Remote Buddy 1.0rc1r2 review
DownloadThe latest Macs ship with a remote control that allows its users to control Front Row and a couple of Apple's applications.
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The latest Macs ship with a remote control that allows its users to control Front Row and a couple of Apple's applications. Beyond that, not much else can be done with it, though. Remote Buddy fundamentally changes this.
It gives the user control over the rest of his computer via the remote control and also improves the available functionality in those apps that already supported the remote control by themselves.
The highlights at a glance:
* Completing the media center setup
Probably the most prominent point of criticism about Front Row is that in its current state it lacks support for anything television. Remote Buddy is now changing the game! With a single remote, a user can activate or deactivate Front Row with all its media capabilities and then switch back and launch EyeTV 2 to watch live television or recorded video. Users can choose recordings and TV stations via the onscreen menu supplied by Remote Buddy and use their Remote to pause playback, control volume, rewind and fast forward. Using Remote Buddy's inbuilt virtual mouse, even recordings can be programmed!
* One stop interface
Remote Buddy provides its users with a one-stop interface that allows them to control almost anything on their Mac just with the remote control. Besides tools that allow the user to emulate keyboard and mouse, eject CDs, terminate applications and much more, Remote Buddy also can control applications directly. It does this through specialized plugins, so called Behaviours.
Already included with Remote Buddy are Behaviours for iTunes, Keynote 3, PowerPoint, Photo Booth, QuickTime Player, EyeTV 2, DVD Player, VLC Media Player and Real Player. Since IOSPIRIT GmbH provides source code to developers and also continues to work on new Behaviours themselves, a lot more can be expected to come along!
To make its usage even more comfortable, Remote Buddy features a set of intelligent algorithms that can automatically choose the best fitting behaviour for the currently running applications. Also the user can always view the currently active button mapping or return to the hierarchical menu of available Behaviours by pressing the Menu button.
* Virtual keyboard and mouse
Even if there is no specific Behaviour tailored to an application, the virtual keyboard and mouse can be used to move the mouse cursor, drag and drop items, open context menus and make a selection, emulate cursor keys or replay strings that have previously been entered. With this, a user can do anything, from replaying often used sentences at work to playing games and solving minor problems with a keyboard and mouseless media center Mac.
* Unlimited expandability, easy installation
Behaviours - plugins for Remote Buddy - are a smart technology. A double click in the Finder installs a Behaviour and automatically inserts it in Remote Buddy's menu structure. That's really it. It just works.
* Not just Applescript
Written in Cocoa and tightly integrated with Remote Buddy through a carefully defined abstraction layer, Behaviours provide superior performance, stability, reliability and flexibility. They are real binaries, not scripts, which makes them more efficient, versatile and capable of doing things you just can't do in Applescript. Behaviours are implemented as Cocoa bundles, so they can bring along the resources they need and provide a clean, lightning-fast interface to Remote Buddy and the applications they connect to.
Remote Buddy provides you with a one stop interface that lets you control almost anything on your Mac just with the remote control.
Requirements:
A Mac with supported remote control.
Limitations:
60 days trial.
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