In essence what we're trying to do voor release 0.1 is to reproduce the above picture without the apple remote. So after some wiring you get this:

On the left with the two oversized antenna's the Alix box running Linux, Java and the controller software (The Openremote Box). Attached is the IR device with the wire pointing to the IR receiver of the Apple laptop. The iPod touch is running the iPhone application with the custom designed layout. Press the button and it will send (over Wifi) a command to ORB and the ORB will send the IR command et Voila!

If this does overly complicated you're probably right, but it's just proving the point. Just image what happens when the ORB starts talking to everyhing in your home, wired or not!

Two more weeks or so and you'll be able to try it out for yourself!