missing such high-end niceties as RF control and a charging cradle. And while Philips touts the fact that you don't need a PC to program the SRT9320, we've found that to be a big advantage when dealing with sophisticated multidevice macros (something the task-based Logitech Harmony models handle with aplomb). By comparison, the Logitech Harmony One also has a touch-screen/keypad design (and a rechargeable battery), and it can be found for less than $200.

The SRT9320 will be available in the first quarter of 2009. In the meantime, a trio of more affordable Philips Prestigo models are currently available, all of which include a color LCD screen: the SRU8008 (controls 8 devices, priced below $100); the SRU8112 (12 devices, scrollwheel, also sub-$100); and the SRU8015 (15 devices, scrollwheel, wider form factor, under $180).