Does SQ Blaster have a future?

[SativaNL]

Hi there,
I am doing research for a year now for my new house.
I am confident that SQ Blaster is the right choice for me, but the lack of (information of) updates, keeps me from purchasing it.

Within 2 months I will have the key of my new house, so now is the time for me to make a decision.
First of all, I am Android based. (Subquestion; How is the development going?)
Second, I get a feeling that all the development goes in SQ Home which is stated to be a equivalent of Vera.
Is Vera support killed in future updates? Should I worry about this?

SQ Blaster + Vera is for me the best option, but I have some second thoughts here. Anyone (Matt/John) who can explain something of my concerns?

RedEye already did die this year. Maybe I am better of with AutomationHD + Vera + Global Cache IR? I am a webdeveloper so I can make my own interface, so that's not the problem. But I like the SQ more..
Anyone?

[kev b]

Square Connect's facebook page states that they are still in business, but have had terrible supply problems, and they were even robbed, ipads and laptops stolen.  You may want to look there for some of your answers, as they did respond to others' concerns.

[SquareConnectJohn]

Hi everyone. We don't spend much time in these forums these days, hence our slow response to some of your questions. We are still going but have had several serious setbacks (see post above).  We did have a break in and lost a lot of equipment, as well as a bunch of other things...   

We will have stock available soon though. Units are on the shelves of our manufacturer... we just need to get all the ducks lined up...

John

[akbooer]

Quite apart from the availability of this particular IR device, one has to wonder about the longer term future of IR control.  I must say that being mid-way in the transition to IP controlled devices, and WiFi apps to control them, that the idea of actually having to have line of sight to the device under control and pointing something at it seems a tad old-fashioned.

[airedale]

It might be old fashioned, but as I walk through my house I have a lot of TVs I cannot control and would like to. It would be nice if there was a device that we had a device that was low cost to control singular devices. I'd buy a bunch of them for point solutions throughout my house. It is hard to justify ~$150 per room. I'll grab the remote and point it at that point.

[SativaNL]

Hi everyone. We don't spend much time in these forums these days, hence our slow response to some of your questions. We are still going but have had several serious setbacks (see post above).  We did have a break in and lost a lot of equipment, as well as a bunch of other things...   

We will have stock available soon though. Units are on the shelves of our manufacturer... we just need to get all the ducks lined up...

John

John. Good to hear from you. Thanks!

Within 2 months I am going to start living in my new house.
How realistic is it to depend that your Android version will be ready within this timeframe?
Hope you can give me a little timepath of the development?

Thanks!

[chixxi]

The relationship in between SQ Blaster and Android is the reason why I don't have an SQ Blaster any more. Loads of promises but not even a beta app (that was a while ago, so I don't know what is going on right now).

I changed over to the "redeye". But if I recall that correctly they went out of business. But still, there might be an option to get them cheap right now, on ebay I saw some beeing sold for $50...

[SativaNL]

They lost another customer, because I bought Global Cache IP2IR, and iRule.
I am Android based, RedEye went out of business, and SQ Blaster seems dead to me.

[umtauscher]

... I bought Global Cache IP2IR, and iRule.

I tried that too. Unfortunately the SQBlaster still is the best IR device there is. As sad as the support is, I don't see any way to use Global Cache. They struggle with press and hold for more that 10 years and it still hasn't become any better. (My last test was just a few weeks ago.)
iRule has a nice UI, but vera support is quite bad, they don't get anything from vera's settings, you have to enter ever node by hand.

So I myself still hope SQ are getting back on track.
Just my 2 cts.
Wilhelm

[kgrr]

Why not use a web page?

With all the different mobile operating systems out there, I have to wonder why SQ Blaster has to be an app based product.   The largest market is not IOS, but Android.  But possible devices are also based on Windows, Sybian, Blackberry, etc.  The only time an app is really required is if something needs to be manipulated in the hardware of the device.  E.g. reading a GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, or sending data to and from a USB interface.

Why not simply display a dynamic web page?  Why not let the HTML page deliver the content and CSS carry the style?

An HTML web page controlled by another device like Vera does not care about how the page's style.  It only cares about the content.

On the other hand, a page to be displayed for humans may be completely customized for each application.  It may only require a change of CSS file that determines the style of how the elements are styled and displayed.

What if you could apply the same thing to display a web page for all screens - Man-Machine Interface, Desktop, Laptop, all cellphones, tablets, smart TVs, etc. ?   Based on some simple criteria, the correct style sheet can be applied.   The style sheet selects the colors, the character fonts,  the size of the display, whether it is in portrait or in landscape, large buttons or small, the gifs used, how the buttons are arranged, etc.

Take a look at this collection of web pages as a demonstration of how much of a difference style can make on a web page.  In CSS Zen Garden, all the web pages have the same content.  The only thing that changes is the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet).

http://www.csszengarden.com/