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[aptalca]

ActivePhone is promising. It has potential. But let's face it, it is a little half baked. But the best part about it is the http api it introduces, that allows us to query and control the devices through simple http based commands. So I decided to exploit that and use the api for different reasons. The following are two ways it became extremely useful:


1) Integration w/ Media Center

I set up eventghost (eventghost.org), a *very* powerful automation tool, as the mediator. It receives events broadcast from XBMC Media Center (xbmc.org) such as when the trailers start, or when the movie starts, etc.. (XBMC has a script called "Cinema Experience" that makes you feel like you're in a movie theater. You select a movie and start the script. First it displays trivia like the "coke" slides they have at some theaters for 10 minutes, then it shows three upcoming movie trailers streaming from AppleTrailers, and then it starts the movie) So eventghost can send http commands to dim the lights when trailers start, turn lights off when movie starts, turn them on when paused and off again when resumed and so on. See my detailed post on that here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=101300

2) Custom design remotes on android and ios

I started using OpenRemote (openremote.org). It is a very interesting piece of software that lets you create a custom remote on your android or ios device by using their web based designer. It has a lot potential, but it lacks documentation and their community support is not that responsive. I was able to create a really cool remote with custom pictures and buttons and all. The buttons send http commands to ActivePhone's api. Now I am trying to figure out their sensors that can *potentially* grab the on/off/dim state off of the xml the "getmodules" command returns so I can display different pictures depending on the state of the device. My goal for instance is to use a picture of my living room as the interface and clicking on a lamp in the picture will turn it on, and the picture will change to display a lit lamp.

Just my 2 cents. I hope this gives new ideas to some of you.

[BryGuy]

This seems like a great idea.
Did you ever figure out how to do this with OpenRemote or any other program?
Thanks!

[kphome]

Half-baked is probably a little strong. This interface matches the actual remote control which is cool from a simplistic perspective; however, active phone doesn't dim when using the blue dim buttons...at least not from my android or my PC. It's simply not sending the dim signal when you hit those buttons. I know this because my actual remote works 100% when dimming with those little blue buttons. To bolster that notion the on/off buttons work 100% of the time from the vurtual remote or the physical remote.

Again the blue dim buttons are not sending dim signals. We should lobby to get that fixed.