The key to FLPR’s value is the app, which New Potato claims has 14,000 remote control codes built in—this means that in many cases, you can just launch the app, tell it which devices you’re using, and start controlling them right away. New Potato turns the iPhone or iPod touch screen into a scrollable replacement for individual remotes, letting you press a top-of-screen icon to swap between the remotes, and then scroll up or down through each remote’s buttons. In our testing with a set of five different devices, we found that the FLPR app properly controlled three without any customization—a Sony AV receiver, a Panasonic TV, and an Apple TV—but had problems with a Toshiba DVD player and a Microsoft Xbox 360, both of which appeared to be compatible given the app’s list of supported devices. When there’s a compatibility issue, New Potato provides a custom feature that lets you teach FLPR the commands for your remote. FLPR merits our limited recommendation, and may be worthy of mainstream attention if its price falls and software improves; PowerA falls into our “okay” rating category, and needs more considerable work in the software category.

I could simply have said that the FLPR works as advertised and that really would have been enough. I haven ‘t had any major issues with the device or the app and despite my complaints about the packaging and UI skins, the remote has been a joy to use. The only sticking point is the $80 price tag, which I still find rather hefty, even after having had two weeks to get used to the device. Then again, if you compare the price of the FLPR to other touchscreen remotes (usually around $200+ if you look at Logitech Harmony remotes) and add the fact that the FLPR leverages a device you already own, New Potato ‘s chosen price might not be so bad after all.