Keeping tabs on the TV remote control has been one of the greatest problems to plague man over the last 50 years. Apple Watch is finally solving that issue by slapping all the TV controls you need right on your wrist.
SamMote revealed today that its popular iPhone TV remote app now includes Apple Watch integration. The iPhone and Apple Watch don’t come with the infrared sensor you’d normally need to beam signals to your TV, so the app uses Wi-Fi to send commands instead.
The Apple Watch TV remote is free, but only works on Samsung smart TVs made after 2011 (hence the name “Sam” in the app’s name). If you do have a Samsung TV you’ll now be able to flick through channels, boost the volume and navigate menus without having to dive through the couch cushions to find the clicker.
That alone sounds like a fine reason to throw down for Jony Ive’s smartwatch.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
6 responses to “Apple Watch app puts TV remote on your wrist”
Waiting patiently for Logitech to add an Apple Watch app to their Logitech Harmony Link app. I’m guessing I will be waiting for a while… :-P
Really? An app that lets me control things using 6 buttons at once according to the screen shot. Seems super useful. Watches are not big enough to replace a remote. Heck phones are hardly big enough to replace a remote if you use more than a few buttons.
Most people do not need a TV remote any more. Most TVs are set to a cable feed that needs changing. … So a Samsung TV hooked to Time Warner, or Comcast, cable would not need switching either.
This is really only useful if you aren’t using a cable or satellite box or an Xbox type device to receive and control TV. Who watches a TV without any of those anymore?
@LensLord & @Rick: Actually, Samsung has a great solution to this. Their (high-end?) TVs come with an IR repeater, which is fed from the TV to then drive those other content boxes. After configuration, then based on the input you have selected on the TV (!), your keypresses on the Samsung (Bluetooth or Wifi) remote are translated, and the appropriate IR commands are then relayed to your cable box, Bluray player, AppleTV, Roku, AV receiver, etc. It really is a brilliant approach, which completely obviates the need for a “smart remote” which needs to keep the context straight itself, and too often gets out of sync (I’m looking at you, Harmony).
I have to admit: Many may complain about Samsung’s development efforts for other electronics, but their TV implementation is rock solid, and very innovative.
Thank you! I got one of those with my 75″ Samsung last summer but had no idea what to do with it so in the box it sits. I’ll check it out!