Just wanted to thank you for a great product. I had committed to buying once multiple remotes were supported, and after the last MAJOR release, was very happy to buy. (currently on 3 apple remotes and counting).

I have two feature requests which would make remote buddy my hero:

Access and control Airport Express. I know this is a tricky one as there is no applescriptability, but assume that since Airfoil can access it, it must be possible. I'd just like to be able to assign a key to toggle between internal speakers and my remote speakers, and then maybe control volume based on which was active (control itunes volume if on airport express, or system if on internal speakers).

Second request has come up this week for me. I have been given an old Titanium Powerbook with a busted hinge. I have plans to turn it into a picture frame mounted on the wall (a nice pet project for the evenings). Would love to control it with an apple remote, but obviously it does not have IR. Besides buying a receiver, it occurs to me i already have one in the room in the form of my MBP. Thus I would love it if you could set remote buddy on the mbp to forward all signals from one of my remotes to a remote copy of remote buddy on another machine on the local network. I suppose this almost makes it into an IR repeater.

I hope you have time to look at my requests. Again, thankyou so much for your hard work.

Regards,

ed.

Last edited: 05.05.2007 17:20:38 

IF RB can handle two remotes at once, then consider this setup: your main remote operates RB as usual... let's say it's a Wiimote controlling a media center Mac. It operates over bluetooth, doesn't need a receiver, and works well at relatively close range (~15 feet, encompassing the distance from TV to couch).

Then you set up, say, a Keyspan RF FrontRow remote as the secondary one. It operates at long range, so if the tiBook is less than 60 feet away from the media Mac, you can use it right there. In the Sharing panel of System Preferences of the tiBook, do three things: 
1) change the 'computer name' to something simple like "wallbook". 
2) enable Apple Remote Desktop 
3) enable Remote Apple Events

The first two steps enable you to access the tiBook by pointing a free VNC client (like Chicken of the VNC) on another computer to "wallbook.local". The third step means that the tiBook is now Applescriptable, so to speak. You can run Applescripts on another machine on the network, and they will make things happen on the tiBook. Why? Now you can tell RB on the media Mac to assign Applescripts to the buttons of the Keyspan RF remote, and you can write those applescripts in such a way that they operate on the tiBook in the other room.

Obviously there are some caveats: you can only assign two scripts to each button on the remote, so your control over the tiBook is kind of limited. But if it's just meant to be a digital picture frame, and if you write sophisticated scripts, maybe that's okay. Also, as stated above, this would only work if RB supports two different remotes with separate functions for their respective buttons. I don't know if that's true or not.

If RB can't handle two remotes at once, you have another option: cut RB out of the process for purposes of the tiBook. If you can find a Keyspan DMR, its software allows you to assign Applescripts to its buttons directly, so you can approximate the above functionality without RB, and just use RB for the media Mac. The caveat here is that the Keyspan DMR is no longer sold... I don't know if its replacements, the iTunes remote and the Express remote, use the same software (I know the RF remote does NOT). If they do, then they would work as well.

Finally, FYI, you can find tiBook hinge replacement kits on Ebay for about $100, much less than professional replacement. You have to be comfortable with partially taking the machine apart and using high-grade glue or bonding stuff to put the new hinges in, but I did it a few years ago and it has breathed new life into my tiBook. I had to re-glue the new hinges once but they are otherwise workign great. 

I had considered that what I want was already partially possible in the form of applescriptability, but it occured to me that it really might be trivially simple to impliment as a feature within remote buddy.

Although my first aim is for a digital picture frame, it would be great to be able to put DVDs or otherwise have the control the remote buddy interface offers.

FYI, I would be controlling the TiBook with Remote Desktop as I do my server and other macs.

Replacing the hinge would be no problem, but I don't really want to make the purchase. I don't have any practical use for a working laptop of that generation, and would quite like to be 'forced' into appreciating my digital photos (going on 14,000 for the 2007 alone) 

I've thought of a feature like this before. And it looks like a good 
reason to look into a few programming topics I've not previously 
looked into ;-)

Best regards, 
Felix 

Thanks again for a great product.

I hope you are able to look into the remote remote control. Would be a great way of adding support for computers that don't have built in ir receivers for those with multiple machines.

Any info about my request to be able to access an Airport Expess? I would really appreciate being able to interact with this.

best,

Ed. 

sorry for not having replied to the AirPort Express question. I know 
I read it somewhere, though, but don't seem to be able to find it 
just now. Should happen, but with the loads of mails I receive and 
reply to every day, it's almost unavoidable to loose track of one 
every now and then.

So I'll just answer to the question I remember ;-)

Right now, you can control the Airport Express using Rogue Amoeba's 
software Airfoil. The guys at Rogue Amoeba were even so nice to put 
together a Behaviour for Remote Buddy, so it should work beautifully.

Best regards, 
Felix 

Actually the airport express question was in this very thread, question number 1. Will take a further look at airfoil to see if it can do what I need.

Regards,

Ed