5 Reasons Devices Should All Have Bluetooth Remotes

Staten Island, NY Posted: 1/23/2015 1:00:00 AM

Our gadgets have come a long way in the past few decades, but our remote controls are stuck in the 90s.

Most of us have so many remote controls, it makes your head spin. The one thing in common is that none of them use Bluetooth.

Take one of those remotes and look at it. Really look at it. How on earth did we advance as a society, yet we still have Stanford Engineers designing remote controls that have 25 year old technology?

If you are reading this in the future, go ahead and laugh at us.

Even if you look at state-of-the-art remote controls, from the top-of-the-line Sony, LG or Samsung TVs, they are chock full of buttons that you can't even read... yet the only ones that get heavy use are simply channel up, channel down, power and volume. What's worse, is they all use one-way communication to blink a little infrared LED that you hope the TV will see, assuming nothing is blocking the sensor.

Really? You pay thousands of dollars for a TV or other high tech device and that's how you control it?

Here's 5 reasons why all devices should have Bluetooth Remotes.

1. Bluetooth is wireless, not line of site.

This means you don't have to worry about pointing the remote directly at the device, so things like tuners can finally be placed out of sight, behind or inside closed cabinets or closets.

2. Bluetooth is built into most cell phones, tablets and computers, so you could even use them as a remote.

So, in theory, you could download Apps designed to let you decide what to watch, then change channels right from the App.

3. Bluetooth is two-way, not one way.

This means that your remote can not only send signals to your devices, but receive information back. This could include channel and programming information, not to mention audio and video. In fact, instead of just hitting up and down on a remote, you could theoretically see video of what's on each channel on your remote.

Two way communication also means you would be able to stream content to and from your devices.

4. Seamless Integration with mobile devices and computers.

Not only would integration simplify things like scheduling DVR recordings, or ordering on-demand movies, but your living room will become the central hub of your Internet and media activities. Your mobile devices, acting as "Remotes" would make access to email, photos, and sites like Facebook seamless, without getting off the sofa.

Think of your tablet or smartphone as a handy little keyboard to quickly find whatever you are looking for. Instead of hitting the channel buttons over and over, why not just type "Big Bang Theory"?

5. They can even make old-styled remotes Bluetooth too.

Some people don't like change. That's fine. They can still make remotes with 75 buttons with Bluetooth. So they can still take advantage of just the flexibility of a remote that doesn't use line-of-site... So there's no learning curve.