Pronto is a small hub that's able to turn your iPhone into a universal remote, allowing it to control a range of electronics and devices within your home using 360 degree infrared. The Pronto connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth and works with an accompanying Peel Smart Remote app, which provides the remote interface and lets you see what's on television through an included guide.

As you can see in our video review below, the Peel app and the Pronto work together well, and with the included IR extension cable, you can put devices out of sight without losing the infrared connection.


Pronto is compatible with a huge number of televisions, Blu-ray players, DVD players, and set top boxes. It can connect to and control almost any television set, and it works with the Apple TV, Roku players, and more. Compatibility information is available on the company's website.

The Peel app includes simple controls for all devices and it makes it easy to switch between each one. There are also profiles available for different rooms, so the iPhone and Pronto pairing can essentially replace all of the remotes in the house.

Smart remotes have been around for ages, and many technology companies already offer apps allowing the iPhone to control things like televisions and media players, but the Pronto goes one step further and lets you control all of your devices with one app. It's quite similar to Logitech's line of Harmony smart remotes, but without some of the bells and whistles and with a lower price.

The Pronto can be purchased from Best Buy or NewEgg for $49.99.

Top Rated Comments

Nickerbocker Avatar
117 months ago
It's quite similar to Logitech's line of Harmony smart remotes, but without some of the bells and whistles and with a lower price.

The Pronto can be purchased from Best Buy or NewEgg for $49.99.

I have the Logitech Harmony 650 and for $57.25 (on Amazon) I consider it to have substantially more value than this. I love it. It does everything. First universal remote that TRULY allowed me to de-battery and put away the 5 remotes that were sitting in front of the entertainment center. Great little device (albeit, the software is slow miserable crap but you only need to set it up once).

I wouldn't mind it if my iPhone could be backup to the universal remote (if it had an integral IR blaster, for example). But to buy separate hardware just to make it so? No thank you. Unless you are a complete loaner, other people will need to interact with your entertainment setup at some point and do you really want them to have to do that from your iPhone?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sclawis300 Avatar
117 months ago
I disagree. If other people are in your house and watching your TV, why aren't you there with them? Can't they just tell you what they want? Or why can't you just hand them your phone, as you would a remote?

The only potential problem I see is... how many iOS devices can you pair with a single Pronto? If it's just one, this is DOA for me. If it's two... I might bite but I'd rather more.

Edit: Why does this thing need a battery? I feel like given how little power it needs it should be capable of just wirelessly charging from available light. 4 AAs gets it through an entire year. That seems comparable to wireless keyboards, plenty of which can go off of nothing but available light for power.

You don't have kids do you. Babysitters. Grandparents. Lots of people are in my house when I am not.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LV426 Avatar
117 months ago
Infrared has had its day. When you buy new equipment these days, make sure that it has IP connectivity. Infrared is fire and forget – the sender has no idea that the receiver got the message, or even if it's there. With IP there's full 2-way communication between your phone and devices.

In my setup I have a universal remote app for controlling all my home cinema devices, most of which is done over IP. I can see how far an Apple TV movie has progressed right on my phone display. Or if someone fiddles with the volume control on the AV amp, the volume is indicated on the phone display. And a single button press can reliably turn off all equipment (quite a few IR devices don't have a discrete OFF command).
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
citi Avatar
117 months ago
What's wrong with the remote app? Used it last night with no issues.

For me, It disconnects all the time and then I have to force close the app to get it to connect again.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...