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One of the biggest things that OS 3.0 brought us was third party accessories.  I have a dream….for the perfect iPhone accessory for those with home theaters! :)

My dream is this: a universal remote!  Now I’m not talking about a one size fits all, terrible to program remote like you can get for $10 at your local convenience store.  What I want is a truly killer remote application developed by none other than Logitech, the maker of the Harmony remote lineup.  Pictured at the left is the Harmony 1100 which is their newest remote which runs at a pricey $500 (MSRP).  Now that we have these new API features, Logitech could do this 2 different ways.

First, give us a dock connector add-on that (elegantly) gives us an IR emitter and maybe some extra battery juice as a bonus since you are adding yet another wireless standard.  Another way to go about this is make a Bluetooth IR emitter.  This would be a little box that would connect to the iPhone or iPod via Bluetooth and emit the IR signal to your TV, DVD, DVR, or whatever else you have.

When paired with one of these accessories, your iPhone would have a Logitech Harmony iPhone application that acts as your remote control.  The days of punching in channel numbers is over, now you would be able to just simply tap on a station’s logo and the remote will change the channel for you.  One thing I would love to see this app to do also is give us support for multiple rooms.  I think it is safe to assume that if you are an iPhone or iPod Touch owner, you have at least 2 TV’s you really don’t want to leave your iPhone or iPod in the same room so what we should be able to do it create different “equipment profiles” for your different rooms so that you can use the same remote all over the house.

One of the most important features of the Harmony line is the ability to program itself via the web.  For those of you who don’t know, the Harmony remotes plug into your computer via an included USB cable (mini USB if I remember properly) and you connect to Logitech’s site and feed it the model numbers from all your devices and it programs the remote to work with all the features on all your devices.  On the iPhone app, you could completely cut out the PC programming given that there is an internet connection on the device.

Logitech, please make this happen! Take a hint from TomTom and learn to embrace iPhone owners.  We don’t bite, I promise!  I’m sure there are many people out there like myself who want a truly killer remote control like the Harmony 1000 or 1100 but can’t justify another $500.  If Logitech could sell the app and it’s appropriate accessory for under $100, this would really help cement their place in the home theater space.