To Xfinity... & Beyond!
Roberts unveiled a prototype for the Xfinity Remote, which shares the brand of Comcast’s VoD and Internet video services, during a general session at The Cable Show. One of the cable industry’s biggest challenges has been making it easier for consumers to navigate expanding content choices. Roberts says the Xfinity Remote helps solve that problem.
“That’s been the missing link for a lot of us in the cable box,” Roberts said. “How do I search 70,000 on-demand shows and beyond?”
A prototype version of the Xfinity Remote will be available to Comcast subscribers later this year, a Comcast spokesperson said Wednesday.
The Xfinity Remote application for the iPad will also feature some social networking features, which will allow Comcast subscribers to invite friends to watch the programs they are watching. The application relies on the cable industry’s EBIF interactive TV standard, Roberts said.
The Xfinity remote was developed by Comcast Labs, according to a blog that Comcast posted today.
Roberts shot a demo video of the Xfinity Remote Tuesday night and showed it to attendees at Wednesday’s opening general session at The Cable Show. You can view that video here:
— Steve Donohue, Special to Light Reading Cable
I've held an iPad. It's way too heavy to be a remote.
To use it would be a (groan) paradigm shift: the iPad would sit on the coffee table and be used more like a computer interface. Which I suppose is the direction they're going with this.
But for my habits - like using the remote to turn off the TV, then tossing the remote onto the couch - an iPad is probably not going to work.