Teaching the Skip 1s New Tricks
For a quick tutorial on how to record your remote, watch the video below.
Firmware Updates
Apart from the additional ability to record, we have identified further performance and stability improvements that should enhance usability and improve battery life. We are excited about these recent improvements.
Other Improvements
This update brings several other quality-of-life improvements, including improved performance, better space and animation management and other bug fixes. Even if you are all set with existing remotes, we’ll highly encourage everyone to update to experience these added benefits.
Full Changelog
- New – IR Learning Wizard Addition
- Improved – Performance on Mac
- Fixed – Activity Animation with Large Config
- Fixed – Add Activity Highlight Placement
- Fixed – Manual Assignment on Linux Resulted in Duplicates
- Fixed – Recording Occasionally Showing Incorrect Icon
- Fixed – Remote Manager Tools Icons in Dark Mode
- Fixed – Screen Resolution in Compact Mode Bug
- Fixed – Wizard Dropdown Alphabetical Ordering
- Firmware – Ability to Record Remotes
- Firmware – Stability, Performance, Battery Improvements
What’s Next
Over the next few days, we will be releasing a new release candidate for further testing, which is the most significant performance overhaul of our application. We expect this release to go live in 2 weeks. Our immediate focus will now be:
GUI
- Wizard Overhaul and Improvements
- Fixing multi-state Buttons (mute on / mute off, play, pause, etc)
- Misc Bug Fixes
Firmware
- Smart Device Switching
- Support for Multi-State Buttons
We have faced a number of significant technical challenges this year that have set us back a bit on schedule. We couldn’t work on some of these firmware features until we had learning working to meet our expectations, and made some under-the-hood progress. Overall, we are excited about our current position, and I’m confident that customers will visually see and feel the differences that are being released and are imminent. Thanks for everyone’s continued support.
To Celebrate
To celebrate this huge milestone, we made a fun video we thought you would enjoy. Check it out and share!
Flirc is excited to announce the launch of IR Learning for the Skip 1s remote control. You can now incorporate any IR remote control into your media flow, regardless of whether it is in our library or not. And the process should be extremely easy. Over time, we hope to make these newly learned remotes […]
When we first launched the Skip 1s, we thought it was clear that the state of the universal remote control industry was lacking. We listed many problems, but the most prominent one was that the existing marketplace didn’t understand the power of the community.
If you’ve recently visited the forum, you may have noticed a growing community of people who have found most of their devices showing up and working just fine with the existing Skip App Library. However, there might be a small problem with an existing entry, like a device that’s missing a button.
Before the latest release, the Skip App could only import new devices. This could result in duplicate entries in your local database, which didn’t really address the problem mentioned above. But with the most recent 0.9.93 Beta, we’ve taken steps to address that. Now, you can make changes to your existing devices locally and share them with the community, and it’s really easy.
How to Add and Remove Buttons from a Device
Before proceeding, make sure you’re familiar with our JSON file formats for adding custom devices. When added, these devices seamlessly appear in our software.
Adding, removing, or modifying existing devices is extremely easy. You can do this on two levels: the device level and the button level.
A prerequisite is to first match the Manufacturer and Device fields exactly for this feature to work.
“collision”: “DELETE” || “REPLACE” || “MERGE”, // Default is “MERGE”
Device Level
- Delete – will remove the entry from the database entirely. If you have buttons defined below this field, they wont matter. They are removed.
- Replace – This essentially removes the entry in our software and replaces it with yours. Any buttons defined in our original entry, will no longer show up. Only yours shows up.
- Merge – This puts all the buttons it finds in both entries into one list. Any buttons in the imported file that are identically named will get the entry from the imported file, essentially overwriting our entry.
Below is an example of a Device Level JSON file that would remove the Apple TV Gen 4 from the library.
Button Level
- Delete – will remove the button entry from the database entirely. If the button is not found in our entry, nothing happens.
- Replace – This essentially removes the button entry in our software and replaces it with yours.
Below is an example of a Button Level JSON file that would replace the POWER button on a Topping PRE90 device.
Don’t worry. Even without this field at either the device level or button level, imports will still work. We will apply the specified defaults, which is the least destructive approach.
Smarter Updates
Prior to v0.9.93, adding and updating existing devices was extremely cumbersome. The process involved importing a JSON file and then walking through the wizard to update codes on your remote, even if these codes were already assigned to buttons.
However, this is no longer the case. Now, if the existing manufacturer/device is currently assigned to any remote in your ‘cubby’, you will be prompted to update these codes directly.
Next Steps
We plan to provide better and easier tools within the Skip app for recording new devices, modifying existing devices, creating your own devices, and directly sharing and receiving feedback from the community. However, the next major update in development aims to unlock learning without the need to create and import files. Like everything else, we are working hard to simplify what has always been a challenge. As always, thank you for the support, feedback, and stay tuned.
When we first launched the Skip 1s, we thought it was clear that the state of the universal remote control industry was lacking. We listed many problems, but the most prominent one was that the existing marketplace didn’t understand the power of the community. If you’ve recently visited the forum, you may have noticed a […]
It’s with great excitement to finally announce a partnership that was years in the making. Felix, the creator of Remote Buddy, and I have been working for over a year on an extensive collaboration. While I give him the majority of the credit for the bigger piece of the collaboration, I am nevertheless honored to have worked with him.
Remote Buddy 2.0 is available for download, and packs a punch of features. It’s not only powerful, extensive, but it’s beautiful.
Exclusive Features
Remote Buddy 2.0 is built on an incredible architecture, with support for a number of receivers, and a number of remotes. But being the creators of each, gave us the unique opportunity to work on features together not found anywhere else. Flirc and Remote Buddy work together in concert and with incredible integration and advanced features.
How It Works
Flirc has a number of USB interfaces. The normal ones you are already familiar with. The pairing interface, and the HID (keyboard/misc) interfaces. Alongside this interface sits the new remote buddy interface, and it’s been there since version v4.6.0 of the flirc firmware. It’s been shipping for 9 months, and is already enabled on all existing and new devices. When the remote buddy interface is active, the HID interface is not, so only one interface is supported at a time. The Flirc GUI will not interrupt Remote Buddy’s operation, and allows easy upgrades without the need to quit Remote Buddy.
Lowest Latency
Since most post processing is done through remote buddy, Flirc passes up the data as quickly as possible for the lowest latency and best experience on the market.
Beta Features
New to Remote Buddy and Flirc is a new feature for customizable wake support. You can pair a single apple remote, a range of apple remotes, or a unique key from any remote to wake up a computer From S0/S1/S3 sleep states.
To try this out, grab the latest beta firmware from the forums here. Remember to give us feedback.
Upcoming Features
We’re already hard at work on adding more new features, but would also love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment here or through the forums, or send Felix an email.
Discounted Flirc with Valid Remote Buddy 2.0 License
We worked hard to create the best IR receiver for Remote Buddy. And we want as many people as possible to enjoy the level of detail, functionality and integration we’ve achieved.
So we’re making an offer so good it’d be financially stupid to pick a different, inferior product:
Remote Buddy users with a license valid for version 2.0 will be able to purchase one Flirc for only $9.95 (excluding shipping). This offer will not expire and only be valid through the flirc.tv store.
Felix and I are working together to make this offer available through a new Benefits page that will roll out as soon as possible.
Should you have eagerly purchased a Flirc in advance from our store, around the time of this announcement, please get in touch and we’ll work together to extend the discount to you.
It’s with great excitement to finally announce a partnership that was years in the making. Felix, the creator of Remote Buddy, and I have been working for over a year on an extensive collaboration. While I give him the majority of the credit for the bigger piece of the collaboration, I am nevertheless honored to […]
Software v2.6.0 Released
Version 2.6.0 of the GUI has been release. In this version there are two updates, new firmware version, and the ability to enable / disable built in profiles. Under advanced, you can now enable and disable each profile independently. This feature was done and promised for nearly a month, and we decided the feature, problem, and solution were novel, so we filed a patent. In order to try and protect anything globally, we couldn’t release the software until after the patent filing.
Firmware v4.2.1 Released
Also included in this version is a new firmware which will allow sending of RAW IR signals as outlined in the previous blog post.
SDK Updated
Kinda botched the original release with a ton of garbage commits as I got all my build software working. So I scratched it and started over. Also included in this version are static and dynamic libraries for Windows.
Software v2.6.0 Released Version 2.6.0 of the GUI has been release. In this version there are two updates, new firmware version, and the ability to enable / disable built in profiles. Under advanced, you can now enable and disable each profile independently. This feature was done and promised for nearly a month, and we decided […]