ESPN Announces Ultimate Wi-Fi Remote

ESPN Consumer Products announced a new remote control that it developed with the help of tvCompass. "ESPN The Ultimate Remote" (yes, awkward full name) is an Internet-connected Wi-Fi device that, in addition to controlling your entire home theater system via IR, also delivers one-touch real-time access to sports, standings, team information and news. They are pitching it as a great Father's Day present and, well, I'd have to agree.

The ESPN Ultimate Remote manages home theater components by using a sort of mini-wizard system to allow you to enter in your equipment by type and manufacturer and control components in your home theater. It's a nice GUI interface that works in a much slicker way than traditional "look up your code in the user manual" models. The remote also works in both "Device" and "Activity" modes.

While they tout "surfing the Internet" it looks extremely tedious, but you can set up favorites and of course they provide a few good starting ponts, including Yahoo! search. You will also have pre-configured favorites which give users access to things like Facebook, Yahoo Search, E! News and the WSJ Finance pages... Of course you can also get access to Fantasy leagues for those really important game day moments.

As a remote, you also have access to an electronic program guide (EPG) for TV listings. As a Wi-Fi device one-touch access gets you to to a weather widget, email and even text messaging. Not bad for a remote control.

So far the only negative we see is the fact that all this information comes across on a 2.2-inch QVGA screen - very mobile-sized and not something you'll want to use for a lot of intense Internet browsing. Still, this might be a great product to loosen up the concept of mobile Internet access, which has not exactly taken off in this country (though partly due to the exorbitant fees charged by most wireless carriers.) The photos provided of the remote, which is available for pre-order at Amazon.com, seem to be computer renderings - which technically qualifies the remote as a pending "vaporware" product in our book until further notice - but one with lots of potential.

For additional information on ESPN The Ultimate Remote, go to www.espnremote.com.