[ale] Ultimate Cell Phone remote?

[householdwords at gmail.com (H P Ladds)]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 10:23 AM, Calvin Harrigan
<charriglists at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Being the Luddite that I am about portable telephone technology I'm
> turning to the ale community for what might seem like easy questions.
> I'm looking for an ultimate remote control for my mythtv/boxee/hulu/xbmc
> HTPC. ?After seeing some of the newer phones with slide out
> keyboards/touch screens etc. I thought these phone would be ideal for an
> uber remote. ?The question I had was: ?Can these phones, IPhones,
> BlackBerries, generally be used without having service. ?As in dedicated
> use as a remote control that communicates via wifi/bluetooth?
> Any ideas along these lines? ?Obviously I would have to develop an app
> for the platform, just feeling the waters for now.
>

Pluto Home is a Linux-based home automation system, and it allows a
cell phone to control the system. Pluto Home's  "media center" is
built on top of MythTV .  Perhaps there is something to be gleaned
from their project...http://plutohome.com.