All Articles Tagged apple remote

Apple quietly introduced a new Apple Remote [$19.00 - Apple Online Store link] along with the updated iMac, Mac Mini, Magic Mouse, and Apple TV 3.0 last month. Not to be confused with the Apple-produced Remote app [Free - iTunes link], which allows an iPhone or iPod touch to control an Apple TV or iTunes, the Apple Remote is a hardware accessory that not only controls the aforementioned Apple TV or iTunes (and Front Row!) all on its own, but can also control an iPhone or iPod touch when they’re placed in the — sold-separately — Apple Universal Dock [$49.00 - Apple Online Store link]

So, how new is it, why would an iPhone or iPod touch need a hardware remote anyway, and most importantly, how does it perform? Read on after the break!

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As part of their massive, yet strangely casual, new product drop this morning, Apple also introduced a new version of the Apple Remote [$19 - Apple Store link], which when combined with an IR-enabled Universal Dock, can control your iPhone or iPod (as well as iTunes on Mac or an Apple TV sans-dock). Add in the A/V out cables, and the remote also lets your iPhone or iPod function as a mini, highly portable Apple TV all its own, showing your content on the big screen, controllable with the touch of a button.

Or three buttons now, as the new aluminum and black Apple Remote, which replaces the ancient white plastic one, not only matches Apple’s new design aesthetic, but takes the play/pause button out from the center of the 4 way, and puts it on its own, on the side next to the menu button.

Not sure how we feel about this new arrangement yet. It’s a little more scattered than Apple’s usual (and older) elegance. However, we’ll reserve judgement until we get our geeky little mits on it!

Apple’s info, after the break!

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Is Apple planning a larger, touch-screen enabled remote control to go along with a next generation Apple TV? Boy Genius‘ tipster, the same one who leaked iTunes 9 app organization and social integration, says yes indeed. And if the image above is accurate, one of the updates will be — Safari. (No sign of Apps yet, though…)

Would this really be a lower-cost option to something like the Remote App for iPhone and iPod touch, which could conceivably do anything a dedicated remote could do and more? (Actually, adding Bluetooth to an Apple TV for more persistent, don’t have to wait for WiFi to reconnect, iPhone remote would be even better!)

Along those lines, we don’t see Apple investing this much in a single-purpose remote control, even if it can control Macs, docked iPods, etc. as well, given what they’re doing with the iPhone platforms, but stranger things have happened.

You want?

Went into the App Store and what did I see, why an updated Remote app for iTunes and Apple TV! One of the first apps in the App Store at launch, the latest update for Remote [free - iTunes link] turbo charges the cool factor with support for gesture-based Apple TV control. Very slick:

• Hold down “Menu” to bring up main menu. Swipe to move around.
• Tap to play or pause music or video.
• Drag left or right and hold to rewind or fast-forward music.
• Flick left or right for previous or next music track.
• Flick left or right or drag and hold to rewind or fast-forward video.
• Flick down to show chapter markers, then flick left or right to skip through video.
• Drag two fingers left for 10 second reply.
• Tap “Exit” or “Options” for those actions.

If you hit exit, you get similar functions, art display, etc. to the previous version of the Remote app. Hitting Options brings up a new overlay menu on the Apple TV. Speaking of which…

The new Apple Remote app’s gesture features require iPhone 3.0 and the latest Apple TV software update, also released today (which seems to have gotten a UI over haul as well). Get that, or you won’t get the nifty new interface.

I’m trying it. I’m liking it. How about you?

More screen shots after the break!

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One of the new features in Apple’s iTunes 8.1, released just today, is iTunes DJ. Replacing the old Party Shuffle atop the Playlists heap, it also integrates with the Apple Remote app for the iPhone for shiny party goodness.

How does it work? At first look, anyone at your party with the Apple Remote app can request songs from your iTunes library, and everyone with the app can vote for which song gets played when. Genius seems to work with it as well.

Jeremy was kind enough to grab us some screenshots, after the break! If you’ve given it a go already, let us know if you’ve found anything else in there!

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I typically choose to keep 10 episodes of any video podcast I subscribe to in iTunes. Back with version 1.0 of the Apple Remote App for the iPhone, when I would choose to play the latest episode of a show, the Apple TV would stubbornly start playing the oldest episode (sometimes oldest unwatched, sometimes just oldest) instead. “New” status seemed to have no effect.

This didn’t happen if I did the same thing via the iTunes library on my computer, only when I used the Apple TV, which streams from that iTunes library. I could work around this, however, by waiting for the oldest episode to start, then tapping my iPhone screen to flip the artwork around and reveal the episode list, then tapping the newest episode again. If I jumped through that hoop, the Apple TV would begrudgingly give me the actual episode I wanted.

With Apple Remote App version 1.1? No dice. I get the oldest episode no matter what. Most perplexingly, the iPhone will initially display the proper episode name in the title bar, then visibly switch to, and begin playing, the wrong one.

(Now, as punishment for testing it and writing this, the little fella has crashed, but offered to let me restart, run diagnostics, or restore… I chose the middle option for now).

Needless to say, this has changed the App from a useful tool to non-starter, and brought the tiny little white Apple TV back out of retirement.

Anyone else experiencing this problem? Anyone have a fix?

Apple’s iTunes and Apple TV Remote App was one of the first — and arguably still one of the best — releases via the App Store back in July. We loved it in our original review, and now that Apple has pushed out a 1.1 update, there’s a tiny bit more to love:

• Create Genius playlists
• Create and edit playlists in iTunes

An obvious update, given how the feature has headlined iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.1 (and iPod Touch 2.1). Hopefully this will also solve some problems for those who experienced them post update.

Still no support for Front Row, however, which is perplexing given how great that service makes the Mac Mini media center. Please get on that, Apple!

Get in now via the iTunes App Store, and check out our pics of the new functionality… after the break!

(And thanks MAB for the tip!)

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UPDATED: Reseting everything, including the router, solved the problem.

After Apple unleashed 2.1 today, and I downloaded and installed it with nary a snag or bump, I thought everything was pretty much apps with my Apps. Needless to say, tonight I whipped out my iPhone’s handy Apple Remote App to help out with a little YouTube searching, only to discover that while my libraries (desktop, laptop, Apple TV) were all still set up, none of them would connect. (They’d all worked flawlessly, immediately prior to iTunes 8 and iPhone 2.1).

I removed the libraries and tried to set them up again, but can’t get the iPhone to show up in iTunes in order to type in the verification PIN. I’ll continue to trouble shoot and report back if I come across any fixes.

Anyone else having this problem?