remote

A popular TV show and movie discovery app just got a major update during CES that adds social components to its already full-featured cable listing arsenal.

Peel Personal TV Show Guide (free) is an app that changes the way you watch TV by gathering your personal preferences and giving you recommendations on your iPhone based on the data.

The polished interface of Peel asks you a few questions upon launch so it can deliver the type of shows you'll want to watch and tell you when they will show in your area. On first setup, the app has you choose your cable service, and then lists out several categories like Drama, Comedy, and Kids, and asks you to reorder the list by your personal preference with your favorites at the top. You'll then reorder a list of sports in the same fashion. When you're finished, you'll see the main interface of the app, with recommended shows that are currently playing in your area based on your preferences.

What we really like about Peel is how it lays out movies and shows by category so you can browse based on your mood at the moment.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--2012 looks like it may turn out to be the year smart TVs lived up to their promise. The lurking threat of Apple on the horizon has made TV makers raise their game, and in this video from CES we take a look at Sony's quirky new remote for its Google TV devices.

Hit play and you'll see the remote has a taser-ish design, with the usual array of buttons on the front and a laptop-like trackpad for controlling an onscreen cursor. Turn the gadget over and you'll find a backlit QWERTY keyboard for typing in URLs, usernames, and passwords.

Read more of "Sony Google TV Qwerty remote takes control in hands-on video" at Crave UK.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--LG has its Magic Motion, and Sony has its Google TV nub. And until now, Panasonic hasn't had an effective way to navigate Web content. Enter the new Panasonic touch-pad remote control.

Available on Panasonic Blu-ray players--DMP-BBT01, DMP-BDT500, DMP-BDT320--and select televisions, including the WT50 and the VT50--the new remote offers a simple touch-pad surface, with a couple of additional buttons.

This year's Viera TVs and Blu-ray players feature a beefed-up Viera Connect smart-TV service and an onboard browser, and the touch pad is designed to make it easier to navigate around Web pages and services like … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Now that OnStar is courting app developers, it's going to be needing a bigger data pipe to feed the new mobile apps it's expecting for the next generation of OnStar-equipped vehicles.

This is where Verizon comes in with its broadband wireless network. OnStar and Big Red have jointly unveiled what they call a "second-generation connected research vehicle" at CES 2012. Based on a Chevrolet Volt, the research vehicle is connected to the cloud via Verizon's 4G LTE network and will be used to help test and develop new capabilities for OnStar's Advanced Telematics … Read more

The cool smartphone-controlled Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter, first shown at CES in 2010, is getting some good updates that are being announced at this year's conference.

The biggest changes for the AR.Drone 2.0 are hardware and software improvements to make the device easier to fly. Better location and orientation sensors should make the drone more stable in the air, and a new pressure sensor will help it hold its altitude more accurately when it's more than a few feet off the ground (when the ultrasonic ground proximity sensor is ineffective).

On the software side, a new &… Read more

Couch potato iPad users need some social love, too. Dijit is giving it to them. Dijit is an iPad TV guide app that's been taking social steroids.

Dijit hooks up with your Facebook account and spies on what shows your friends like. You can blame the Facebook peer pressure for making you watch "The Real Housewives of Orange County" rather than "NOVA" on PBS.… Read more

TeamViewer is an app that lets you connect to Macs and PCs via the Internet to share desktops, transfer files, walk through presentations, and control other computers remotely--all right from your iPhone. It's even free for noncommercial use, making it a great choice for your pro bono troubleshooting for friends and family, or just for accessing your own Mac from the road.

The interface is simple: you open TeamViewer and you're prompted to either create a session or wait for one. A unique ID and password are created for each session, and you need to have TeamViewer on … Read more

Here at CNET, we love Logitech Harmony remotes and have recommended them for years. But--like any product--there's always room for improvement. To that end, here are five changes we'd like to see made to the Harmony line--some via software upgrades, others in forthcoming models:

1. Allow multi-remote accounts for each user. Harmony remotes are programmed via online software wizards--answer a few questions on the screen, customize your buttons, and the codes are uploaded to the remote via a USB tether. In order to use the online software, of course, you need to create an account--nothing onerous, just an … Read more

Owners of the WD TV Live Hub and WD TV Live Streaming box just got an early Christmas present from Western Digital.

Editors' note: This post was updated at 3 p.m. December 22, 2011, to add information that the Android version of the WD Remote app is also available.

The company released the latest firmware for the two players that adds a slew of improvements and support for a number of other streaming services, including Vudu, SnagFilms, and Flixster.

However, the biggest addition is the fact that, together with the new firmware, WD also released the much-anticipated WD TV remote app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android devices. This app allows you to control the WD TV Live Hub or the WD TV Live Streaming via Wi-Fi signal on the same network they are connected to. … Read more