Apple and Google are watching Xped, page-105

From what I've seen it seems a simple process, you tap your phone on the receiver and it links to your phone and tells the app what the device is and how it works. At that point the handshake must also be telling the device to connect to your wifi at home. They have said that you can specify if you want a device to be available to your network so I guess that you could also have the device only controllable from your phone (thus you'd need to be nearby). If you wanted to have the device controllable whilst your remote then you'd need to have it linked to your network.

As it happens Xped also make mention of using the interface between product and user to capture data and develop links between user and manufacturer. So there certainly is some pokishness about it too.