There are already a few home automation iPhone apps in the store, but here at CEDIA it's clear that all of the home automation heavies have definitely discovered the obvious: the iPhone makes for a great universal touchscreen remote for everything from your AC to your living room blinds to your music collection. And most of them won't make you pay the price of a snazzy dedicated touchscreen controller to get it, either. Most of them.

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When TiVo worked with Crestron (the home automation company) to provide integration between your DVR and your wall control panels, they actually opened up a door for people to control your TV with just about any computer. All you have to do is telnet into your TiVo via port 31339 and type in some commands. It's pretty basic now, but the telnet interface means you can easily rig up an iPhone remote app or do some kind of port forwarding to remotely control your TV from outside your home. Why you would want to do that is your business, since we don't want to tell you how to best spend your time. The complete command list after the jump. [TiVo Community (Instructions) via Zatz Not Funny]

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Crestron, the company that makes crazy high-end home automation equipment that lets you turn off your lights by just breathing loudly, just announced Windows Sideshow support. You remember Windows Sideshow, right? The Windows Vista feature that lets you feed Vista's Gadgets onto an external device. Crestron's including this on all Crestron touchpanels and 2-way devices that support dynamic text. Not only does it read data, you can even send control information back to Windows to change a song or turn off your BitTorrent downloads because you're about to play some Xbox Live.

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What would a CEDIA floor walk be without stopping by Crestron, that company that will let you control everything in your house with sophisticated control devices, commanding a hefty price along the way. The company's newest addition to its vast system of control processing equipment is the MLX-2, a $750 remote control that has two-way RF communication, opening up some intriguing possibilities.

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