Rowmote: Remote Control for Mac and Apple TV
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Description
* Rowmote brings the simplicity and power of the Apple hardware remote, with perfect control of dozens of applications, to your iPhone or iPod Touch! Please read more below :) *
You love the remote control which came with your Mac - so simple yet elegant, with easy control of Front Row, iTunes, Quicktime, DVD Player, Keynote, and more.
Or, your Mac didn’t come with a remote control or doesn’t even have an infrared port. Buying a remote control, from Apple or a third party, would carry a significant cost!
You carry your iPhone or iPod Touch wherever you go... so why should you carry a second device just to control your computer? Furthermore, why should you need line-of-sight to do so?
Enter Rowmote! Rowmote is like your Mac or Apple TV’s remote control, but over the wireless network and even better! By tapping the Apps button, you get bonus abilities, switching between controlled programs, toggling the iTunes Visualizer, and more. Rowmote will even wake sleeping Macs.
FEATURES
- Control your Mac or Apple TV over a wireless network. No line of sight necessary.
- Functions just like the hardware Apple Remote Control in:
• Front Row
• Adobe Lightroom
• Airfoil Video
• Amarra
• Apple TV (after software installation. Keyboard currently works in some 3rd party apps)
• Boxee
• DVD Player
• eyeTV 3.x
• Firefox
• Hulu Desktop
• iPhoto
• iTunes
• Keynote ‘08 & ‘09
• kJams Pro
• Last.fm
• Logic Pro
• Microsoft Powerpoint ‘04 & ‘08
• mPlayer
• Movist
• OpenOffice Impress
• Quicktime
• PandoraBoy
• PandoraJam
• Plex
• Safari
• Skim
• Songbird
• Spotify
• The Tube
• VLC
• xbmc (Xbox Media Center)
- SWITCH: Access your Mac’s Dock, launching & switch between all controllable applications on the Mac, toggle the iTunes visualizer, and more. Order & display customizable.
- Click-and-hold works just like on the physical remote in applications; for example, holding the right button fast-forwards, while a single click is ‘next’. This is a feature no other iPhone remote control I know of does properly!
- SLEEP AND WAKE: Put your Mac to sleep by holding the Play button for 3 seconds while controlling any Apple application, just like the hardware remote. Rowmote automatically wakes up sleeping machines which are connected via Ethernet!
- Automatically enables Front Row in Mac OS X 10.4, even if your computer doesn’t have an infrared port.
- Secure authentication
- Optional dark interface
REQUIREMENTS
• Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later, or an Apple TV
• Mac: The free Rowmote Helper program, which may be downloaded at www.rowmote.com, must be running on the Mac to be controlled.
• Apple TV: Apple TV installation requires a USB keychain drive and following the multistep instructions found at www.rowmote.com. Please review these instructions, which include installing free third party software on your Apple TV, before purchasing!
• The iPhone or iPod Touch must be on the same wireless network (a computer-to-computer, or ‘Ad Hoc’, network works, as well). If a firewall is enabled, Rowmote Helper must be allowed access or port 5842 must be opened.
Rowmote is a steal! Couple it with Apple’s free Remote app to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into the ultimate controller for home stereo, mobile presentation, or casual video viewing.
The artwork of Rowmote was designed by Rik Schennink.
What's New in Version 2.5
• Improved latency of trackpad mouse control
• Improved reliability of remote emulation when other applications are using IOSpirit’s methods for remote control access
• Rowmote will now control, out of the box, any application which uses IOSpirit’s HIDRemote for remote control access, if Candelair (http://www.iospirit.com/labs/candelair/) is installed
• Added support for Logic Pro
• Fixed button holds (fast forward, contextual menu, etc.) in XBMC. Fix requires installation of Candelair.
Customer Reviews
Exactly what I was was looking for!
Simple. Straightforward. Does what it says. I have a PPC based MacMini which I use as a media server in my living room. I had gone and purchased a remote for it on Amazon for $40, but due to having a puppy, I need to keep that remote hidden away whenever I'm not using it. After a brief search on the App Store, I came across this little gem. It does exactly what my physical remote does, and has some extra features. Setup was monkey simple and I found it to be surprisingly responsive. If you just need a simple remote for controlling Front Row, iTunes, and DVD Player, I can see no reason not to get this app.
If there was one improvement that could be made, I would like to see customizable button shapes/positions. Not that the built in layout is bad, but it would be nice to be able to adjust it more to my liking.
That being said, I am giving this 5 stars because it does exactly what it advertises and the 99 cent price is more than reasonable.
Amazing App. Something you should have if you also have a MAC. Update fixed alot.
To everyone who reads this. If you read all the comments of this app, you will see some reviews saying the "app needs to look better" or "the app doesn't look as advertised." This was before the update. Post update, the remote has become sleek and much more useable. It also does keynote, powerpoint, quicktime etc now. It works exactly like the remote that came (or didn't come because apple is getting stingy) with your mac. Well done!
Great media mac controller!
I’ve been looking for a simple iPhone/Touch app that can control the media mini mac in my living room. I mostly like the stock Apple remote; but the stock remote’s IR requires a direct and surprisingly close line of sight to your mac. This means that you can’t hide your mac inside a drawer, or even have a couch or table blocking direct access to it. Happily, Rowmote does everything my stock Apple remotes do, and I can be anywhere in the house and it still works.
To be clear, there are already lots of very good keyboard/mouse apps for the iPhone & Touch (AirMouse, Snatch, etc). As general-purpose mouse/keyboard replacements, these apps have a much more complete feature set than Rowmote (way more mouse & keyboard capabilities, cross-platform functionality, etc.), and for this reason, these apps are much better choices if you’re looking for an all-purpose keyboard/mouse replacement.
But for all their features, none of the general-purpose apps I’ve tried make usable Apple remote substitutes. They do so much that they just aren’t intuitive as media mac controllers (my mom could never figure out how choose and watch a TV show with one of these). But Rowmote is drop dead simple. Install the simple helper app on the target mac, fire up the iPhone app, and everything just works as you’d expect. This my mom could handle.
Also, none of the general purpose mouse apps I’ve tried can perform some of the most basic functions of a stock Apple remote. For example, Rowmote is the only iPhone app I’ve found that can successfully duplicate Apple remote’s press & hold behavior when pressing the right or left buttons. On the stock remote, this causes Front Row et al to fast forward or reverse, rather than just skipping to the next or previous track. This may sound trivial, but a remote that can’t fast forward or rewind just doesn’t work as a mac media controller.
The program does have a few 1.0-ish spots. Most notably, its main screen looks a bit primitive. But so far it’s been stable and just works for everything I need it to do. All in all, a great little app.
- Category: Utilities
- Updated Feb 03, 2010
- Current Version: 2.5
- 2.5 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
- 0.6 MB
- Languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Seller: Evan Schoenberg, M.D.
- © 2009 Evan Schoenberg
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.2 or later.
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