Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My iphone is a Remote control!

B

BadgerMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2003
122
1
So for the past couple weeks I've seen that my DVD player in my family room (a Samsung upscaling model) was on at wierd hours. Now I have a young daughter who loves buttons, but I would find it on during the day when noboy was home.

I found my culprit. I took a call in my family room tonight and my television turned on. Hung the phone up and called again (after turing the TV off) and the DVD and TV (a 32" Sharp LCD) turned on.

Never had that happen with a phone before, and I've had my share (I'm a gadget geek). Anyone else encounter this?
 
not yet... although i did notice while surfing the web with my phone next to my TV i get the usual static on the TV from interference
 
i don't see how taking a phone call from an apple iphone would turn both your tv and dvd player on. is it possible the dvd player and tv are scheduled to turn on, possibly to record something? could someone be yanking your chain? i just don't think it's your phone. could your house be haunted? :rolleyes:
 
Funny, I used to have almost the opposite experience - I used to find my Mac's screen waking from sleep on its own and couldn't figure out why it was happening.

(Until one time I left the speakers up higher, and realised what was happening - voice recognition was turned on and the Mac was listening to, and responding to, voices on the TV! I hate it when my consumer devices exclude me from the conversation..)
 
Too old to make this stuff up. Just relaying my experience. Took a call from my brother-in-law this AM in the family room and the DVD kicked on. I have to be within about 8 ft. of the "AV" setup for it to happen.

I love reading the responses from the "pasty-whites" of the group who have a personality deficit. Good wake-up material. Some people get too worked up about stuff on a discussion forum. Keep it up!
 
BadgerMac said:
Too old to make this stuff up. Just relaying my experience. Took a call from my brother-in-law this AM in the family room and the DVD kicked on. I have to be within about 8 ft. of the "AV" setup for it to happen.

I love reading the responses from the "pasty-whites" of the group who have a personality deficit. Good wake-up material. Some people get too worked up about stuff on a discussion forum. Keep it up!
Click to expand...
"Pasty-whites".

Love it. Absolutely priceless. :)
 
you, my friend, have stumbled upon the "peripherals control" mode. According to this guy who I talked to on the bus today (he said he was the friend of a guy who had a TV repairman who said he talked to chick who got an interview at the apple care telephone support center for a part time job,but it didn't work out) It is only present on the Series 7 screens. It will be in the next software update, along with the ability to dispense beer.

you just wait.
 
nickspohn said:
There was a rumor posted on this site i believe that a remote control capabilities might be added in a software update.
Click to expand...

although the iphone could control something like a computer via BT or wifi, it's impossible for an iphone to serve as a RC for most TVs given that the phone doesn't have an IR port. IR and RF have completely different frequency and wavelength, they just don't speak the same language.
 
Now I'd like to point out this is actually possible. It involves running a server with Apache + PHP (and MySQL if you want to easily add + remove functions), and also running IR Trans on the machine.

You would have to write an AJAX 'Application' to run on the iPhone, and then a way for that 'Application' to control IR Trans on the PC.

Possible though...
 
Perhaps the universal remote is down in the cushion of the couch. When he leans over to take the iPhone from his pocket, various devices are turning on at what seems to be the same moment as he answers the call.


Believe it or not...
 
The reported claim is entirely possible. The frequency offset between the two devices is not significant. A certain amount of frequency drift of the phone's transmit and the sensitivity of the receiver could easily cause this anomoly.
 
Well...

Hold your iPhone in bright light. If you look at the very top of the front face of the device you will see a small circle and then a long rice-shaped oval. This is the proximity sensor. I believe it uses infrared light that reflects off of your face to sense when the iPhone is put near. The iPhone's proximity sensors are only activated during a call, which explains the reason why the interference seems to take place when a call starts.
 
Ajmbc said:
Well...

Hold your iPhone in bright light. If you look at the very top of the front face of the device you will see a small circle and then a long rice-shaped oval. This is the proximity sensor. I believe it uses infrared light that reflects off of your face to sense when the iPhone is put near. The iPhone's proximity sensors are only activated during a call, which explains the reason why the interference seems to take place when a call starts.
Click to expand...

thats so that it can turn off the screen/touchscreen so that no buttons get pressed during the call...its a very good feature :)
 
DoFoT9 said:
thats so that it can turn off the screen/touchscreen so that no buttons get pressed during the call...its a very good feature :)
Click to expand...

I love the feature too :). What I was getting at is that the infrared output of the sensor may be acting as a remote control.
 
Ajmbc said:
I love the feature too :). What I was getting at is that the infrared output of the sensor may be acting as a remote control.
Click to expand...

aaahh i see. tht is a pretty high chance of happening these days. u'll eventually run out of frequencies. u could easily have some fun tho with the oldies tv nextdoor :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back