Apple Remote

[raymondu999]

You know that little white doohickey that Apple used to bundle with laptops and now has stopped? My dad recently was goofing around with his MacBook Air (not mine in the sig) and he was testing keynote, and by accident, actually was able to control his keynote presentation through the apple remote. Is this a feature that was always there? All I've ever used the remote for was goofing around with Front Row.

 

[ergdegdeg]

Yes, it's a handy feature of Keynote.

 

[raymondu999]

Does it only work in Keynote? Or, aside from Front Row and Keynote, is there another thing that can do it? How come the big Jobs doesn't use it in his keynotes to remote control his Keynote presentation? (no pun intended). Is it because it's only an IR remote (line-of-sight) while his is a stronger RF remote (I deduced this from the antenna)?

 

[ergdegdeg]

I'm not sure what else is supported "natively" apart from sound volume, but you can try RemoteBuddy to configure all kinds of actions.

 

[Gamble]

http://gnuhaus.com/iblog/archives/000200.html

• Click any button on the remote to wake your Mac from Sleep
• Control the volume of your Mac with the +/- buttons
• Control your QuickTime Movies, including Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, and Skip to the Beginning; Pause the movie and click the Next button to step through the movie frame by frame
• Control DVD playback
• Use the Next and Previous buttons to control slides in Keynote
• Use the Next and Previous buttons to move between songs in iTunes; Play and Pause songs with the Play button
• Next and Previous buttons move you through the Source pane in iPhoto.
• Click the Play button to start a slide show using that source; click again to pause the slide show, and the Next and Previous buttons will move to the next or previous slide; Click the Menu button to exit the slide show
• Click and hold the Play button and a “snoring” image of the remote will appear on screen. Continue holding the Play button and your Mac will go to sleep

If you have multiple remotes or devices that use remotes (in a classroom setting with multiple iMacs, for example), you can pair a specific remote to a specific computer.

1. Hold the remote about 3-4 inches in front of the computer
2. Point the remote at the IR receiver
   • behind the Apple logo on iMacs
   • to the left of the latch on MacBook Pros
   • to the right of the optical drive for Mac minis
   • the top left of iPod Hi-Fis
   • the center of iPod Universal Docks
3. Click and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons for 5 seconds

For computers, an image of the remote and a linked chain will flash on the screen indicating that the remote has been paired with the computer. Only that remote can control the computer, and vice versa. There is no visual feedback for iPod Hi-Fi or the iPod Universal Dock
To unpair the computer, open the Security pane in System Preferences and Click Unpair (near the bottom right corner of the window).
For further protection, check Disable remote control infrared receiver in the Security pane. This will lock out any remote (if you are worried about malicious folks in the coffee shop).
One more (fun) thing

You can verify that your Apple Remote is working by using the built in iSight camera on your iMac or MacBook Pro. Open Photo Booth and point the remote at the iSight. Click the Play button and you should see a faint blinking light coming from the end of the remote. If you do, the remote is working. If not, you may need to change the battery. Apple recommends using the preview mode of iChat AV, but I think Photo Booth is more fun!

 

[chrisbru]

Don't forget it works with AppleTV!

Which really is annoying if you have your computer and Apple TV anywhere near each other, like when I am working on emails on my laptop and trying to change the movie on AppleTV.

 

[CaptainChunk]

You can actually pair an Apple Remote to a specific computer. But, I'm not quite sure if that will prevent the remote from operating an Apple TV because I've never owned one.