Palmtop PCs with infrared transceivers provide a userfriendly, intelligent, and extensible alternative to the remote controls traditionally used to control home appliances. We describe the design and implementation of a palmtop programmable appliance control system. The system is designed around RDL, a domain specific language, allowing the realisation of virtual remote control units and sophisticated interaction sequences. The multitude and diversity of control applications programmed in RDL point towards a new appliance control paradigm based on a client-server architecture and intelligent user interfaces.