ThinkFlood, Inc

We've covered RedEye's IR dongle for the iPhone a few times. Originally, it was introduced as a complete add-on for the iPhone that allowed you to control any entertainment center reached by infrared. Over time RedEye has pushed to simplify the unit more and more, instead providing a cheaper and smaller experience. Now the company has done that again. While the original iOS app offered a lot of different customization and functionality, the new RedEye mini app offers a straightforward TV remote experience. It's free, like the full app, but instead of having to customize everything exactly the way you want it, you can get a simple channel changer and volume control to use on your iPhone. It's been interesting to watch companies like this learning what Apple already knows: while power and customization definitely drives part of your audience, the real way to sell a product is to make it easy to use for anybody who picks it up. I'm sure some people prefer the more complex, self-designed system (myself included), but if you want to aim for a larger market, simple and easy is often best. Read More

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com. → Learn More Lot C0101 of the RedEye mini IR adapter for the iPhone and iPad have been recalled for structural issues. The plug can crack away from the case and cause problems. In fact, the plug is attached only with a small piece of adhesive tape, which reduces the total structural integrity to nil. The manufacturer of the C0101 lot felt that it was too difficult to solder the headphone jack to the printed circuit board in this fashion. As a result, we approved a design change that would allow the circuit board to be secured to the plastic enclosure by a permanent adhesive, thus keeping the printed circuit board fixed and preventing vibrations from stressing the wiring. We began to see an alarming number of tested units fail “in the field,” so on Thursday, 22 July 2010 we opened up some of these units to discover that the circuit boards were secured with a relatively small dot of low-tack foam tape. As a result of being improperly secured, circuit boards are coming loose from their housings and being jostled about. As they shake, wires become loose and break, or come in contact with other components on the board, resulting in erratic behavior of the unit. The $49 dongle uses the RedEye iPhone app to translate “sounds” over the headphone jack into IR patterns. You can use it to control your TV, stereo, game system, etc. Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Read More

21 Jul 2010 alle 18:00 Uncategorized Redeye Mini è un accessorio che permette di trasformare il vostro iPhone in un trasmettitore ad infrarossi, con la possibilità di controllare periferiche quali televisori, stereo, lettori dvd, decoder e tanto altro. Si collega tramite il Jack delle cuffie e trasforma il vostro iPhone in un telecomando, in pochi secondi, grazie anche ad un’applicazione dedicata disponibile nell’AppStore [Link iTunes]. Al costo di 49$, è ora possibile ordinarlo online e riceverlo a casa così da sfruttare tutte le funzioni offerte. Maggiori informazioni cliccando qui. Read More

Jul 21st 2010 at 9:00AM Redeye mini is now in stock and available at www.redeyemini.com or store.redeyemini.com Just got an email from them saying they are recalling a ton of initial units: does it fit in when a bumper case is present? +1000! I wonder if the 1st-gen iPhone is truly unsupported. This would be a great use for my old one one which the wi-fi died, and is pretty much otherwise useless to me. RedEye + old iPhone 3Gs = Bliss. From the description in the App Store: "The hardware device communicates with your iPhone or iPod touch over Wi-Fi..." If that's the case, why does it need to plug into your headphone jack? Because they're talking about the RedEye base station: http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye/ The RedEye mini is a different product but uses the same app. If I had more than a TV and DVR, I'd look into getting one of these. It's a pretty innovative way of incorporating universal remote access on the iPhone. @pn2bade And this is the reason it's shaped and sized the way it is. I'm surprised no one so far sees this as a good idea. I've been waiting for the release and ordered one yesterday. I'll use my old 3G with it. Sounds perfect. Though maybe it will suck. I'll find out. There is a free app called TV Remote. Within that app there is an in app purchase of $10 for a much smaller remote dongle that plugs into the jack. Its shipped to you in less than a week and does the same thing as RedEye. I got the original RedEye remote thing for Christmas and it was terrible. I returned it within a week. can't find that one..?link? TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple. © 2011 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved. We value our readership, especially when we receive tips which help us write compelling content. Use this form to send us a tip. Note: Some fields are required. Read More

ThinkFlood’s first RedEye infrared controller for the iPhone and iPod touch was kind of neat but somewhat inconvenient and expensive.  Their second attempt, however, looks to be a much more practical and affordable solution for controlling all of your home infrared devices and it’s called the RedEye mini. The RedEye mini fits somewhere between Power A’s Universal Remote Case and the L5 Remote.  It’s a dongle like the L5 Remote, but instead of taking up your 30 pin connector it uses your device’s headphone jack, allowing you to charge your device while controlling your TV, receiver, Blu-ray player, or what have you.  Since it uses a headphone jack, it is also capable of supporting multiple devices, unlike Power A’s Universal Remote Case.  Better yet, you won’t have to flip your device upside down to use it. The RedEye mini can be configured and controlled via ThinkFlood’s free RedEye iPhone app.  The app features a “robust” database of manufacturer-supplied infrared codes for easy set up, or you can train the remote with commands from existing remotes.  It also features customizable controls, allowing you to assign multi-touch gestures and accelerometer recognized movements to certain functions, such as two-finger swiping to change the volume. The app offers up the ability to control virtually an unlimited number of devices and basically an unlimited number of commands.   It also sports an integrated electronic program guide that allows you to access program and channel information on the device instead of displaying it on the TV screen. ThinkFlood’s RedEye mini should be available through the company’s website this spring for $49. Read More

Ever wanted to use your iPhone as a remote control for your TV, DVD player, and more? Well, I have! A few months ago I was really excited to write about UiRemote, an app + hardware solution to control your home electronics. At the time, the devs even offered to send me a beta version so I can try it out for myself. I’m still waiting for the product to be mailed, and quite honestly, I think their project died along the way. RedEye on the other hand is not a beta and it is currently available to anyone willing to put the price into it. RedEye [iTunes Link] is a universal remote control solution that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote for any IR-equipped device in your home. In other words, it’s an iPhone remote control for your TV, DVR, cable, home stereo, etc… Engadget explains how it works: The app itself is completely free to download, though it’s the $188 base station that really makes the magic happen; your handheld talks to said dock via wifi, and if you’ve got an AV device, home automation system or pretty much anything that responds to IR signals, your iPhone can now control it. Check out this video for a quick demo (2 more vids here and here). This is a great idea even though it’s not really new as Palm has been doing this for years without any extra hardware. Everything about this sounds great, except maybe the price, which might be a deal breaker for most of us, especially since you can get a universal remote control from Best Buy for a fraction of this price. I also wonder why they had to make the dock so clunky. Adding an IR dongle to the iPhone seems it would have been a better solution. All in all, I think it is a great piece of technology and even though I will definitely not buy a RedEye, I’m really glad that there are companies out there putting the effort into such developments. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple added an IR port to the iPhone in the future and sold the app at an hefty price… What do you think about the RedEye iPhone remote control? Are you willing to pay nearly $200 for it or are you just gonna stick to your current set up? Read More

ThinkFlood has released RedEye, their universal remote add-on for iPhone and iPod touch. The RedEye remote is a combination of hardware and software that turns your iPhone into a truly universal remote control for IR-based devices. I received an advance unit to take for a spin, and tested it out with my (modest) home theater setup and an iPhone 3GS. The RedEye hardware is retailing at $188US. I mention this early because the price point affected my perception of the product quite a bit. From the packaging to the construction of the unit, it doesn't really feel like high-end hardware -- not the way my Harmony 1000 remote does. Granted, it's still almost half the cost of the Harmony 1000 and less than half of the 1100, but the lightweight, plastic unit just doesn't pull off the aesthetics or feel of a $200 piece of hardware. The hardware portion of the RedEye is an IR-blaster with a built-in charging dock for the iPhone/iPod touch. It creates a bridge between Wi-Fi (from the iPhone/iPod) and IR devices. The base unit has a fairly good IR range, but no built-in options for extending it. A repeater may be required in some circumstances, especially if your equipment is behind closed cabinet doors. The device has built-in Wi-Fi broadcast, and can connect to your iPhone/iPod right out of the box. You get better performance (and easier configuration), however, by modifying the setup to use an existing Wi-Fi signal in your home. Multiple units can be used to cover additional rooms and control them all from a single iPhone/iPod, and multiple iPhones/iPods can connect to a single RedEye unit. Configurations are stored in the unit itself, so software modifications made on one iPhone/iPod are available to any other iPhone/iPod. The RedEye software [iTunes link] is a free download on the App Store. It detects RedEye units on the current network, and allows you to add multiple rooms, IR devices, commands and activities. Devices are easy to add from an extensive list, and most devices have commands presets available. New commands can be learned at any time by capturing the control signal from an existing remote. Activities combine commands for multiple IR devices into a single control panel with assignable buttons. Activities also have optional startup and shutdown macros, so devices can be turned on or off, inputs can be set, volume controlled, etc. when starting or Read More

After months of private beta testing, ThinkFlood's RedEye goes on sale today. You control the dock using an iPhone app via Wi-Fi, and it sends out infrared signals to control your AV gear. At $188, it's not crazy expensive, either. Being touchscreen-based, you can tailor buttons to your lounge room kit, and group multiple devices into single macro "actions". There's also basic use of multi-touch (two finger swipes for volume, for instance), and you can control additional RedEye units that may be setup in different rooms. The kit works with any iPhone or iPod touch, but doesn't yet support Bluetooth or Bang and Olufsen devices. I gotta admit, the RedEye actually seems pretty cool. If the price comes down just a teeny bit, it may become a must-have iPhone accessory. [RedEye] Read More