Remote Wonder: Closer Look

We’ve already mentioned the Remote Wonder control included with the GeCube All-In-Wonder 9600 XT card. Why not the second version of the remote control? The fact is ATI Technologies doesn’t supply Remote Wonder II even to its partners, not mentioning retail dealers, but uses this control in “Made by ATI” products only. Thus, the rest of the manufacturers (and their customers) have to be content with the first version of the Remote Wonder. Fortunately, you don’t practically lose anything in functionality: the newer remote control just has a different shape and placement of elements as well as a larger coverage area.

The control allows using all the functions of the ATI Multimedia Center which we discussed in our previous review, but that’s not all. The open REMOTE WONDER software architecture permits adding various plug-ins from third-party developers, which infinitely extend the functionality of the system. At least, after we installed appropriate plug-ins, we used our Remote Wonder for controlling Winamp, Foobar2000 and BSPlayer of different versions. You can find a lot of such plug-ins in the Internet.

The control can also be used as an ordinary mouse – there’s a round knob at the top of the device with two buttons on the sides.

The shape of the control is all right, but the size…

The size is rather too big, for our taste at least. The placement of some buttons is inconvenient, too. For example, the playback button group is found at the bottom of the control, so you have to hold it by the very tip and twist your thumb mercilessly to reach those buttons (if you prefer using the control with one hand only). The purpose of the five buttons located above and forming a circle is not intuitively clear. In TV-sets these buttons usually serve for switching between the channels, adjusting the sound volume, or even navigating the menu. Here, however, the first two purposes are assigned to the two seesaw buttons located right below the cursor-controlling pad.

Anyway, these are all minor flaws that vanish before the numerous advantages of the Remote Wonder system. I consider the use of radio waves instead of the infrared range as a fundamental advantage since many users have their system cases shoved under the desk or in some other place where the IR beam can hardly access. Then, you have to aim an infrared control at the photo-receiver, while the Remote Wonder releases you from this necessity. I think the external receiver unit has only one drawback – the USB cord it rather short.