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The Glide TV Navigator is a new remote built for Home Theater PCs and Multimedia Entertainment. When we first read the announcement, a whispered “wow” came to our lips and we started digging for as much information we could find on this interesting new remote. Since then, the folks at Glide TV sent us our very own review unit to take a first-hand look at the Navigator.

CONCLUSION (skipping to the end, click read more for the full review)
If you list a PC amongst your list of entertainment devices but have struggled to find a way to control it like a PC, from the comfort of your armchair, the GlideTV Navigator may be just what you need. The integrated touchpad makes this remote easy for anyone who has ever used a laptop and the transport keys give it the same control as most universal remotes.

PACKAGING AND DESIGN
I am a big believer in the “wow-factor” of new gadgets and Glide TV Navigator has it… and lots of it. The product arrived in an elegant black box designed like a gift box that opens to reveal just the Navigator itself with the dock, USB dongle, cables, and paperwork tucked neatly beneath a cardboard divider and nestled in a foam insert.

The Glide TV Navigator has a high-tech, glossy piano black finish with a center trackpad surrounded by navigational buttons plus just nine additional hard buttons. Glide TV refers to the Navigator as “the world’s first couch-mouse” and I actually like that description a lot. The Navigator combines some simple elements of a remote control (i.e. Play, Rew and FF) with a laptop-like trackpad for a truly unique experience. Now that more and more people are turning to new media for their entertainment I think it’s the perfect time to also have a revolutionary new device to help control the convergence.

The Glide TV Navigator is 3 1/8” square at the top and sculpted to a rounded orb at the bottom with a total height that extends from a flat table just over an inch. There is a center trackpad that measures 2” x 1 ¼” and is just slightly smaller than the trackpad built into my 15.4” Sony Vaio Laptop.

The trackpad is a smooth matte black and depresses for a mouse-click. It is also edged by a raised row of 8 buttons used for further navigation including Up, Down, Left and Right; Esc, Back, Enter and Function. There is also a row of Media Buttons above the trackpad for Volume Up, Vol Down and Mute; and another row below the trackpad for Rewind, Play/Pause, and Fast Forward/Skip. The Power button sits at the left point, a Search button on the Right and a Home button at the top to launch the GlideTV Home Screen application on your HTPC.

The GlideTV Navigator includes a rechargeable LiIon battery and the charging dock, USB-to-mini-USB cable and USB AC Adapter. The bottom of the Navigator has an X-shaped groove carved into it with 5 pins that make contact to the charging base. I was surprised to see how well the Navigator locked into position on the charger given its small size and lightweight design and happy to learn that the orientation of the device does not make a difference – it will charge at any position. According to GlideTV, the battery is designed to last more than 2 weeks under normal conditions which is great for any device nowadays.

SET-UP (PC)
Once the GlideTV Navigator was fully charged (they recommend at least 4 hours for a full charge but I always give new devices at least a full day before I use them to help condition the battery) I proceeded with the set-up process by downloading the User Guide and Software from www.glidetv.com. I am not a big reader of instruction manuals but I do recommend it in this case since the GlideTV is pretty unique and special set-up methods are required if you plan on using it on a Mac or Sony PlayStation 3.

In our first test we connected the GlideTV Navigator’s USB Receiver to our PC with Windows Vista Home Premium. The receiver is a typical black USB stick that extends 2” from the computer. The receiver immediately lit-up when it was connected and drivers installed automatically.

We downloaded the GlideTV software and it installed in just a few seconds. However, once the installation was done and I clicked “Finished” the GlideTV was nowhere to be found with the exception of the tiny orange logo in the Windows system tray. Of course, when I click that same logo on the GlideTV remote the GlideTV Software Home Screen did open instantly and was ready for use. The software is still labeled as a “Beta” even though it seems pretty complete and polished as we’ll describe in a moment. But, if they’re still making some changes I would love to see a splash-screen come up on the computer once the software installation is complete that says “Congratulations! Installation was successful; now click the GlideTV/Home Button on your GlideTV Navigator!” But I could just be nit-picking.

USING THE GLIDE TV NAVIGATOR WITH A PC
The GlideTV Home Screen has menu Options for Applications, Web Sites, Internet Search and Settings. The Applications Menu includes 1-click access to Windows Media Center and Media Player, Apple iTunes, and Firefox. The Web Sites Menu was pre-populated with 24 links including Facebook, Hulu, YouTube, ESPN, NFL and more. Search the Internet launches a full screen keyboard with search options for the most popular search engines plus media sites like YouTube and Hulu. You may also enter a direct URL from this screen. The Settings option let’s you choose some default options and customize your GlideTV Home Page.

Launching programs and web sites from the GlideTV home screen is no different than clicking a desktop shortcut on your computer if you’d like to rely on the trackpad built into the Navigator. The user interface that they designed is clean and easy to use and designed with multimedia entertainment in mind. I especially like the “Search the Internet” options included. For example: I wanted to watch the TV show “Flash Forward” on HULU so I went to Search the Internet > pulled down the search tab to HULU, and started typing FlashForward. By the time I typed the first 3 letters FlashForward popped up as one of the search suggestions so I clicked on it and I was brought directly to the episode list in my Firefox browser.
GlideTV also has a downloadable Firefox add-on that allows you to launch the GlideTV on-screen keyboard when you select a text field in the browser. This is very helpful for navigation and I fully support any extension that further promotes the use of Firefox.

USING THE GLIDE TV WITH THE SONY PLAYSTATION 3
As we mentioned earlier, the GlideTV comes factory preset for use with a Windows PC. If you’re using it with a Mac or Sony Playstation 3 there is another quick step you’ll need to take in the setup process. You just hold down the home button and touchpad and wait a few seconds while the GlideTV goes through a reset sequence as indicated by the lights on the buttons. Once the reset is done I chose the far right button above the touchpad to format the GlideTV for use with the Sony Playstation 3 and from there it worked perfectly navigating through menus and functions. Since the GlideTV is operating the PS3 through the USB port it’s important to point out that this device can not actually turn your PS3 on and it will not give you complete control during Blu-ray Disc playback since Sony still does not support all 53 Bluetooth commands via USB. However, the advantage of it being a USB device is that you can still use an IR to Bluetooth converter to control your PS3 from your home theater remote and use the GlideTV Navigator to “navigate” the menus and media server.

I found the PS3 control in the main menu to lag at times. In all fairness I am not sure if the lag was just the dynamic menu options on the PS3 (like the PlayStation Store) taking time to load because once I got into the PS3 Media Server menu I had no problems at all. GlideTV made it very easy to select the music and videos I wanted. The Play, Pause and other commands functioned seamlessly and it was a lot nicer having the GlideTV Navigator in my hand as opposed to the Sony SixAxis controller.

CONCLUSION
If you list a PC amongst your list of entertainment devices but have struggled to find a way to control it like a PC, from the comfort of your armchair, the GlideTV Navigator may be just what you need. The integrated touchpad makes this remote easy for anyone who has ever used a laptop and the transport keys give it the same control as most universal remotes.

Check out this Demo Video from GlideTV


and this video on basic set-up: