[curmi]

Hi All!

I was bored today, so I started to go through a thought exercise. Lots of people seem to be asking in this forum about a way of controlling their AirTunes. The question I asked myself was - if Apple was to build a remote control (for AirTunes etc), what would it be like? Would the device be similar to an iPod in control and size? What could it control?

So, I started typing something, and it got a little long. I concentrated on whether menus and the click wheel would be useful. And I started to think about control beyond AirTunes. Too long to type here, so I put it on a web page with a few (fairly poor) mockups.

I present to you the "iCommand".

http://homepage.mac.com/curmi/icommand/

I note that iCommand is actually an existing product, but then that hasn't stopped Apple before (Rendezvous anyone ).

So, if you are interested in taking a look, please do. And discuss the ideas presented here.

[Synotic]

Just a few things that jumped out at me...

1. Aesthetics... your idea is that it looks exactly like an iPod, same controls as an iPod, similar "OS" of an iPod. How would it be differentiated? Imagine the confusion of differentiating between your iPod and your iCommand.
   
2. Dynamic controls... What would the buttons say? Would they remain unmarked like configurable multi-button mouses? Generic names like Alpha Up, Beta left etc...? How would the software reference the buttons? Perhaps a Video Game like controller? A, B, Circle, X etc... Existing solutions address this by either having one dynamic touch screen or by focusing on one specific function where they can specify common buttons (perhaps including a few programmable buttons).
   
3. The click wheel... from your design it seems as if you're shoehorning an iPod to do a universal remote's job. Have you ever had to use a TV with no remote? It isn't fun to have to scroll through 60 or more channels with cable or satellite just to find the one you want. Relative channel changing is only marginally useful. Without actually being able to enter channel numbers, it's severely limited.
   
4. Perhaps most important... it's a design evolved for a product created for one purpose, playing music. That's what the iPod's design is created for, for the iPod. If you want to create a new product, you need a new design that focuses on the problem the product aims to solve. But it goes beyond that, because there is no specific problem. The device has to conform to a one device solves all functionality. Apple would be able to control nothing. The only way they could truly create the infrastructure needed, to actually maintain some sort of consistency, would be to create OS X for PDA sized devices.
   
5. An iCommand type device has no focus, no specific purpose that can be designed for. Apple has continually stated that the reason the iPod is so succesful is because it is focused on doing one thing, playing music. On an iCommand, there would be no consistency.

Overall, I think that this type of device would never come from Apple. That's not to say that I don't think they'll come out with some sort of remote for controlling AirTunes on your Mac. But it won't be anything like this, nothing particularly groundbreaking. Perhaps something similar in design to the current iPod remote. It would be simple, but succesful because it would be designed for one purpose, which would be to control music on your computer (which would later be piped into wherever). It'll be bundled with future AirPort Expresses and available for sub-$50 dollars. But that's my prediction.

P.S. Some of your images reference files on your desktop

[curmi]

All extremely good points Synotic.

I probably misstated what I was trying to achieve here. I wanted myself and others to think about whether something like an iPod control could possibly function as a universal remote interface - not actually really suggest Apple do such a thing since as you say it would look just like an iPod with controls built for Music not a remote.

The idea was to get people to discuss the usefulness, or not, of an iPod type interface as a remote. To see if something like a scroll wheel could be of use in such a device, for example.

People have been suggesting the iPod have WiFi capabilities, to allow them to control their AirTunes. Hence the thought experiment around menus and the scroll wheel.

So, has anyone much experience with Universal remotes?

My experience has been that the touch-screen types are poor as the user has no tactile feedback from the flat plastic. And the hard-button types are just a jumble of the same sized buttons with no real label.

Would the scroll wheel be of use in a remote then? Volume control and shuttle perhaps?

With a remote that could give feedback (such as number of songs, names of songs etc), would an iPod like menu be of use?

Perhaps this is an opportunity for some people here to mock something up. What would make a good universal remote. What sort of interface do you think it needs?

Synotic, you mention a prediction of an apple remote that is like the iPod remote - purely for AirTunes I assume. What do you see this looking like? WiFi? A display of some sort? Want to mock something up?