App Review: Remote for the iPod Touch
As part of my continuing series reviewing App Store apps on the iPod Touch (see my prior post for details), today I will review Remote by Apple. Remote is a free application designed to allow you to control your iTunes library on any computer or your AppleTV.
It does this apparently by sending the commands via your wifi, so the
remote works anywhere you have access to your wireless network.
In
many respects this application is a perfect fit for iPod Touch
owners as it takes advantage of the special capabilities of the Touch
(touch screen, wifi) and doesn't depend on any of its definiciencies
compared to the iPhone (no need for always on connection and no
external audio requirement). The program itself was easy enough to set
up. Once you have installed it, you need to enter an access key to your
iTunes library, AppleTV or both. If you have both, you can control only
one of the two at any time, though switching between was easy enough.
Its also important to note that it won't work with the AppleTV without
the latest AppleTV firmware update.
When using Remote, it is pretty intuitive and behaves much like
browsing your internal iPod library except that when you play a song,
TV show or movie it is activated on your AppleTV or iTunes library on
your computer rather than your iPod. The iPod will show what is
actively playing but you will not be able to view or hear it.
Performance was good - whatever I was controlling reacted almost
immediately though the program did freeze on me once or twice in my initial testing.
Another
limitation of sorts, at least when controlling the AppleTV, is that you
can't browse for new movies to rent but rather you can only control
what you have in the library. You also can't access settings or
anything else on the AppleTV. I only call this a limitation because,
for example, if you choose to rent a movie, you will have to break out
the standard control, meaning you will have to keep both handy (as in,
this isn't going to replace the standard remote).
While
I don't find the feature to control an iTunes Library very useful for
myself since my library is on a laptop and not always accessible, there
was one useful aspect to it. When playing audio off your iTunes library
you can set the AppleTV as a speaker, meaning you can play audio from
iTunes on AppleTV simply using Remote. This can be set via the settings
when connected to an iTunes library.
Anyway, overall this is a really nice application, especially given the
price point (i.e. free!) if you own an iPod Touch (or iPhone). It will
probably be most useful to those who also have an AppleTV or who have
their iTunes library hooked to an audio system within the house.
Highly recommended application.