VooMote One Gives iPhone Universal Remote Capability

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It’s a growing trend, folks, as more and more apps and accompanying devices emerge to turn your iOS gear into universal remotes with touch screen capability. And this time, the newest such device to emerge comes from the folks out at Zero1.tv with the VooMote One.

Odd naming aside, the VooMote One basically takes your iPhone (it will also work with iPod Touch, but not iPad, and you’ll see why in just a moment) and slides an IR sleeve over it, letting it interface directly with the device itself. Then, you’ll download an app from the App Store (a free one, of course) and you’ll be able to use your iPhone as a universal remote for all your various home theater gear.

One of the most interesting new functions in the VooMote One’s arsenal is the “One Touch” feature, which allows you to chain together a series of commands with one button press. For instance, let’s say you’ve got a fully-featured home theater system. Now instead of different commands and different remotes, you can press one button to turn on the receiver, the Blu-ray player, and the television all at once. Naturally that assumes that all the relevant devices are compatible–the VooMote system recognizes almost 600 brands of television, nearly a thousand set-top boxes, and fully 151 audio and CD brands besides, and updates regularly besides–but once you’ve got the correct device brands, you’ll almost certainly be able to work the lot of them with the VooMote One.

While the app is free, the IR sleeve isn’t; the folks out at Zero1.tv are suggesting fully $99 for the sleeve. And if you want to get your hands on one of these, just head out to Best Buy and Amazon August 5th, when these are expected to be available.

So what do you guys think? Willing to drop a hundred bucks to make your iOS handheld of choice into a fully-featured universal remote? Or would you rather go with one of the myriad of alternatives instead? Either way, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section below and tell us what you think.