iPhone: The Home Automation Remote Killer

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. Of the apps by Crestron, Lifeware, Z-Wave and Control4 we’ve seen here at CEDIA, Crestron’s seems to be farthest along (pictured above). It can control multiple rooms in multiple houses all via Wi-Fi or AT&T data, and is a free download and add-on. Z-Wave, probably the most accessible system that you don’t have to have a Cribs-worthy home to run, will sadly charge you $10 a month for the privilege of freaking out your pets while you’re on vacation or locking your doors from bed. Lifeware’s app is still in its nascent stages, but it will pack more Media Center integrations (in case you’re running the baddest Media Center in the world).
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AppleScript: Integrating shell scripts

We’ve talked about AppleScript how-tos before. AppleScript is fun and all, but what if you already know how to write shell scripts? Well, did you know that by integrating shells scripts into AppleScript, you can create simple applications that do useful things? It’s true, and I am going to show you how.

Continue reading to learn how to integrate shell scripts into AppleScripts.
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