I have serious issues with the Remote.app that Apple makes for the iPhone. I had written about it, but it was shot down in the back end by the team members, so I guess that story will never reveal itself. Recently my iMac’s remote battery died out, and instead of putting in a new one, I thought why not try and see whether I can do with just one device, my iPhone.
My first lookout was finding an exact copy of the Apple plastic Remote. A search later, I was checking out jfControl Remote, which besides its odd name, seemed to be very functional. So I decided to take it for a spin. Setup was super easy with the Bonjour networking, and within minutes I had the app up and running. One of my main complaints of the Remote.app is its lack of Front Row support. jfControl doesn’t have the best of UIs, most of which feels very XP-like, but it is fully functional. I could control iTunes, Front Row, DVDs, Keynote, and although it boasts of being able to control Finder, I couldn’t see myself using that.
Like I said, the UI is something that needs a lot of work. It has rounded bright buttons that seem to have come out of some cheap stock icon pack. It also has extra buttons (for instance, play and pause instead of play/pause) and the placement of everything keeps changing. I won’t base my judgement just yet, seeing as the app is fully functional and is super easy to set up. For $2.99, it is well worth it if you can get past the cheezy icons. My next move, AirMote.
It is funny when you see jfControl as the top “Customers also bought” app in AirMote, and the other way round in jfControl’s iTunes page. Seems like people aren’t happy with either of them? Let’s see about that.
AirMote installation is not so simple. First of all I had to jump through links to find the guide on how to set up the Mac to accept connections, and then go inside system preferences and check mark some scary settings. Not difficult, but not as easy as a dedicated server app.
Once things are set up everything works fine, and you can then easily set up a new Mac instead of having to download a server app. I was pleased to find AirMote featuring the exact same Apple Remote, and is very easy to operate. Unfortunately, the UI looks fugly and well, late 90s Linux-like. AirMote also features a second layout with a bunch of more buttons. You can focus the dock, menubar, switch windows and basically use the remote as your mouse. However, I didn’t find it intuitive at all and couldn’t control much with the second layout.
AirMote can be used to control Plex, your DVD player, and a bunch of other things once you get the hang of it. And besides the clunky UI, the installation procedure, AirMote is a pleasant remote app that works just fine.
Looking at both, I can say that they are both functional and viable alternatives to the Apple Remote, but the off hand UIs kind of put me off. For myself who needs only the Front Row functionality, I’d choose AirMote($4.99) [iTunes link]. However, if I wanted to control more than Front Row, I’d choose jfControl ($2.99) [iTunes link] as it’s alternative UIs are better than AirMote’s. And as with all App Store apps, things are always changing. Devs are always willing to listen to customers fill in all the shortcomings. AirMote will be getting a lot of new layouts as well as some UI tweaks. I haven’t talked to the jfControl dev yet, but I’m sure there’s something cooking there as well.
If you are looking for a ‘control everything’ solution, check out AirMouse ($4.99) or wait a while as I continue to look through other remote solutions.
