XR11 Remote

Hello,

While we are always looking to both upgrade and improve the quality of our services, I am not currently aware of any known plans to incorporate the requested functionality. 

Thanks,

Allan - Cox Support Forums Moderator.

Thanks for the response.  We've reprogrammed our Logitech remotes to support your cable boxes, and use your remotes only for the voice interface.

Having used a previous generation of your hardware, I was surprised that your remote controls had taken a step backward; previous units were able to control DVD players.

Looking forward, I think it's likely that most A/V equipment will support both IR and BT for communication.  Remote control has already become an app available on most smartphone platforms, or on dedicated devices based on a smartphone design.  This platform would support your voice interface as well as almost unlimited additional devices, software updates, advanced, complex, or custom functionality, home automation and security functions, and wireless charging.

If past history is any indicator (re: Panoramic gateway and current XR-11 remote), Cox' next upgraded remote might be the one that Comcast/Xfinity is or will be offering soon. https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/get-to-know-xr11-remote

Only I hadn't noticed that it offered BlueTooth.

Sort of like advancing from a single engine to a twin engine prop plane, when jets are readily available.  Yes, it's some improvement, but the XR15 is still at least a decade behind current technology.

A glass front touch screen remote is impervious to salt, sweat, coffee, dust, water, everything else that gets into these primitive remotes around the rubber buttons.  And the labels don't wear off on a touch screen remote.

True that, and excellent analogy with your Wright Brothers/Chuck Yeager comparison!

As functional, practical and resistant to ordinary dirt/grime as glass may be, I confess experiencing more than a bit of trepidation when I recently upgraded my iPhone 6 to an '8. Since the iPhone 7, in order to better facilitate wireless charging ("wireless" charging! what a crock!), Apple has replaced the aluminum back with one of glass, resulting in a slightly heavier and decidedly more fragile device.

iPhones are notorious for broken glass, but I thought they had now gone to something called gorilla glass, almost impossible to break?

There's even a Schrodinger's iphone joke - when you drop your iphone and it lands face down, until you pick it up the screen is both broken and unbroken....

In any case, I would expect them to use an Android device....

Apple's flirtation with Corning and their superior Gorilla Glass was short-lived. I read something somewhere about Apple using (at the time of iPhone 5's, I think) Gorilla Glass v4, or 5. Anyway, the term they're using in marketing current devices is on the lines of "Soopa Doopa", "Secret Recipe", "Best Thing Since Sliced Bread" kinda stuff.

Back on the subject of Gorilla Glass I just came across an excellent article on DigitalTrends about the Corning Company and its' 166 year history: https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/cornings-glass-innovations-past-present-and-future/

Another reason Android's a better choice.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_Gorilla_Glass

Looking around for remotes with no physical buttons at all, the only one I'm finding is Puck, that converts everything else to BT.  Even Logitech is still using buttons.  There are a lot of apps though....

I won't venture into a debate on the relative merits or shortcomings on a choice of platforms for phones, operating systems, or screen integrity qualities. Suffice to say that as humans we like---or don't like---what we do for our own reasons. Ford/Chevy, Coke/Pepsi, Delta/Moen---you get the idea. And while I personally haven't yet delved into the "Personal Assistant" arena yet, it's inevitable that each of the current contenders has amassed a list of their respective pros & cons: "Mine does *this*, but it doesn't do *that* like its competitors"

Not so much relative merits as feasibility.  If I want to develop a programmable remote control with a hardware profile resembling a smart phone and remote updating capability, I'm likely to find a platform much more easily and cheaply in the Android ecosystem than in Apple's.

Competition, I think we can all agree, lowers prices and improves quality.

Anyway, here's hoping that we'll soon see water resistant programmable rechargeable remote controls at an appropriate price point, either from Cox or from some third party.