As an avid user of Logitech Harmony remotes, I first heard of the FLPR and was extremely excited. It is a small dongle you attach to the dock connector of any iOS device and it becomes a universal learning remote with the free FLPR software interface. This thing could replace a Harmony and you would never have to deal with losing your remote again. This could be even cooler than the the Harmony. See if it is after the jump.
When I first received the FLPR to review, I was asked to wait for the 2.0 version of the software. Plagued with delay after delay, I finally received it and decided to just go with the current software. Because of this, I will take another look at 2.0 when it is released.
I downloaded the FLPR app and plugged the dongle in. There were no issues with recognition and it was immediately detected. The remote requires that you flip the phone upside down because of the dongle's position. Upon first opening, there are two buttons: Add and Settings. You can select from almost any category. Unfortunately, after choosing a manufacturer, there's no device selection. Instead of choosing a particular TV you only get the manufacturer. This creates a very generic remote for the device.
After choosing, you can set a background for each device so you can quickly see what device is on. This makes it very easy to tell which screen you are on without needing to read the device name.
After adding all of my devices, I tried to make a macro to power them all on at once similar to my Harmony. This seemed simple, but it wasn't. Because of the terrible interface design and lack of specific command codes, I had to manually edit the devices to get the full remote commands.
The add screen
TV Menu
"More Controls" area
About an hour later, I finally had everything that my Harmony had before it. It took me less than 10 minutes to configure my Harmony. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The FLPR has so much potential. It could be better than the Harmony One remote. My hope is that the New Potato guys get their software people together and create an interface that is better. The best way would to have a PC/Mac based system for creating remote profiles and logging in similar to the Logitech system.
If you're looking for a remote that can technically do everything, get the FLPR. It's by no means a bad product. It works and it works well. It just takes forever to set up and is about the same price as the cheapest Harmony remotes.
