TV remote gadet

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  • Andrew Pratt
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Aug 2000
    • 16507

    TV remote gadet

    Keychain remote control turns off most TVs anywhere

    By MAY WONG






    SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Plenty of people love television, but apparently some have had enough of it.

    A new keychain gadget that lets people turn off most TVs - anywhere from airports to restaurants - is selling at a faster clip than it would take most people to surf channels. "I thought there would just be a trickle, but we are swamped," the inventor, Mitch Altman of San Francisco, said Monday in an interview. "I didn't know there were so many people who were into turning TV off."

    Hundreds of orders for Altman's TV-B-Gone gadget, worth roughly $19 Cdn, poured in Monday after the tiny remote control was announced in Wired magazine and other online media outlets. At times, the unexpected attention overloaded and crashed the website of his company, Cornfield Electronics.

    The keychain fob works like a universal remote control but one that only turns TVs on or off. With a zap of a button, the gizmo goes through a string of about 200 infrared codes that controls the power of about 1,000 television models. Altman said the majority of TVs should react within 17 seconds, although it takes a little more than a minute for the gizmo to emit all the trigger codes.

    Altman, 47, first got the idea for TV-B-Gone a decade ago when he was out with friends at a restaurant and they found themselves all glued to the perched TV instead of talking to each other. No one was around to turn the TV off.

    The self-described geek with a master's in electrical engineering started tinkering full-time on the project a few years ago with help from money he had earned from a company he co-founded, data-storage maker 3ware Inc.


    Altman remembers spending most of his childhood unwittingly captivated by TV, watching shows regardless of whether they were entertaining.

    He quit as an adult and hasn't owned a television in 24 years.

    He has tested the TV-B-Gone remote discreetly in many places, including in other countries, and - with the exception of Hong Kong - says he usually gets little to no reaction from others after the background TV noise and glare disappears.

    Altman does not contend that all TV is bad. "There's just so little time in all of our lives," he said. "Why should we spend so much time on something we don't necessarily enjoy
  • Glen B
    Super Senior Member
    • Jul 2004
    • 1106

    #2
    Nice gadget. Now, if someone would make a "Cellphone-B-Gone" gadget to silence :twisted: those persons who choose the wrong place and time to carry on loud, long and mundane conversations without regard for others within earshot.
    Last edited by Glen B; 20 October 2004, 22:12 Wednesday.


    Comment

    • Chris D
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Dec 2000
      • 16877

      #3
      Actually, this is cool. What's the actual website?
      CHRIS

      Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
      - Pleasantville

      Comment

      • Andrew Pratt
        Moderator Emeritus
        • Aug 2000
        • 16507

        #4
        Chris its http://www.tvbgone.com/ but they've exceeded their daily limit of 5 Gig of data a day :E

        Comment

        • Lex
          Moderator Emeritus
          • Apr 2001
          • 27461

          #5
          The thing is, this guy will soon find the overhead dealing with thousands of 15.00 orders will swamp him in little details that don't make him any money...

          But really, the guy should jump ahead to the 21st century, just because you have a TV, don't mean you have to be glued to it all the time, and their are educational things on it.

          Oh, and the first thing he should do, is get unlimited bandwidth on his site, lol.

          Lex
          Doug
          "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it!" - Kramer

          Comment

          • Kevin P
            Member
            • Aug 2000
            • 10809

            #6
            Hey Lex, we have some bandwidth to spare, don't we? We could sell him some for a modest fee. Then you can buy that Ferrari you've been eyeing. :twisted:

            Looks like a neat gadget. How long before someone sues though, claiming "copyright infringement" on discrete IR codes or something equally asinine.

            Pr@, I agree on the cellphone-be-gone. Maybe we should team up. I could use a better hobby than wiring glowing eyes to cardboard Halloween props.

            Comment

            • David Meek
              Moderator Emeritus
              • Aug 2000
              • 8938

              #7
              Originally posted by Kevin
              I could use a better hobby than wiring glowing eyes to cardboard Halloween props.
              Uh Kev? We've GOT to get you out more. :B
              .

              David - Trigger-happy HTGuide Admin

              Comment

              • Lex
                Moderator Emeritus
                • Apr 2001
                • 27461

                #8
                I just thought of a good one.

                "Battery Buster, TM" What it does, you press the button on a little remote, and it destroys any cell phone battery where the phone is active within a 100 feet radius. ha! They won't be making many calls the rest of the event.


                Actually, there are cell phone "Jammers". This is technology invented at least in part by the Israelis I think. Some churches and such are buying it in Mexico and places, but it is illegal in US. At least for now.

                Lex
                Doug
                "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it!" - Kramer

                Comment

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