The capitalization isn’t wrong, and I don’t know how I missed this app!
I’m the current GM for our RPG. That means I make up the story, they make choices, it’s an interactive “Chose Your Own Adventure”, only you can’t cheat and peek at the end because I control horizontal and vertical. While I do a lot of this stuff online (I use a wiki to keep all my notes, so I can keep notes online and edit at home or work), I end up printing up the next episode and going ‘old school’ when we game, because it feels more personal that way.
Instead of using a lot of CDs, I make playlists on my computer and run them via iTunes to the stereo when we game, which works really well, except I was always using my laptop to control it, since the computer with the music is in another room.
Today I wistfully said ‘I wish I could control my iTunes playlists with my iPhone.’ And then I said ‘Well, why the hell not?’ This sounds like something Mac should have done from the very start! And you know what? It was!
Remote (iTunes link) is freeware from Apple and lets you control your iTunes library from your iPhone or iPod touch. Apparently it’ll let you control AppleTV as well, but personally I wish it would control my DVR so I could mess with people’s heads and change channels or program recordings from work. Still, I set it up (took all of 2 minutes, including download time) and now I am the master! They’ve had this one out there since the Mac Store opened for iPhone apps, and I recommend it to anyone who uses their iTunes library ‘from afar.’
When you run the app, it checks for iTunes libraries on your local WiFi network. This needs iTunes 7.7, but since we’re on 8 right now, you should upgrade anyway. You’ll also need to check your settings in Preferences -> Devices, and make sure you’ve checked ‘Look for iPhone and iPod touch Remotes’. Saying you need to set up a library to share is implied, but you need to do that too (go to Preferences -> Sharing and you’ll see how it works). Once that’s set up, the iPhone app will show you four digits. Go back to iTunes on your computer and pick the iPhone from ‘Devices’ on the sidebar menu. It’ll prompt you for that four digit code. The reason it’s on the computer and not the iPhone is to stop other people using your network to control your iTunes. Not that we’d EVER do that.
You can link up multiple libraries (for people with multiple computers). You can play through remote speakers, just like you can from your computer. In short, you can actually remote control everything like you would do on your desktop.
Thanks, Apple!
