I currently enjoy operating my new Tivo via the iPhone interface. This is unusual because I’m very committed to the idea that remote controls should have physical buttons. I like being able to navigate the controls of my appliances using touch alone, and the iPhone screen not only doesn’t have any tactile feedback to let me know where the buttons are, but also has nothing to detect pressure, so merely placing my fingers against the glass is enough to trigger any of the on-screen buttons.

What I like about the Tivo interface is that it communicates bi-directionally with the device. I can see the TV guide along with what shows have been recorded, and instantly start any of those shows on-screen simply by touching them. Normally, I’d need to operate the controls to navigate through the Tivo’s on-screen menus, which is tedious and (ironically) not as well-designed as the UI on the phone.

Recently our Harmony 990 has been acting up. When it tries to send RF signals to the IR emitter near my components, sometimes it locks up. This is unfortunate, since I’ve been advocating the use of Harmony remotes forever, and this would make the third one I’ve had that has gone bad after a reasonable amount of gentle remote treatment. Obviously, what I like about the Harmony remote is that it works based on activity, and has buttons that are programmable via the computer.

I’ve been thinking about all of the things in the house that use a remote control. I have remotes in the bedroom for all manner of things. The ceiling fan has a remote for speed and direction, and its light. Our sleep number bed has a cordless remote for the fill setting of each side of our bed. There are a handful of remotes for the media devices in the TV cabinet in the bedroom. And that’s the bedroom, only. There are electronics spread throughout the house.

There are probably quite a few more things that could use a remote that don’t already have one. The house alarm, for one, would be very handy to operate by iPhone. The garage door has non-working remotes at the moment. Door locks. Cameras. Pumps. Basement lights that never seem to get turned off by the kids. And it would be great if, like the Tivo remote software for the iPhone, the status data could be sent back to the remote for display, so you’d know whether/when the light was on, not just be able to turn it on or off.

On one hand, it would be convenient to replace everything with an iPhone remote. If everything could be controlled with one device, that would be pretty incredible. On the other hand, the iPhone - and all touch-screen devices I know of suffer from this - doesn’t have any useful haptic response. I’m sorry to say that all of that vibration technology that is supposed to confuse your fingers into thinking it’s passing over textured surfaces is bunk – It doesn’t convince my fingers at all.

What we need is a device with a touch screen that has some way to dynamically create real texture over top of the display and multi-touch detection of current screens. It must also be able to detect pressure so that buttons it creates can be pushed. This would be my ideal remote, since it could eliminate every other remote in the house.