peel

The Iron Throne from "Game of Thrones" and your toilet already have a lot in common. Many people have sat on them. They are both extremely important within their respective worlds.

You may not have waged an epic war over your toilet, but you can make it look like you did with an Iron Throne wall decal from Etsy seller PeelAndStickDecals. This means the next time you're praying to the porcelain goddess, you can pretend to be kneeling in front of the Iron Throne.… Read more

Last year Peel set out to redefine the remote-control space with a $99 fruit-shaped device that allowed you use your iPhone as a remote for changing channels and discovering TV shows. The Silicon-Valley based company got a lot of attention but the device didn't exactly set the market on fire. So Peel's shifting gears, adding a new interactive polling feature to its free app that will debut with this week's "American Idol."

The idea is pretty simple. As contestants perform, users will be able "cheer" or "boo" during performances by clicking … Read more

Update Feb 3, 2012: In early January Samsung told me of a firmware update that addresses the brightness pops in both the D7000 and D8000 plasmas (I was also told that 2012 versions wouldn't suffer this issue), but since that time the company has not given me any additional information despite repeated inquiries. Meanwhile multiple CNET readers have told me how they have contacted Samsung customer service (in one case via chat), described the "pops" and been sent updated firmware on a USB stick (version 1024.8). The effectiveness of the new firmware varies according to reports … Read more

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

Maksim Ioffe was sitting around his San Francisco living room watching TV one day in 2009 when he noted how ridiculous it was that on his coffee table were no less than five remote controls. He thought to himself, "This has got to go."

But instead of replacing them all with yet another remote, he looked to something he already owned: his smartphone.

Fast forward to 2011, and that germ of an idea two years ago has spawned the Dijit Universal Remote App, which turns an iPhone--or iPod Touch, iPad, or soon an Android phone--into a remote control.

Ioffe is not alone in looking for ways to substitute the smartphone for a remote control. There's actually a whole crop of companies that are trying to break into what some are calling the "smart-remote" business by taking advantage of the device that one-third of all U.S. cell phone owners already have on hand.

There's no agreed-on standard just yet for how best to replace the ubiquitous multibuttoned plastic living room staple. Different approaches are being offered, from free apps that control individual devices, like just your TV or just your set-top box, to a hardware accessory paired with an accompanying app that lets you control both "dumb" devices that only take infrared input and "smart" or Internet-connected devices in your home entertainment setup.

The cost can vary depending on the solution, from free to about $100. The appeal is the convenience: you probably already own a smartphone. And then there's the vast potential that the smartphone, really a minicomputer, brings to the coffee table: a bright screen with rich graphics, the ability to customize onscreen buttons as you wish, and the power of the Web to help you discover new programming or filter for just the stuff you like.

Of course there will be home theater devotees who insist they just can't give up their fancy 80-button universal remote, but there are plenty of advantages that could prove tempting for others looking for a simple and decidedly 21st century solution. … Read more

Peel's $99 universal remote isn't exactly a universal remote in the traditional sense of the word. It's more like an accessory--yes, it's pear-shaped--that taps into your home Wi-Fi network and interfaces with the free Peel iPhone app to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal TV remote with some program recommendation features.

When you open the cylindrical packing container you'll find that pear-shaped device (the Peel Fruit) along with an Ethernet dongle (the Peel Cable) that plugs into your router--or somewhere into your home network. Once plugged in (to Ethernet and AC power), … Read more

A handful of companies, including ThinkFlood, L5, and New Potato, offer hardware/app solutions to help you transform your iPhone or iPod Touch into an adaptable, touch-screen universal remote. It seems like a no-brainer, which is why I'm a little surprised I haven't seen them much in the wild.

With full-featured universal remotes hovering in the $200-$300 range, you'd think convergence would win out and the iPhone would gobble up this market the same way it took a bite out of MP3 players, portable gaming devices, e-readers, Internet radios, and so on.

Start-up company Peel believes it's hit on one part of the problem: People don't want to use adapters. Whether it's a plug that you stick in a headphone jack (that you'll inevitably lose), or a dock adapter (which doesn't fit with your case), the simple truth is that expensive adapters suck.

The Peel system uses no iPhone adapters. Instead, a free Peel iOS app communicates with a wireless transmitter plugged into your home's router. When you use the app to turn on your TV or home theater component, or select a show to watch, the selection is bounced to the wireless adapter and back to a little battery-powered pear-shaped IR blaster, which can be placed anywhere in your living room.… Read more

This week on Crave, we check out a touch screen from Nokia that's guaranteed to melt, Jasmine gets all up in arms over a belly band, and Oprah shows off an iPad with wings (seriously). Also, Donald's excited by a beerbot that can detect empties, Netflix tempts people to give up DVDs altogether, and Volkswagen debuts a car for little people. To cap it off, an enterprising designer pitches a watch band for the Nano--and overshoots his project funding by a whole heck of a lot. Finally: two delicious items designed to appeal to the fat person inside of all of us.

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This week, a podcast about a day you will never forget. No, not because The Beatles are available on iTunes--though we certainly get some mileage out of that. We're betting you'll remember this day as the first time you ever considered getting a sponge bath from a robot. As you can probably guess by now, Jasmine couldn't join us for today's show. Instead, Eric, Benito, and I are left to our own--clumsily riffing on zipper earbuds, iPhone liberation, Nook Color, and our president's interest in dancing fembots. Also: patriotic chocolate bacon.

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