iPhone or iPod touch?

In respect to their usability with iRed2, these devices behave identically. Both connect via WLAN to the Mac which runs your iRed2. However, with the iPhone you may connect to your iRed even "on-the-road" using EDGE or UMTS mobile connections (see below). In the following I will not distinguish between iPhone and iPod touch anymore.

 

Can I transmit infrared directly from the iPhone?

No! The iPhone (3G) or iPod touch has no IR transmitter built in.

 

How does the iPhone "talks" to iRed2?

iRed2 on the Mac has a webserver built in, i.e. the iPhone connects to iRed2 as if it were a "normal" website. Only the adress of this website is a little bit special, e.g. "http://mymac:4042".

 

Does my iPhone need to be jailbroken or otherwise hacked?

No! The Mobile Safari on the iPhone can connect to iRed directly without any need for manipulating the iPhone.

 

Can I control iRed (and so my Mac and IR devices!) while I am "on-the-road"?

Absolutely! However, there is some configuration necessary. I will post an article on how to setup this environment. In short: your Mac needs to be accessible from the Internet and your firewall has to be configured accordingly.

 

Can I connect my iPhone wireless to my Mac without a router?

Yes. You need to setup a local network on your Mac. Please see this article at TUAW for details. (Article in German at iPhoneBlog.de)

 

Will there be an iRed2 application on the iPhone's App Store?

Yes, we are working on that. It's called "iRedTouch".

 

Is it possible to use my iPhone as a universal remote without using a Mac?

Not at the moment. Currently, the IR module needs to be controlled via USB or via LAN from a Mac running iRed2. However, the upcoming application iRedTouch from the App Store will connect directly to an IRTrans LAN module without a Mac or PC being involved. So, if your are planning to purchase an IR module, consider the LAN module, even when it's pricier than the USB module. Its versatility is worth the additional costs. It will never be possible to directly talk to an USB module, though.

 

Why can't I hold down a remote key on the mobile iRed2 to repeat its function?

Unfortunately, the Mobile Safari on the iPhone has some restrictions. As you may have noticed, holding down the finger on any link on a web page will popup the adress of the link, while dragging the finger on a website will move the display of the website, rather than move a slider, e.g. 

There is no chance for iRed to get hold of these finger actions, yet. Unfortunately this did'nt changed with the new iPhone OS 2.0.

The "native" iPhone application iRedTouch will allow holding keys and moving sliders, of course! There are no limitations for this kind of applications on the iPhone.

 

Can I control Front Row from my iPhone?

Yes, but there is a major drawback: as mentioned above, holding down remote buttons on the iPhone does not work, so repeating functions within Front Row are a pain to use. iRedTouch will not have this restriction, though!