X10 Controller Is Triumph Of Misrepresentation

File this one away in the "too good to be true" cabinet; the Domia X10 touchscreen might be marketed as one of the cheapest ways to get your hands on a 10-inch home automation controller, but take a closer look and the reality is a whole lot more bland than first appearances suggest.

£200 ($398) for a true LCD touchscreen is damned amazing... which is why this isn't actually an LCD screen at all.  In fact, it's a jumped up picture frame with a pressure sensitive layer behind it; slot in a photo of, say, your lounge (Domia provide a Word template for you to cut'n'paste buttons over the photo and then cut it out to the correct size), press the printed buttons to programme individual X10 commands, and then you have a "touchscreen" in the loosest sense.

If they marketed this as an X10 picture frame it wouldn't be so bad (although that price starts to look a little inflated); I'm sure there's someone who would jump at having a static 'preview' of what they're controlling, and it would make teaching the non-geeky a lot easier.  But calling it a touchscreen raises expectations, and all that ends up doing is disappointing people.  Poor show, Domia.

Product Page [via Automated Home]