$52.99 + $4.48 shipping
In Stock. Sold by alwayz-on-sale

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
goHastings Add to Cart
$69.99 + $4.99 shipping
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

Griffin Beacon Universal Remote Control for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad

by Griffin Technology
2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)

List Price: $79.99
Price: $52.99
You Save: $27.00 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by alwayz-on-sale.
Up to 50% Off Select Audio Electronics
During June Audio Month discover new products and great deals from top brands like Bose, Yamaha, and Panasonic, including our Featured Deals that are up to 50% off select audio electronics from Amazon.com through June 30, 2013, or while supplies last. Learn more

Product Features

  • Wireless universal audio/video controller for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
  • Low-profile component designed to blend unobtrusively with any decor.
  • Use your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad as a powerful universal remote control without dongles or cases.
  • Connects to your iOS device via Bluetooth and gives you control of your TV, stereo, and other home entertainment components.
  • For use with Dijit's Universal Remote app, a free download from the App Store.

Frequently Bought Together

Griffin Beacon Universal Remote Control for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad + L5 Universal Remote Control for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (works with most media center brands of TVs, DVD Players, DirectTV, Xbox 360, Apple TV and more) + Apple TV MD199LL/A
Price for all three: $183.29

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers.

Buy the selected items together

Product Information

Technical Details
Brand NameGriffin Technology
Item Weight8 ounces
Product Dimensions6.7 x 5 x 2.2 inches
Item model numberGC17126
Number of Items1
  
Additional Information
ASINB004ZX2NU8
Shipping Weight1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
ShippingCurrently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Date First AvailableFebruary 4, 2010
  
Feedback
 


Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Universal AV controller for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Product Description

Your entertainment system expects a remote control to speak to it via infrared signals. Your iOS device speaks Bluetooth. Beacon acts as a bridge between them. Imagine being able to control your TV or stereo using your always-handy iPhone. Or your iPod touch. Or your iPad. Beacon pairs with your iOS device via Bluetooth and works with Dijit's Universal Remote App to put complete control of your home entertainment center in the palm of your hand. There are no bulky cases or dongles, no wires or cables. Control your home entertainment system using the Universal Remote App on your Multi-Touch display. Setup is quick and easy. The Dijit app uses a library of constantly updated device codes to simplify setup for your TV, set-top box, sound system, media players and more. There's even an integrated learning feature for components not yet included in Dijit's library. Bluetooth pairing is simple and puts you just a few taps away from using Dijit's intuitive Program Guide and your touchscreen-based device to change channels, volumes, input, set your DVR, and more.


Customer Reviews

The battery life is awful. Rob in CA  |  16 reviewers made a similar statement
Bt that is not an issue that the beacon has, just something you'll have to deal with. Jason C. Williams  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
I tried manually adding it and learning from the original remote. Peter Robinson  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
73 of 78 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product, some minor quirks. August 2, 2011
This product is great and the software is fantastic.

This product saves people from having to spend 10k on 'solutions' from dinosaur HT companies like Crestron to get outdated giant brick remotes to control all their HT devices; usually on a equipment rack inside a closet. Using a tablet is the future of remotes. It's no wonder this device is consistently sold out because all the HT installers are gobbling them up.

On the downside, there were just a few situations where I lost blue-tooth synchronization and others where I had to bring my beacon back from sleep by touching the top button.

Overall, great product.

Other notes:

To DIJIT:

Please add haptic options so the IPAD and iphone vibration features can work when pressing a button. This is major missing feature and these IOS devices have this function built-in; might as well use them.

Please create the ability to temporarily remove the swipe un-lock from my IOS device if it went to sleep with DIJIT running. I hate having to unlock my device every time just to hit mute or change a channel. I should just have to touch the screen to bring it back to life and then push the GUI button.

Please add Playstation 3 support, the IOS device already has blue-tooth, this is major limitation; especially since I can control all my other consoles.

To Griffin

Please add an AC adapter option, this 'AA' requirement is not good considering how much time is spent watching TV and movies. Having blue-tooth running all the time can't be good. I would be surprised if I got the claimed 2 months battery life, which doesn't seem that long anyway. Let's not add to the landfill problem. I should be able to install this device in a rack and never think about it.
... Read more ›
Was this review helpful to you?
56 of 61 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite there yet October 10, 2011
Amazon Verified Purchase
I gave this product 3 stars, even though I eventually returned, because they are really close. The product works as advertised but has a few limitations that I found unusable in my situation.

Pros:
Decent software that was intuitive
Price
Good support for many types of devices

Cons:
The Bluetooth is limiting since you can only pair with one device at a time.
After the device goes to sleep the wake up process was not smooth. I had to play with it to get it to reconnect.
IR output produced inconsistant results. Position is critical and in my case I had few options for location

This would be a terrific product if it was WiFi instead of Bluetooth and I would gladly pay more for that feature.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing January 7, 2012
My kids dropped my wonderful Harmony remote. I stumbled across this and thought it might make a suitable replacement for my Harmony. It didn't. I am returning it. This is the great product that wasn't.

The idea is neat - use your iPhone to control your home entertainment center. Trouble is - it is very limited in what it can do. It has all the functionality of the basic universal remote control that you can buy for $15 at any retail store. So you are paying $70 to may your iPhone work like a $15 universal remote control. Not much value there, eh?

First - programming it is a pain. Rather than simply enter the product make and model it goes through a wizard that tries out a handful of per-programmed profiles - which produced limited and disappointing results. It choked on the heart of my system; my Denon receiver. Forget about Xbox, PS3, Apple TV or other media. You are stuck with the 'old school' devices only here. (TV, cable box, dvd)

I tried to teach it the commands for my devices - but it couldn't get past that my Denon receiver has both an 'on' and an 'off' button... and 'teaching' it the commands off the old remote was certainly frustrating.

I did like the interface with the program guide and Netflix. That is a promising feature. The only reason it gets an extra star.

The device runs on batteries and must constantly be 'recoupled' with your phone. Lame. I had planned on mounting it on the ceiling behind the viewing area so as to get the widest signal distribution - I can forget that now.

Oh, and if you aren't standing directly behind it then it won't read your bluetooth signal.

Overall this product grossly under-performs it's potential.
... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
If you're retired and can barely figure out how to use a computer, you should steer clear of this product. This product is for techies, those who can pick up any piece of technology and figure it out easily. I suspect all the negative reviews are from people who don't have the patience to figure it out, or are trying to replace a $200+ dollar Harmony remote with their iphone, just not going to happen. The first clue, the price tag. I'm giving this product 5 Stars because for under 50 bucks it can't be beat. If it was $100, I'd probably do 4 stars.

So, onto my setup. I have a Samsung 46 inch LED TV, Sony PS3, Wii, Onkyo TSXR receiver, AppleTV, Sony Blu Ray player, WDTV Live player, and an HDMI switch box, all hooked in through the home theater receiver, so I only have 1 HDMI cable going to my flat screen TV because it's wall mounted. Everything is either plugged into individual inputs on my receiver or into the HDMI switch box.

Out of the box, the product only works with basic functions. I.e. when you add the Samsung TV, you're only going to be able to turn the TV on, turn the volume up and down, change channels, etc. However, this product has one key function, which is LEARN, that allows you to memorize all the other functions of your remotes. For example, on the Samsung TV, one key button left off is the SMART HUB button which launches the Samsung media center which has all your apps such as NetFlix. No biggie, I added this button in about 2 minutes.

My biggest gripe with the setup of remotes is rather then pick from models, i.e. Samsung 6900 TV, you pick "Samsung Remote 1" or "Samsung Remote 2", until you find the remote that turns your TV on and off.
... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Good product, needs AC adapter.
The only down side to this remote is that it tends to burn through batteries. We went through a set of 4 AAs after only three weeks of light use. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Neilio
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for even non-techies
It was pretty easy to set this up. I like that you can customize your controls so everything is on one screen for basic use. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Joe Neighbor
2.0 out of 5 stars Quirky Bluetooth - Try WiFi
I've tried several apps and products recently and have found that every bluetooth product I've tried so far has its quirks and short-comings and when you combine that with an... Read more
Published 27 days ago by cmdel07
1.0 out of 5 stars Worthless
It just doesn't do what it claims to do. When it does work, it takes several seconds to send a signal. Many of my TV inputs and receiver settings are not even available. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Jeremi Finn
3.0 out of 5 stars Only OK
I have an older Sony DVD Home Theatre System. Could not get the device to successfully let me walk through the manual setup routine. Erratic behavior. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Keith Clevenger
1.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, Poorly Designed, Poorly Executed
I was excited about the idea of consolidating all of my remotes into one using the Griffin Beacon. I also didn't want to spend a million dollars on Logitech universal remote. Read more
Published 1 month ago by specik
3.0 out of 5 stars Beacon
Well it surly makes it easier to control all the devices and whats good is even ROKU remote is integrated with it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Shailesh
3.0 out of 5 stars It works
It works. Deadly on the batteries. Nuisance that I need to tap it to wake it up. Not what I'd hoped it would be.
Published 3 months ago by Ben
5.0 out of 5 stars For the most part, perfect for my use.
Basically, I bought this to be able to adjust the TV volume, change the channel and use the DVR. It was easy to setup and works with all of my devices. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anthony Garrido
3.0 out of 5 stars OK
Seems to work just find. Had issues finding a good spot for the transmitter. I could not find the right code for my 5 year old Magnavox TV. Read more
Published 3 months ago by DK
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Questions & Answers
Be the first to ask a question that you have.
Please make sure that your post is a question about the product. Edit your question or post anyway.
Typical questions asked about products:
 - Is the item durable?
 - Is this item easy to use?
 - What are the dimensions of this item?