I second the "eating batteries" comment on the Kamelion. Although I did not disable the movement sensor on the Kamelion that came with my Kenwood receiver, I did promptly take the dead batteries out of it after 2 weeks so they would not leak.
I too, would like to know what the 7 pin connector is for. David when you say the pins are for "factory programmng only" it leads to another question. Do those pins have access for debug, or internal microcode, or user programs. Even though I may never use them, I am still curious what they are for and how they are used. Perhaps as a point of interest, some engineer from the manufacturer could enlighten the members of this forum. Plenty of interest I'm sure given the level of technical ability here. Informed readers want to know!
If the IPOD interface can be reverse engineered by REAL or their hired guns, I am sure a lowly 7 pin remote control interface can also be figured out. If it can't be used for user program upload and download, one would certainly think it could lead to some hacking interest.