I could run out and buy one to use as my living-room media center. So
on Tuesday, I did just that. (Yes, I left work and walked down to the
local Apple Store on day one, put down my credit card and left with a
Mac in a bag. Told you I was impatient.) Then I went home and attached
it to my high-definition TV. It looks great, and the Apple Remote
works well with the built-in Front Row software to display media files
on my hard drive and in my iTunes library.
But the Apple Remote only goes so far. When I wanted to watch a TV
show on Hulu, I had to break out a wireless keyboard and mouse. And
not only do I not want a keyboard and mouse floating around my living
room, but after a few minutes of mousing my wrist really began to
ache. (As a designer by trade, I use a pen and tablet as my pointing
device at work.)"
Now, there are plenty of VNC-style screen-sharing apps on the App
Store, programs that let you see any Mac's screen and control it
remotely. But my TV is plenty big enough. I didn't need to duplicate
the Mac mini's screen on my iPhone, I just needed to control the
cursor and type in a few short items.
When Air Mouse Pro is running, the top half of the iPhone's screen is
a two-button trackpad, similar to the one you'll find on any Mac
laptop. The bottom half of the screen is for other input methods you
can toggle between--there's a full iPhone-style keyboard, a set of
media controller buttons, web-browser buttons, and a configurable set
of function keys.
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