iPod vs. iPad Control in a Home
By Jason Knott
Integrator says he has "sold his last dedicated wireless touchpanel" after completing his first iPad installation.

Just days after the release of the Apple iPad, some integrators were showing off their "iPad-controlled" homes. Technically, they were correct, but in some cases the jobs were not using new iPad apps but re-scaled iPhone apps.

So what exactly is different between the iPhone and the iPad interfaces?



Differences
In the iPhone the homeowner would have to change screens to navigate between functions, such as lighting, audio, thermostats or home theater. With the iPad, there is a “quick nav” menu in the upper right hand corner. Of course, these new menu bar allows the homeowner to initiate functions much faster because they don’t have to navigate to another screen.

An added “pop-up quick interface” on the iPad app that did not previously exist that allows the homeowner to initiate actions in a secondary system without having to navigate to another screen. These pop-ups allow the user to scroll to multiple options within the pop-up window. For example, while controlling audio, Mitchell brought up the lighting pop-up window and scrolled down to activate a lighting scene from among the 160 lighting loads in the home.

There is a “Now Playing” bar on the bottom of the interface let’s the homeowner see exactly what is playing on the audio or video while he or she uses other control functions.

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