ipad/ipod as replacement remote

[Tom]

Stupid question perhaps, but doing a google on this one it seems everyone can sell you a connector or converter of some sort - someone (a couple of weeks ago) just walked up to my tv with his android device and operated the tv...?
This confuses me a slight bit...Does it work?, can it work without convertors and thirdly?, how does one make it work? surely dstv etc is IR....?
Kindest
Tom

 

[ron g]