MBA Remote Control

[GenFranco]

Hello!

I am looking for a remote control, mostly to control itunes running on my mba from anywhere in the room. I saw that apple had a remote, but is IR based, and Belkin offered on in the Apple store, but it uses up the one free USB port (not ideal)..

Does anybody have any experience or recommendations with other products??

Thanks!

 

[qpid]

So you want a non-Ir based remote for the air that does not use the usb port????? Not happening unless there is some funky bluetooth remote out there.

 

[TEG]

The Apple Remote will be your best bet. The Griffin AirClick is a great USB-RF remote. The only bluetooth option I'm aware of is using the WiiMote.

TEG

 

[rom]

Get one of those Sony-Ericsson mobile phones with bluetooth. You can pair it with your MBA and then use it to control iTunes.

 

[GenFranco]

worked!

Get one of those Sony-Ericsson mobile phones with bluetooth. You can pair it with your MBA and then use it to control iTunes.

Yes this is what I did. I took out my old phone I had no use for from the shoebox: Verizon Pocket PC (UTC) crap phone which has BT and wifi. Did an online search and found salling.com with has some nice software. I installed it, paired the phones, and it was able to push the PPC client to the phone and establish a connection.

It is actually better and smarter than a remote control, 2 way communication, has a GUI which displays an iTunes info. And, it can actually control a whole lot more

Best of all, uses only BT, so all my ports remains free and I don't need LOS.

There was some trickiness trying to get BT speakers out with BT remote control, but it all worked in the end.

Thanks again for input,

Fran.

 

[rom]

Yes this is what I did. I took out my old phone I had no use for from the shoebox: Verizon Pocket PC (UTC) crap phone which has BT and wifi. Did an online search and found salling.com with has some nice software. I installed it, paired the phones, and it was able to push the PPC client to the phone and establish a connection.

It is actually better and smarter than a remote control, 2 way communication, has a GUI which displays an iTunes info. And, it can actually control a whole lot more

Best of all, uses only BT, so all my ports remains free and I don't need LOS.

There was some trickiness trying to get BT speakers out with BT remote control, but it all worked in the end.

Thanks again for input,

Fran.

Great! Now for the questions...

1. How's the battery life with BT on either as headset or your remote?
2. Do you experience core shutdowns? What's the temp like?

 

[macsimonwoo]

I like salling clicker and I use it to do the things i want remotely cuz they allow customised applescript etc. eg. I launched my sales slide remotely and website remotely when i do presentation. I also installed OmniDazzle to focus my mouse pointer...endless of possibilities for impressing at presentation...

anyway ..no coreshut down using remote
battery life seems perfect. Did not look like a power hungry apps.

 

[GenFranco]

I like salling clicker and I use it to do the things i want remotely cuz they allow customised applescript etc. eg. I launched my sales slide remotely and website remotely when i do presentation. I also installed OmniDazzle to focus my mouse pointer...endless of possibilities for impressing at presentation...

anyway ..no coreshut down using remote
battery life seems perfect. Did not look like a power hungry apps.

same, no coreshut downs or bumps in heat using it. My MBA never did have a heat/fan issue tho.

Battery life is kind of a not issue here as I only use BT speakers with BT remote at home..

I will say that the BT stack is not perfect and sometimes it does take a couple of pairs for everything to work right. Playing around more, Salling lets you do a whole lot of stuff, like put your mac to sleep, control the volume, run photo slides, control dvd player, etc. (and run a presentation like the gentlemen above mentioned).

--It can also control the cursor! So my next voyage to the Apple store I will have to bring my phone in just so that I can pair it with a demo machine then move the cursor around from a remote corner while people are playing with the macs... *insert evil laugh*

 

[krye]

Just buy the Apple remote. It matches your Apple theme.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Sailing Clicker is a great program, use it with my smartphone and MBA.