Ahanix iMon Review – Introduction
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of receiving a great piece of hardware from a friendly gentleman
over at Digiconcepts. The item in
mention is the Ahanix iMon Universal IR Remote Control System, or in other words, a remote control
for your PC.
Now, if you read around here at Fury-Tech you’ll find pretty quickly that I don’t make a habit of
wasting your time plugging every company under the sun. But on the same token, when I see a deal, I’ll
tell you! Fortunately for me, the same folks that provided the iMon for this review happen to have
the best price I can find on this killer unit. Digiconcepts
has a $5 mail-in rebate which would bring the price to $58.89 USD (as of 04/01/04). So if you
like the looks of this as much as I enjoyed actually using it, click on the DIGICONCEPTS banner above
before these guys sell all of them!
Anyway, let’s get on with this review before you strangle me!
Ahanix Corporation is a California based company distributing PC cases in North America. While
self-declared case and enclosure distributors, they also offer a range of cooling products,
multimedia PCs, power supplies, and more.
The iMon Universal IR Remote Control System (or just iMon, for short), fits right into Ahanix’s product
line by offering a powerful and friendly way to turn your PC into a real multimedia machine. The iMon
system is comprised of a universal remote, complete with joystick, and the iMon Station, which is
the receptor for the remote and allows you to communicate with the PC wirelessly.
Let’s get started by having a look at exactly what you’re getting with the Ahanix iMon Universal IR
Remote Control System.
Ahanix iMon Review – Overview
Taken directly from Ahanix’s web site, the requirements for the iMon are pretty straight-forward.
You shouldn’t have a problem using the iMon on any recent machine. As you can see the iMon is
designed for Windows users exclusively, as there is no indication of software designed for OS X or
Linux.
| Product: |
Ahanix iMon Universal IR Remote Control System |
| Manufacturer: |
Ahanix, Inc. |
| OS: |
Windows XP/2000/ME/98 |
| System Req.: |
Pentium 500MHz or higher
1 USB Port
CD-ROM Drive |
| Supported RC: |
iMON RSC (dedicated remote controller, 43 key buttons and 1 joystick)
Other home appliances remote controllers for home use that use 38kHz carrier frequency. |
| Max. Distance: |
15 meters |
| Signal Reception Angle: |
45° angle in all directions or narrower |
| Max. Distance: |
15 meters |
| Connection Type: |
USB (cable length : 1.5M, longer with cable extension) |
| Dimensions: |
iMON Station : Diameter 47mm
iMON RSC : 205*50*40(mm) |
| Weight: |
iMON Station: 50g
iMON RSC: 160g (including battery weight) |
| Certification: |
CE, FCC, MIC |
You should never judge a book by its cover, but while a package doesn’t define performance, it does
define an image for the manufacturer/distributor. The iMon package looks more than decent, it’s sturdy
enough to take a beating during shipping, and it has a decent amount of information on the outside to
learn a bit about the product.
The package includes the following items:
- Remote Control
- Irda Receiver
- CD-ROM
- Quick-start Guide
- Batteries
Obviously we get the iMon remote control itself, the receiver (which reminds me eerily of The Terminator’s
glowing red eyes), a CD-ROM containing the manual and software, a quick-start guide, and two AA batteries. In case you
didn’t catch that, let me clarify. Ahanix doesn’t include a printed manual for us, instead opting to
stick it on the CD. Not a big deal, but it would have been a nice touch. The small piece of paper
you see is the iMon Installation Guide, which is a small card with a brief description of the installation
process.
The lack of a physical manual is made up for when we get our hands on the RC. The remote looks pretty
much identical to a standard universal remote, with the exception of a few things. The joystick in
the center is certainly unique to this device, and a small but exceptional addition is the little
“hump” on the bottom of the remote. This nestles in quite comfortably by your index finger and
lets you get a nice solid grip on the device.
Ahanix describes the following features list for the iMon:
- Perfect Control of popular music, DVD, Movie Players using a remote controller
- Powerful Mouse Functions of moving mouse cursor as smooth and precise as real mouse
- Stylish Cool Design of iMON Station according to the variable computer situations
- Convenient Setup and Use of iMON RSC through automatic setup wizard of the application hot-key setting
- Maximize of the remote controller button use by generating different hot-keys with the same remote controller button under different applications
- “Application Launcher” for the immediate load of the application
- “Task Switcher” for the switching in the loaded applications
- “Monitor Resolution Changer” for immediate monitor resolution changing by remote controller
- “All-time Control Window” for control of one application regardless of the current active state
- MACRO for setting and execution of the complicated command like Log In, Composition work of mouse and keyboard, and so on
- Additional convenient functions like PC Power OFF, Screen Saver Activation, Sleep, Alarm and so on
- Wireless Controlling of PowerPoint Presentation using a remote controller
- Excellent IR signal receiving sensitivity up to 15 meter distance and 45ĄĆ angle in any direction
- Use of ANY general House Appliance Remote Controller with iMON through the remote controller registration and setup wizard
- Automatic Search and Setup Functions of popular multimedia S/W
- On Screen Display of volumes, timer info, etc for convenience control of PC
- More Multimedia Applications can be registered and set by the user custom setting
These are all fairly self explanatory so I won’t waste your time repeating them. One thing worth noting,
however, is that you can actually use any universal remote controller with the iMon software and receiver.
Why you would want to do that is beyond me, but I suppose if you ever tire of the iMon RC you can find
one more suited to your needs.
The iMon sports a lot of Windows-specific features that let you control your desktop, applications,
browsing, etc. A lot of us will be purchasing this device for their Home Theater PC (HTPC) though,
so let’s see what the iMon layout looks like in a little more detail.
At the top of the remote we find the obligatory bright red power button, and we also have a button
labelled Application Exit, which is fairly self explanatory. The screen saver button
will start your screen saver, and the timer button starts the iMon Timer application.
Next we see a numeric keypad, which serves a few purposes. We can assign quick text strings to these
buttons for instant keyboard input, and we can also use them along with the Virtual Keyboard to speed
up text input. More on these in a minute.
Directly beneath the keypad we have a Desktop button which will minimize all of your open
applications to the taskbar. To the other side, the Max/Res button will maximize and restore
your current window.
Here are a few more OS specific buttons below the keypad as well. Esc (escape), a Windows
key supplement, a menubar button, the iMon Application Launcher button, the iMon All-Time
Control Window button, and finally a button for the iMon Task Switcher.
In the very center of the remote we have a contoured joystick, as well as buttons for keyboard/mouse
selection, right/left mouse clicks, tab, shift-tab, and forward and back key.
Mute, Vol +, and Vol - are located right above the Application section
of the remote.
The last of the buttons are located in the Application section of the remote, and provide
common media control buttons, including a button for fullsize video viewing. These buttons are not
limited to media control though, and when assigned to another application you use each of these buttons
for a purpose differing from what they are labelled as.
The iMon Station is unique, it looks exactly like HAL 9000’s eye, from the
film 2001: A Space Odyssey. When you press a button on the remote, two alternating red LEDs
flash from within.
The station has a small stand that you can rest it on, as shown in the picture. Unfortunately the
stand has a small peg which the “eye” rests on, but it does not make a solid connection. The station
comes with a piece of double-sided tape for positioning the unit, and I could imagine sticking it under
a shelf or your desk to get it out of the way. However, it will fall right off the base without some
other method of securing it.
This could make for a fun case mod if you found the right use for it, though! Now that
we have an idea of what to expect, let’s move on to installation and get this puppy running!
Ahanix iMon Review – Installation & Setup
Installation of the iMon is fairly straight-forward. The card we find in the box explains the
three basic steps to installing the iMon.
The first step is of course inserting the CD into our computer and running the auto-install process.
We do not want to plug in the iMon just yet. The installation program will start and you will be
walked through a standard installation process for the software. Once the software has been succesfully
installed, we can plug the iMon in, and (hopefully) it will detect the device and automatically
configure the proper drivers for it.
The first thing we see upon entering the CD is the Setup Manager window, which asks for you to read
the installation documentation and agree that you understand it. Once you click Start Setup you
will see the InstallShield Wizard, which will guide you through a normal application installation process.
As soon as the installation completes succesfully, you will be asked to select your RC:
In this case, we are choosing the IMON RSC option. The installation should finish at this point and
let us know that our new iMon was succesfully installed! We can now plug the iMon into a USB port
in our PC and open the iMon icon that was created on your desktop.
This loads up the iMon Manager where we can configure our device. From here we can
opt to use a different remote control altogether, but for the purposes of this review we will of
course select the “iMON RSC” under the RC caption.
The Option button will give us access to six device-level configuration screens, shown below.
Common: Here you can configure a sound to be played when an identified or unidentified IR
signal is received. You can also set the remote to control only one application at all times.
Mouse: This screen lets you configure the mouse speed when controlled by the iMon.
Keyboard: This screen lets you configure the keyboard repeat speed when controlled by the iMon.
Timer: This screen lets provides configuration options for the timer, including alarm duration
and default sound.
Screen Resolution: Here you can configure the screen resolution(s) you use. Why? I have no idea.
Virtual Keyboard: This screen can be very handy. You can configure any of the ten numerical buttons on
the iMon to type out a character string. Some ideas might be commonly used usernames, web sites,
etc.
The configuration settings above are the most basic options for your iMon. Now we can look at the
extended configuration screen and see what this device can really do for us.
Ahanix iMon Review – Configuration
The iMon Remote Control System lets us configure more than just the supported applications. Out of
the box, the iMon is configured to handle some of the most common Windows applications, such as PowerDVD,
Windows Media Player, WinAmp, and PowerPoint.
The real power comes with configuring our own applications. Even better, an application doesn’t require
iMon or IR support, as long as you know the application’s keyboard shortcuts for the commands you
want to access we can set them up for control via the iMon Setup program. Starting with the
Program CMD tab we can begin adding and configuring whatever applications we want to.
At the top of the screen we can define new applications and remove existing applications from the
iMon setup program. You can change key/shortcut associations by selecting the respective application
and defining your shortcuts directly below.
Not only can you configure your own applications, but you can export your settings for other iMon
users! This is a great addition since you can now share your configurations with other users, and
save yourself time by using configurations that have already been created and tested.
The next tab in the iMon Setup screen is Windows CMD. This is where we configure the Windows-specific
buttons on the iMon remote.
HTPC users might not care about a lot of these, and you must disable them
in order to assign them to other programs. For your average user who wants to use the remote for
total PC control, these are best left untouched.
The Windows CMD screen doesn’t let us create new Windows-specific commands, but we can
move on to the next tab to do this: Customized Windows CMD.
The Customized Windows CMD screen is pretty straight forward. Like the Program CMD
tab we can define new associations for our iMon Windows buttons here. For even more Windows
functionality, next we see the Macro tab.
If you want to execute a series of commands via a Macro, you can create new button associations here
to do just that. Creating associations is pretty much identical to the other screens. Finally, we have
the Launcher tab.
The Application Launcher provides quick access to your favorite applications at the touch of
a button. This screen lets you define what applications you want shown when you select the application
launcher button on the iMon. When you press the Application Launcher button on the iMon, a list of
your applications is displayed as shown:
The icon on the far left launches the Virtual Keyboard, at which point you will see an on-screen
keyboard. This is basically the same as typing text into a phone, except it was a real pain to
skip to the next letter. I wouldn’t plan on writing any books with this little feature.
As you can see the iMon Setup program gives us a lot of flexibility. The iMon provides a lot of
control over your entire PC, as opposed to restricting itself to media/HTPC systems. This is great
in my opinion, because HTPC users can just disable the Windows-centric stuff and get a ton of
functionality out of the remote. The rest of us can enjoy the fact that we now have a supreme level
of control over our computers.
Realistically though, if I want to type something I’ll use my keyboard. If I want to browse the web
I will use my mouse. So what benefit does the iMon offer to normal PC users? Let’s move on and put
the iMon to some use, and see why I enjoyed using this device so much.
Ahanix iMon Review – Testing and Conclusion
Considering we can configure this device to work with nearly any application we want, it would be
unreasonable for me to tell you that it will be perfect for your needs. I tested the iMon in the
applications I will most use it for – Windows Media Player, WinAmp, PowerPoint, and Mozilla.
The iMon is a shoe-in for Windows Media Player. The Application control pad lets you play, pause, stop,
fast-forward, rewind, resize, and open media in WMP. I didn’t encounter any problems using the iMon
with WMP, even from the other end of my room (which is around 30ft. away).
The iMon was similarly useful with WinAmp. By looking up WinAmp shortcuts and adding them manually,
I was able to do most of the things I would do without the iMon. Unfortunately, since we’re limited to
configuring shortcuts, I couldn’t access any of the more advanced configuration options which did
not have keyboard shortcuts available. This isn’t necessarily a limit of the iMon, although further
support of common apps like WinAmp would be desirable.
For productivity/office applications, the iMon proved to be useful and impossible. Controlling PowerPoint
was simple, given the limited number of controls you need for an average presentation. Mozilla on the
other hand, was a different story. Browsing the web with a remote control is just not practical. It
might be cool, but it takes a lot longer to punch in an URL on the iMon than it would just typing it.
You can use a combination of the iMon and your keyboard, but that pretty much defeats the purpose
of a remote control in the first place.
One cannot complain though. Since the majority of users will be interested in playing MP3’s and AVI’s,
not browsing www.fury-tech.com, the iMon serves its purpose. It serves its purpose very well, in fact.
Not only is the device comfortable in the hand with a great range (15M), the software is easy to
use and configure, appears very stable, and gives you flexibility to customize the iMon to your
needs.
While I’m not a hardcore HTPC fanatic, I can safely say the iMon is a great piece of hardware. From
opening the package to controlling my movies, the iMon was a smooth ride that was both quick and easy.
Like any product there is always room for improvement, such as the lack of a physical manual or
extensive application-specific software, but overall Ahanix did a respectable job of delivering a
quality product.
Let’s wrap this up with one last look at the pro’s and con’s of the iMon Remote Control System.
Pros:
- Easy installation
- Highly configurable
- Quality manufacturing and design engineering
- Great range (15M)
Cons:
- No physical manual included
- The Irda stand doesn’t securely attach to the Irda
- Some application specifics cannot be configured for use if they don’t have shortcuts
Thanks again to Digiconcepts for providing the iMon
for this review. They currently have the iMon for the cheapest price I can dig up, so if you’re
looking for a sweet new RC it couldn’t hurt to visit their web site.
I hope you enjoyed this review of the AHANIX iMon Universal IR Remote Control System, and if you
have any questions, comments, criticism, or just want to say hi, we welcome you to discuss this review.
Tags:
Case,
Case mod,
mod,
Ram
