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First congratulations both with your newborn son and with your impressive product that looks pretty good and effective so far.
I am testing RB at the moment and I like the AJAX functionality as it allows me to get rid of all my physical remotes and control my Mac mini media center completely from the wifi-based iPad. There are however a couple of items missing and awkward that can be covered with a physical IR remote so I would like to make several suggestions:
1) the layout/looks of AJAX on an iPad is quite horrible, because it stretches out.
Even without adding functionality, it is possible to greatly improve usability and readability
2) unlike regular remotes, there are no extra programmable action buttons except the navigation keys.
Adding these would allow e.g. easy switching between EyeTV, Plex and DVD player which are the primary applications I use. This goes for all iOS devices I think
3) alternatively to 2), additional buttons could be added (or re-programmed) in the Launcher screen.
Eyetv is already there but Plex and DVDplayer are not (the Movie button does not quite do everything I want :D ). To be able to remove some of these from the interface would also help useability
4) strangely enough, the Eyetv button only leads to 2 menu choices (live tv channels and recordings).
To get the program guide (and recording schedule) the remote is needed. The EyeTV app for iOS is not straightforward as a remote to control the output to the TV (it basically only streams to the iPad) but its menu layout makes more sense to me.
5) you have enabled music streaming on the device without the need to have the TV on.
This is a nice feature, but an iPad also allows easy viewing of movies, tv and photos. The Plex-app-for-iPad can do most of these (no TV alas, but there is an EyeTV app for that. Also no TS_video playback on the iPad (!) ), but its functionality to control TV output does not allow other applications then Plex so for this I will need RB or similar. I would prefer to not need 3 applications, so perhaps some kind of integration in the future is possible?
6) it would be quite awesome to navigate Plex and Eyetv without the need to turn on the TV to see what you are doing.
For recording scheduling and playing music on the stereo this is relevant. I think the larger iPad window allows for a combination of the 'presentor' trackpad window and the remote in 1 view. It would not even have to be touch-sensitive; just for viewing
Of this list, I feel items 1) and 2) would be a priority for development and already provide a very acceptable user experience on the iPad. Item 6) seems like an easy implementation as all the building blocks are already there, but perhaps I'm wrong.
I am hoping you are already thinking along these lines; looking forward to your response on this.
I will most certainly get a license if a suitable iPad version is fielded and considering the incredible sales volumes I think it would make a lot of business sense as well.
Good luck with further development of this fine product!
Kind regards,
Jurgen
