The Apple Remote - Not Just for Frontrow
Most of the time when I’m playing videos I’m also futzing around with other stuff at the same time so I often do not use Frontrow (as I’m typing this post I’ve got a movie going). Anyways, I’m playing a DVD full screen on my main monitor with DVD Player and it occurs to me: I wonder if the iMac remote works with DVD player. Well, hot damn, it does! Play/pause, chapter forward/back, 4x fast forward/back (hold buttons down) all work. In fact, the play/pause button works on the DVD Player app even if some other program like Safari is in the foreground. (The menu button, however, does not bring up the DVD menu, but Frontrow). What about Quicktime Player? Yep, that one works too (play/pause, scan forward/back). When something besides Frontrow is running, the volume up/down buttons on the remote adjust the system volume. In short, this thing does more than I realized, but exactly what one would expect–isn’t that more or less what makes the Mac different? Well done Apple!
[update: TUAW has linked to this post (Thanks!) and in the comments there you find out that the remote does even more things–control iTunes, put the machine to sleep, etc. Cool!]
January 30th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Yeah but the remote sucks because you can’t easily add other apps, like say VLC or Keynote etc.
Also fast forwarding in Front Row sucks ass for want of a better term, personally I am a bit disapointed with it, I dont use front row on my iMac for one reason alone, the lack of a decent skip when playing video.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Yeah you’re right, I’d also like to see Apple add some sort of support for extending the remote (Applescript? Automator?). I suspect that with the MacBook Pro coming with the remote we’ll see Keynote functionality added at minimum, and I have every confidence that some 3rd party developer will help out on this eventually. In the mean time, there’s always Salling Clicker
January 30th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
If you look at the front row section of the MacBook Pro webpage in the apple site, you will see that it mentions that the remote works with keynote: “The Apple Remote features a minimalist six buttons. Press menu to activate Front Row and the standard transport to navigate through your media. You can even use the remote to control Keynote presentations in the all new iWork ’06.” I really like this feature, since I’m going to use my already ordered macbook pro to do some presentations…
January 30th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Well I have an iMac G5 (the one with a real copy of front row) and iLife 06, I can tell you that it was the second thing I tried and it didnt work, so either there is an update comming, the site is wrong, or Apple are messing with my mind.
February 7th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Hi,
my iMac G5 (iSight) works fine with the remote but John is right!
Fast-forward still sucks!
The Remote doesn’t work with Keynote 3 on my iMac! Maybe the powerbook … erm … MacBook Pro has a special build of MacOS X which has this feature.
March 15th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
I got a new mac mini with front row and iLife ‘06 and the remote works great in keynote as I expected.
March 26th, 2006 at 3:19 am
It will put your iMac to sleep too. Just push and hold pause for a bit.
April 9th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
I’ve just discovered, that you CAN bring up the dvd menu in dvd player with the remote, just HOLD the menu button down for a second or so instead of clicking it, and up pops the dvd menu. HOLD it again and it will resume playback.
August 15th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Well, why don’t they just give us a laser pointer and a fully functional wireless remote presenter mouse? I use pdf slides and Apple remote can’t control presentations in Acrobat Reader. When I do present, I use a projector, not my laptop screen. Apple Remote is worthless to me.
May 27th, 2007 at 3:05 am
to gjakovit, I absolutely agree!!!!
November 21st, 2007 at 11:46 am
application ired lite (free) allows you to control every app by the remote!
July 6th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Laser pointers are awesome, I like shining them into peoples eyes and pointing them at police helicopters