What if I told you that you’d never have to go through the heartache of losing your remote again? What if I also told you that you would no longer need multiple remotes to control all the AV devices, like cable boxes and Blu-Ray players, as well as the smart appliances and devices in your home? What if I went on to tell you that this remote made parental controls and personalized playlists and settings as simple as just picking up the remote, provided you’re not wearing gloves? NEEO is telling you those exact things by announcing their new NEEO Remote. This new breed of smart remote proposes to completely dominate just about every device in your home that has a processor, aside from your smartphone and some video game systems, through a previously unheard of feature set and design conventions that are aimed at making the NEEO not only your only remote, but your favorite among every remote you’ve ever used.
Working with your home’s internet, an iOS or Android device and at least one of NEEO’s own Brain units, the NEEO remote runs an efficient custom OS on a 168MHz single core processor and 32MB of RAM. It’s entirely likely that, for most readers, this remote packs more power than the first PC you ever used. A laminated 3 inch display boasting 291 ppi and a fingerprint-resistant coating shows the user information about their smart devices and what the remote can do with them. A powerful 10 watt charger and a docking station keep a replaceable 1,200 mAh battery in check, which should last at least a full day, given the remote’s meager specs. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and a IEEE 802.15.4 are on board to work with current standards as well as Zigbee and Thread. An accelerometer, capacitive sensors and a palm sensor are on board to allow users to work the remote in innovative ways and to recognize who has the remote at a given moment, making parental controls and customization a breeze. Over 30,000 devices are supported at the moment, with that list growing by the day.
Preorders are open for the NEEO Remote and the NEEO Brain that it needs in order to operate. The Brain can, of course, also operate on its own, given a smartphone to control it. The NEEO Brain is priced at $219, the remote is priced at $139 and a bundle deal for both will set you back $339, just a bit thriftier than buying them separately. A release date was not specified, unfortunately, but preorders are set to be charged shortly before shipping, meaning that preorder buyers will have a shipping alert of sorts.