IOSPIRIT GmbH is proud to announce the immediate availability of preview 3 of version 1.0 of its application for remote controls for MacOS® X. Remote Buddy enables you to fully control a Mac via its included Apple Remote or - beginning with this release - also with other remote controls. Thanks to a neatless integration with both Front Row and EyeTV 2, new and old Macs alike are completed to real media centers. It's also possible to control applications, filesystem, mouse and keyboard solely via a remote control. Besides the Apple Remote, this version also supports the "Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row", which thus allows the usage of Remote Buddy on less recent Macs. The introductory price for Remote Buddy is just 9,99 €.
New since the first preview version:
- New: Added support for the Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row (ER-RF1).
- New: Introduction of the deluxe version of Behaviours, so called Managed Behaviours. Still zero configuration, but you can now change the mapping or choose alternative functionality, if you want to. Needs only one click per change, of course! Check out the preferences.
- New: Virtual mouse does now emulate a two-dimensional mouse wheel (just like Apple's Mighty Mouse).
- New: Filesystem browser with integrated launcher.
- New: Fade in and fade out effects using Core Image (turned off by default, though)
- New: Now screen saver friendly. Remote Buddy deactivates screen savers when they run and prevents them from running for as long as you are pressing any buttons on your remote control.
- New: Behaviour for Acrobat Reader.
- New: Behaviour for Preview.
- Enhancement: The visualizer can now be toggled on/off in the behaviour for iTunes.
- Enhancement: Photo Booth behaviour now offers more options.
- Enhancement: The Front Row behaviour now offers help and a way to display the Remote Buddy menu while in Front Row.
- Enhancement: The license code interface is now easier to understand and provides you with visual feedback for missing information.
- Enhancement: Improved appearance of preferences window and some internal cleanup.
- Enhancement: Rewrote EyeTV 2 behaviour in most parts, added support for zapping through channels in EyeTV 2 and solved a number of issues.
- Enhancement: Improved navigation in the menus. You can now quickly jump to the root level of the menu and the first and last entries in a menu.
- Fix: Improved reliability of Front Row Behaviour.
- Fix: EyeTV 2 channel selection now works also with customized channel lists.
- Fix: EyeTV 2 full screen toggling now works.
- Fix: Hidden docks can now be reached via the virtual mouse as well.
- Fix: Situations where Remote Buddy would register itself as a start item multiple times are now handled correctly.
Remote Buddy highlights at a glance:
- What is Remote Buddy?
The latest Macs ship with a remote control that allows you to control Front Row and a couple of Apple's applications. Beyond that, you can't do much else with it, though. Remote Buddy fundamentally changes this. It gives you control over the rest of your computer via the remote control. And starting with preview 3, you can now use other remote controls, too!
- 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.
- Easy customization
Remote Buddy allows you to customize the button mapping of your remote with just one click per change. It's that easy. Of course, Remote Buddy already comes with well picked mappings, so it just works out of the box and all options are, well, optional.
- Also works with other remote controls
Don't have a new Mac with Apple Remote? Never mind! Remote Buddy works with other remote controls just as seamlessly. Currently, there's also support for the "Keyspan RF Remote for Front Row", which works with every Mac with a USB port. This way you can also take full control over your Mac mini G4. Got interested? Find a complete list of all supported remote controls and supplies for them here.
- 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.
Availability
Remote Buddy 1.0 Preview 3 is immediately available for MacOS® X 10.4.6 ("Tiger") and higher as a Universal Binary at an introductory price of 9,99 € (approximately 12,90 US-Dollar). The price will presumably be raised to 14,99 € later. On the hardware side, a Mac with a remote control supported by Remote Buddy is mandatory. A list of supported hardware is available at http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/supportedremotecontrols/. Remote Buddy does not include any of the controlled applications. They have to be purchased and/or installed seperately. A trial version can be downloaded at http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/ . There are no functional limitations during the 30 day trial period. Remote Buddy is fully localized in English and German.
About the IOSPIRIT GmbH
The IOSPIRIT GmbH has been founded in 2004 by Felix Schwarz with the aim of developing high-quality software for the Mac® - low-priced, so everybody can enjoy it.
A special focus during development lies on the latest technologies in MacOS® X, their innovative use, own innovations and industry novelties - far away from outworn paths.
At the same time the IOSPIRIT GmbH is its own distributor. The platform used therefore is an internal development - tailored to the needs of the market - and therefore allows efficient and fast processing of incoming orders and queries.
The IOSPIRIT GmbH is based in Nuremberg, Germany.
For more information, please contact:
IOSPIRIT GmbH, Felix Schwarz, CEO
Phone: +49 911 3677423
Email: Contact
A presskit with screenshots and logos is available here: