IOSPIRIT GmbH is proud to announce the immediate availability of preview 4 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 any other supported remote). The new, built-in Behaviour Construction Kit does now allow the creation of Behaviours without requiring programming skills. A video on the Remote Buddy website shows - using CoverFlow as an example - how to make an application remote control ready within less than five minutes.
Now also supported by default are Acrobat Pro, CoverFlow, Quinn, GarageBand, NetNewsWire, MPlayer OSX and Exposé. Furthermore, the menu navigation has been made more intuitive and two new button combinations for the Apple Remote have been introduced.
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 third preview version:
- NEW: The new Behaviour Construction Kit makes it a breeze to create new behaviours. Create your own behaviours using your own blend of AppleScript, keystrokes, mouse wheel events and more. Complete with syntax highlighting and tools that help you debug and test your creations quickly and without hassle. Except for the AppleScript part, the Behaviour Construction Kit can be used without any programming skills.
- NEW: Global mapping for remote controls allows hard-wiring buttons to frequently used functionality.
- NEW: Optional emulation of two additional button states: plus (held) and minus (held).
- NEW: Behaviour for Adobe® Acrobat Pro added.
- NEW: Behaviour for CoverFlow added.
- NEW: Behaviour for Quinn added.
- NEW: Behaviour for GarageBand added.
- NEW: Behaviour for NetNewsWire and NetNewsWire Lite added.
- NEW: Behaviour for MPlayer OSX added.
- NEW: Behaviour for Exposé added (find it in "System").
- NEW: Fast user switching is now detected and handled correctly by Remote Buddy.
- Enhancement: Behaviours can now be activated/deactivated selectively.
- Enhancement: Remote Buddy can now also reboot your machine.
- Enhancement: Whenever you can go up a level in the menu, an appropriate arrow is now displayed for the selection.
- Enhancement: Unmapped hold button codes are now automagically remapped to their normal button code counterparts.
- Enhancement: The mapping help screen is now changed on the fly if you make any changes there.
- Enhancement: Improved agility in the Apple Remote driver. If you had the impression, Remote Buddy did miss a button press once in a while: this issue is no more (at least for Remote Buddy users).
- Enhancement: The iTunes and EyeTV behaviour are now customizable via dedicated option panes inside the mappings pane.
- Enhancement: The EyeTV behaviour now also offers the ability to start/stop recording
- Enhancement: Screen saver deactivation can now be turned on/off.
- Enhancement: Improved reliability and speed of behaviour bundle installation.
- Enhancement: The Front Row behaviour does now dismiss Dashboard upon its selection.
- Fix: Now handles screen resolution changes correctly.
- Fix: A rare Front Row related problem when selecting Music was fixed.
- Fix: Hidden docks located on the left side of the screen can now be reached, too.
- Fix: Problem fixed where Keynote and EyeTV would sometimes be relaunched by Remote Buddy if they were quit manually.
- Fix: Improved reliability of the EyeTV and keyboard sequences behaviour menus.
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
Using Remote Buddy you can control both EyeTV and Front Row and seamlessly switch between them - with just one remote control. Use your Mac as mediacenter that can not only play DVDs and music but also Live TV and shows you recorded - today!
- One stop interface
Remote Buddy provides you with a one stop interface that allows you to control almost anything on your Mac just with the remote control. Besides tools that allow you 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, Real Player, Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro, CoverFlow, Quinn, GarageBand, NetNewsWire, MPlayer OSX, Exposé and many more. Learn how to create your own behaviours further down this page.
For your convenience, Remote Buddy has a set of intelligent algorithms that can automatically choose the best fitting behaviour for the currently running applications. Plus a table of the active mapping and the behaviours menu is always just a press of the Menu button away.
- Virtual keyboard and mouse
Even on a Mac you'll sometimes encounter unexpected situations. And those are especially annoying in living room usage. Instead of grabbing keyboard and mouse, you'll get your remote control in the future. Remote Buddy emulates a virtual mouse (including 2D mouse wheel!) and keyboard, so you can just close or move bothering windows, reorder your play list via drag and drop or open that context menu you urgently need.
- 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 are plugins for Remote Buddy. They can be creates either with the built-in Behaviour Construction Kit (BCK) or - based on the free SDK - in XCode and Cocoa. Behaviours written in Cocoa are able to access any function available in the system and thus make functionality available to Remote Buddy users that is not within reach of AppleScript.
Those who want faster results easier can use the BCK to develop their behaviours and benefit from the best of all worlds. Besides the possibility to edit and execute AppleScript, keyboard- and mousewheel-events can be quickly integrated into new Behaviours. Since AppleScript is not required for writing behaviours for most applications, the BCK has no mandatory requirement for previous programming experience. A demo video on the developer sub page shows, how to create a behaviour for CoverFlow in less than five minutes.
To install a new behaviour, all you need to do is to double click it. Versions are automatically compared for you. It just works.
Availability
Remote Buddy 1.0 Preview 4 is immediately available for MacOS® X 10.4.6 ("Tiger") and higher as a Universal Binary at an introductory price of 9,99 € (approximately 12.70 US-Dollar). The price will presumably be raised to 14,99 € (approximately 19 US-Dollar) later. The prices are final prices and already include 16% VAT for customers inside the EU. 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 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: