[CES 2009] Remote controls tend to get rather bulky due to the fact that they have plenty of controls to deal with, but the advent of touchscreen displays have helped shrink this form factor to a more manageable size. Still, we’re waiting for the day where a remote control actually ends up as small as the iPod nano, but until that day comes, we’ll just need to be patient and hold out. The MX-6000 from Universal Remoteis touted to be the first home theater remote control that offers a couple of independent communications and control methods simultaneously. Using the 418MHz transmitter, you get to “talk” to your conventional home theater components while its Wi-Fi transceiver allows for high speed transfer of cover art, title, album and artist metadata. When connected to the Internet, the MX-6000 has pre-programmed modules that allows one to access stocks, news, weather and sports updates, all configured without the need for a PC. Some of the features include :-
- Automatic backlighting
- 533MHz ARM9 processor
- 4.3″ touchscreen display with 480 x 272 resolution
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- 128MB SDRAM
You gotta pay through the nose for this though as it retails for a whopping $1,499, and this will take a pretty long time to be adopted unless the price can be driven down to a more affordable level.
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