The device that set out to replace 3 devices, (phone, mp3/video player, Internet) might eventually replace everything in your pocket. Like an idiot I assumed I knew a majority of what the iPhone was capable of. But browsing the internet the other day, proved me more wrong than Bush’s policy on foreign relations.
Control your car
Meet the Delphi car control concept web app (watch video here). Capable of doing everything your ordinary key fob does, and more. It’ll start your car, roll your windows up and down, and even gather engine diagnostics for you in case you smell something burning. I haven’t heard anymore about it since they debuted it last January, so hopefully the project didn’t get shelved.
Control your home
Now, how about all of those pesky remotes in your house. You’ve usually got 2 or 3 for the TV, maybe more if you have a theater setup. Promixis shows us it can handle these tasks along with home automation controls, with it’s iPhone home control concept shown in the link above. You can turn off, on, and dim your lights. You can even control your A/C and heater from your iPhone, over 3G or wifi. Seems like getting the initial home automation setup would be the painful and expensive part, and this would be like sweet icing on a cake. This particular software is just a concept but the technology (IR over wifi) is already being used in iPhone home automation software.
iPhone-controled R/C car
Finally, this is a little less helpful than the other applications we’ve discussed so far, but come on, if you looked up “freakin awesome” in the dictionary, it would have a picture of a guy, controlling a remote control car with his iPhone. This link even tells you how they did it. The next time I get a free weekend, and the motivation to start such a time consuming project, I’m totally thinking about doing something like this.
So I think the bottom line here is, if your company makes things that are eatible, then you’re going to be ok. But if not, you’d better be sure your products can’t be replaced by iPhone software or accessories, cause Apple’s coming for you. I already use my iPhone to wake up in the morning, check my falling Apple stock at breakfast, call my girlfriend from work on my lunch break, jam out to music on my way home, and bid for stuff on ebay as I lay in bed at night, do I really need any more reasons to pull this thing out of my pocket?
Of course, the goal of the device was to keep us from having to keep track of so many electronics. If I could start my car from my iPhone, turn the lights and tv off in my house as I’m walking out the door, then why not? But thinking about all of the things that it can do, has definitely got me pondering the questions, is there anything the iPhone can’t do?