TiVo Voice Remote Launch Nears, Drops By FCC

Voice is becoming a major form of communication, not between humans but between man and machine. From personal assistants on your phone to smart speakers in your house to the smart TV in your living room. OK, you don't actually speak to your TV directly. You do so via a handy dandy remote control. Not one to buck the trend, TiVo, the granddaddy of DVR and streaming set-top boxes, will have a voice-enabled remote control soon. How soon? FCC-soon, by the looks of it.

TiVo's odd peanut-shaped remote is finally getting a little blue button to activate voice commands. The exact coverage of voice control features haven't yet been fully revealed, but it's not hard to imagine it will at least consist of playback controls and searching. The latter is going to be especially useful in saving your fingers from some heady-duty typing.

The TiVo voice remote seen at FCC also reveals two interesting buttons. One is dedicated Netflix button for, well, Netflix. The video streaming giant has practically made it a requirement for any Netflix-compatible TV box with a remote to have a button solely for its own use.

That might, of course, irk some who don't care for Netflix as much, but TiVo is at least throwing them a bone. Above the Netflix button is a dedicated "SKIP" button as well, allowing viewers to jump directly to the content they want, at least depending on the source of the content.

TiVo still hasn't revealed when the new voice-enabled remote is coming. But with its appearance at the FCC, it could just be a matter of weeks before you can get a new giant peanut, one that you can talk to this time.

VIA: Zatz Not Funny