A CES Innovations award winner, Motorola's new SimpleFi system. Essentially, it's a two piece device that allows you to stream music from your computer to your home theater setup. In the photograph, we can see the device that hooks up to your computer and allows you to put together a "play list" of music files.
Click for a Larger Image
The second photograph shows the wireless receiver, that part that's hooked to a home theater system just like another source device. You can play your playlist of pre-recorded files, or you can directly stream music through broadband connections. [JHG]
Click for a Larger Image The Harmony remote from Easy Zapper Inc of Toronto, Canada, is a CES 2002 Innovations award winner. The concept of the internet-connected remote control has been around for a few years now but never seems to have caught on with consumers. The Harmony may be the one to break through, because it does not attempt to do too much at once. On the basic level the Harmony controls the usual range of home entertainment devices, TV, VCR and DVD player, but in event based ("watch TV", "watch DVD") manner, where the menu options displayed on the LCD screen change according to the activity selected. Click for a Larger Image
Not much revolutionary there, buy here's the clever stuff: with a PC connection (Windows 98 and later, USB only), TV listings can be downloaded to the Harmony turning it into a handheld TV Guide. The user can scroll through the stored TV listings using the remote's screen, and change channel accordingly, eliminating the need to channel-surf aimlessly to see what's on. The Zap button provides additional functionality: click it when something on TV piques your interest and the next time you connect the unit to your PC, further details about the zapped show will be available on your HarmonyRemote.com member page. Available now from HarmonyRemote.com for $199.
The software powering the Harmony is also available for the Palm
platform, enabling it to perform in the same manner. Please refer to Easy Zapper for more details. A version for the Pocket PC platform is
promised for the near future and a .ccf file for the Philips Pronto
later in the year. [NRP]
See more of the Harmony in our Emerging Technologies section...
Click for a Larger Image
The second photograph shows the wireless receiver, that part that's hooked to a home theater system just like another source device. You can play your playlist of pre-recorded files, or you can directly stream music through broadband connections. [JHG]
Click for a Larger Image The Harmony remote from Easy Zapper Inc of Toronto, Canada, is a CES 2002 Innovations award winner. The concept of the internet-connected remote control has been around for a few years now but never seems to have caught on with consumers. The Harmony may be the one to break through, because it does not attempt to do too much at once. On the basic level the Harmony controls the usual range of home entertainment devices, TV, VCR and DVD player, but in event based ("watch TV", "watch DVD") manner, where the menu options displayed on the LCD screen change according to the activity selected. Click for a Larger Image
Not much revolutionary there, buy here's the clever stuff: with a PC connection (Windows 98 and later, USB only), TV listings can be downloaded to the Harmony turning it into a handheld TV Guide. The user can scroll through the stored TV listings using the remote's screen, and change channel accordingly, eliminating the need to channel-surf aimlessly to see what's on. The Zap button provides additional functionality: click it when something on TV piques your interest and the next time you connect the unit to your PC, further details about the zapped show will be available on your HarmonyRemote.com member page. Available now from HarmonyRemote.com for $199.
The software powering the Harmony is also available for the Palm
platform, enabling it to perform in the same manner. Please refer to Easy Zapper for more details. A version for the Pocket PC platform is
promised for the near future and a .ccf file for the Philips Pronto
later in the year. [NRP]
See more of the Harmony in our Emerging Technologies section...