I love the app but sometimes its inconvenient to keep looking down at the iPad/iPod/ect… Savant makes a hardbutton remote where it sits around the iPod touch which is convient but only compatible with their systems. Will Roomie Remote ever venture into something like this?
We like the concept. Savant’s is many years old and only for the old iPod Touch 4, so we haven’t pursued trying to work with that.
In general, we’re more partial to software solutions, and these kinds of things while useful to some will never be broadly appealing. They’re a transition gap closer for people coming from old school remotes. Nobody believes that’s the “right” way to go, it’s simply a nice addition if someone hasn’t transitioned yet to touch devices. Apple has new APIs in iOS 7 for game controller wrappers around iOS devices that will likely lead to new entrants in this field and we’ll evaluate them as they come along.
Roomie 2.0 includes our favorite solution to the whole issue though, and completely in software.
Thanks.
I second the request for a hard button remote. After years of using a crestron TPMC 8x tablet, I made the change to roomie in my new house. Like it a whole lot better than the crestron system with the exception of not having even a few hard buttons to be able to program with frequently used functions.
While I wouldn’t mind a hardware remote add on (either a plug in shell or perhaps a Bluetooth device) another consideration could be more design options for activity screen - larger buttons where desired, such as for volume mute, channels - and more positioning flexibility, so one can leave a lot of dead space around certain buttons to reduce missed or wrong presses.
Just an idea…
This would be a better solution and much cheaper. I don’t understand why nobody makes a universal one, ideally for the iPad Mini. Probably afraid of being sued by apple.
Both the Savant and Crestron stuff are many years old and haven’t been updated for Lightning. Sort of like the L5, that makes them pretty much deprecated at this point, and in the case of Crestron it’s probably shockingly expensive and proprietary.
This is the kind of thing that is more likely to be the form factor, API, and design ideal for these purposes in the future:
macrumors.com/2013/10/01/ima … er-leaked/
Because these are open APIs introduced by Apple, we wont need to worry about crazy proprietary interfaces either. At this time we’re not aware of anyone doing a remote control wrapper like that, but it seems more than inevitable.
Thank you.
How about a kickstarted campaign for an iPad or iPhone hard button kit. I bought a used iPhone 4 to have a dedicated Roomie in the “home theater” and would really like to snap one of these suckers on.
I would like a hardbutton for 2 reasons. For myself I think we can all agree that when we are watching a pre recorded football game or of the likes it is considerably easier to fast forward and play with a hard button without taking my eyes off of the television. otherwise I have tried using gestures but it still does not work like a hard button, with the gesture i will still miss play and have to hit it several times to work, at that point i have went through a few offensive plays. I also have to “hover” my thumb over the ipad instead of resting it on a hard button.
The second reason it that a hard button is easier for my 6 and 7 year old daughters as well as my wife and babysitter to use.
Dont get me wrong roomie is an awesome app. I love the easy of setup and the robust features. Control of zwave would be nice so I could lock my Baldwin deadbolts.
This thread is old and out of date. Many solutions now exist for hardbutton use with Roomie. A fleet of iOS Game Controllers at the low end. Roomie 3.0 introduced support for the LaunchPort with Buttons as well at the higher end which makes for a really slick high end home theater deployment:
(Zwave locks can be controlled via Vera or ISY today.)
Thank you.
would love a remote with hard buttons and roomie software