The dream of an automated house has never been more achievable, and thanks to DIY software like Cinemar's Mainlobby, just about anyone can roll their own at a reasonable price. Of course, the more you can control with your home automation system the better. Now, in addition to being able to control lighting, security, home theater gear, thermostats, whole house audio and manage all your movies from a wall mounted touch screen, Mainlobby owners will soon be able to use their iPod Touch or iPhone as a remote. The key to making this work is Mainlobby's built in web server and Safari's extensive AJAX support -- sorry Windows Mobile fans. Unfortunately, this is only a first look, but these examples will be included in future versions of MLServer. And considering the lead developer on the project plans to use it as his "
primary handheld controller," it should mean lots of future development. More pictures after the jump.
Just create a Bookmark that points to your MLServer web server.
Browse your movie collection
All the details of the movies at your finger tips, just hit play to have DVDLobby control your 400 disc DVD changer or play a movie from your hard drive.
Check the weather, data is pulled live from Weather.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dennis @ Dec 20th 2007 4:16PM
Yeah, uhm.. its called Crestron and they've already been doing this before the iPhone.
MatthewJ @ Dec 20th 2007 4:24PM
"sorry Windows Mobile fans"
Really lads, have you never heard of Opera Mini or Mobile? Both extensively support AJAX. That took me 30 seconds to find out using Google.
Fnet @ Dec 20th 2007 5:18PM
The author seems to be a frog in the 'iphone well'. There were similar software way back from 2001 in Windows powered PDAs'
Bill @ Dec 20th 2007 5:52PM
Ok, this is f'n cool! Sure, ok, you can do this on other PDA's/phones, but seriously, we all know that the iPod touch and iPhone ROCK for browsing the web. They are fast, the browser is awesome, and the screen is gorgeous. Combine this with the amazing touch screen, and you have one heulluva remote control. I'll chuck my Harmony in the can any day to replace it with this.
MatthewJ @ Dec 20th 2007 6:47PM
Don't overdo it on the sarcasm!
Jacob @ Dec 20th 2007 10:53PM
MOAR PICS!!!!!!!!!!
sfreiman @ Dec 21st 2007 9:05PM
I've been using Cinemar's Mainlobby products for years. The products are great. This browser-based interface is a breakthrough and opens up a whole new world.