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

by Griffin Technology

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.

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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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 77 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product, some minor quirks. August 2, 2011

By F. Lamaestra

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This product saves people from having to spend 10k on 'solutions' from dinosaur HT companies like Crestron to get outdated giant brick remotes to control all their HT devices; usually on a equipment rack inside a closet.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. Every time I go into my movie room, I have to change the batteries on this thing, ridiculous. I may jury-rig the battery terminals to a same-spec wall-wort to avoid this issue.

Please add a firmware update connection on the beacon. I can't believe there are no bugs with this device, unless all this is just a dumb repeater.

Please allow changing of the sleep timer to 4 hours, instead of 60 minutes. Most movies are over 60 minutes and I hate having to bring my unit out of sleep mode.

Please add a 2.5mm or 3.5mm jack for IR extension cables. This is the standard for all IR repeater devices and would allow the beacon IR to reach a whole A/V rack of equipment. These 2.5mm IR repeater cables are about a buck on auction sites.

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Update:

Looks like there is a Griffin Utility App to update the firmware for this device. Nice.

Some bad news people: The promised Android App appears to require a SPECIAL Beacon. Your IOS Beacon will not work with android devices even though they are all using bluetooth. Crazytown.

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite there yet October 10, 2011

By Pompano Mark

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.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing January 7, 2012

By Eric Loche

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. To make this a worthwhile addition to a hometheater it needs a complete redesign;

1) Network - not bluetooth. No 'coupling' every 60 minutes.
2) AC power - not batteries
3) Internet library of devices and codes indexed by model number.
4) Functionality for PS3, Xbox, Apple TV, HTPC, etc.
5) MACRO setup. (Turn multiple devices on/off with one command)

It would probably add $100 to the cost - but I'd be willing to pay $170 for something useflul ; not $70 for a useless piece of junk.