Nearly every gadget purchased nowadays comes with a remote: you have a remote for your TV, DVD player, Digital TV, Stero and even for some fires, so our houses end up getting cluttered up with remotes and half the time you forget what remote controls what gadget.

Recently I purchased the Surc Universal Remote Case for my iPhone 4 as it claims to be able to control any gadget with infa-red capabilities through your iPhone.

Surc comes with a free downloadable app which lets you arrange your devices into rooms; personalise the layout of your remotes and even assign gestures to frequently used controls.  In effect you could have every infra-red gadget in your house running from your iPhone 4.

Even though the Surc is a clever remote, it is still one of the best iPhone cases to protect your handset from bumps and scrapes whilst allowing you access to all the features and ports, including your headphone jack.  It also contains a micro USB port to allow you to charge your phone whilst it’s in the case.

What’s great about the Surc is that it doesn’t require you to carry around an additional plug-in adapter, everything you need is in the app and the iPhone 4 cover: the infa-red transmitters are integrated into the top of case, so they’re always available.  Another great feature is that unlike other iPhone 4 cases, the Surc doesn’t add any bulk regardless of the fact that it has a lot of tech built into it.

From using the Surc Universal Remote I’ve found that the amount of remotes I need to use has reduced dramatically. My iPhone is using a lot more power whilst the app is in use but it’s worth it just to be able to control everything from one place.  This is one of those iPhone 4 covers which is definitely worth the money, as it is multi-functional and manages to bring new dimensions to your iPhone.