This universal remote wants to control your smart home sans hub

Universal remotes mightiness beryllium connected a comeback circuit if devices similar Cantata’s Haptique RS90 and RS90X really materialize and are arsenic bully arsenic advertised. The connected distant purports to treble arsenic a broad astute location controller, but it’s simply a Kickstarter hopeful for now. Serial remoters (remotees?) person pledged much than $300,00, with little than $10,000 needed to afloat money the task arsenic of writing, and there’s presently an estimated vessel day of August 2024.

What separates this from the sparse contention is that it’s hub-free. You won’t request a abstracted container plugged successful to the TV oregon IR repeaters to marque this work. It comes with a charging dock and has a comparatively roomy 3.2-inch colour touchscreen for the Android-based OS. The show sits supra a suite of 24 indispensable carnal buttons to navigate and power it all, including 1 that initiates dependable control. In summation to compatibility with much than 3,000 accepted devices with infrared similar TVs, projectors, Blu-ray players, and A/V receivers, the sleek phone-shaped RS90 has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to interface with newer astute location devices and platforms (and adjacent the PS5, eventually).

Cantata is promising aboriginal enactment for astute location integrations with devices from fashionable brands specified arsenic Philips Hue and Sonos, third-party and different open-source hubs and platforms similar Samsung SmartThings, Homey, and Home Assistant, and nonstop power for web-based services similar Spotify and Netflix. That’s successful summation to receivers from the likes of Yamaha and Denon, positive fashionable streaming devices specified arsenic the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Nvidia Shield TV, Apple TV, and Roku.

“Now you’ve got a full clump of apps alternatively of remotes,” helium said to The Verge’s Nilay Patel successful the extended interview. “The existent question was, ‘Can we beryllium an app selector? Can we someway beryllium the interface betwixt each those apps and you?’ We looked astatine it. We each thought hard astir it. We realized that app enactment is the domain of players that are already successful the marketplace doing a bully job. We’ve got to beryllium capable to bash thing peculiar for customers.”

Which is true! I’m present capable to get by with a azygous LG magic distant to power astir elemental functions for my soundbar, TV, streaming boxes, and adjacent my Xbox Series X / S (mostly acknowledgment to HDMI-CEC). I lone request to support way of a fewer remotes for the unusual juncture that I request to bash thing much specific. But that equation changes if you person dozens of different astute location devices oregon a much analyzable A/V setup with pieces from antithetic brands, but to this point, my smartphone fills those gaps good enough.

The Haptique RS90 aims to lick each of that. The thought that it tin adequately service arsenic a one-stop astute location hub sounds excessively bully to beryllium true, considering it’s already a small down the curve — it lacks Matter support, for illustration — but astatine slightest someone’s trying. You tin presently pledge €240 (about $258) for the caller Kickstarter darling, but the listing suggests it’ll retail starting astatine €360 (about $387) erstwhile aboriginal vertebrate preorders adust up.