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AirPort Remote?
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ok...but do you really think Apple would produce a gadget that just did that? I mean... it is a remote. Nothing more, nothing less.Sol said:
The impression I have from Apple so far is that they want to add something extra to their gadgets. Like when AExp showed up on the market. Wifi, printer hub, iTunes all in one, and yet so small and beautiful.
My guess is that a remote from Apple would be able to handle much more than just iTunes. More of an omni-remote, perhaps something you could switch slides on Keynote, change songs in iTunes and whatmore.
I just have a hard time believeing that Apple would produce just a remote with a small lcd screen. IMHO, it doesn't sound very Apple-like.
Apple makes clever gadgets. A remote isn't very clever, is it?
As always, just my guess of course...
Hmmmm...
Would that be something like this?:
http://keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/
Only Apple branded? =) Or is there an expectation that it won't need a transmitter of its own? I'll admit that plugging in a USB wireless transmitter unit to the AirPort Express seems a bit redundant (;
Would that be something like this?:
http://keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/
Only Apple branded? =) Or is there an expectation that it won't need a transmitter of its own? I'll admit that plugging in a USB wireless transmitter unit to the AirPort Express seems a bit redundant (;
No, the beauty of the Sonos remote is that it shows you which song is playing and other relevant information.
Hah, this was the same thing people said before the iPod came out. "Just an mp3 player? For $400???" Most TV/DVD/stereo remotes are horribly designed. Very unintuitive. You have to look at the manual just to figure out the remote! It'd be nice if Apple applied their customary UI design touch to the average remote.Dr.Gargoyle said:
It would also be nice to get some sort of multi-media remote that handles more than iTunes. Technically it's not anything too hard. Keyspan remote does it. Salling Clicker does it. But it's a question of whether Apple deems it useful. If Apple introduced a multimedia remote that worked with video-enabled Airport Express, that could be the holy trinity that everyone's been waiting for: iTunes, Airport AV, and iControl.
Squeezebox the answer?
Dear all, am new to the forum, so forgive me if this is somewhat off track.
But when it comes to listening to iTunes from a remote location through AE, for me what works really well is Slimdevices' Squeezebox. Basically a wireless MP3 player, that allows you to search and listen to your entire library, including playlists, and add the additional bonus of having access to 100's of internet radio stations through, inter alia, Shoutcast.
The Squeezebox has a great display and remote, and hooks up to any set of self-powered speakers or stereo set.
My set up is as follows: iMac upstairs in my office ... AE downstairs ... Squeezebox hooked up to Harman Kardon Soundsticks II downstairs in the living room. Full access to the iTunes library, full search functions via remote, etc. Great sounds via the Soundsticks!
Cheers, everyone!
Dear all, am new to the forum, so forgive me if this is somewhat off track.
But when it comes to listening to iTunes from a remote location through AE, for me what works really well is Slimdevices' Squeezebox. Basically a wireless MP3 player, that allows you to search and listen to your entire library, including playlists, and add the additional bonus of having access to 100's of internet radio stations through, inter alia, Shoutcast.
The Squeezebox has a great display and remote, and hooks up to any set of self-powered speakers or stereo set.
My set up is as follows: iMac upstairs in my office ... AE downstairs ... Squeezebox hooked up to Harman Kardon Soundsticks II downstairs in the living room. Full access to the iTunes library, full search functions via remote, etc. Great sounds via the Soundsticks!
Cheers, everyone!
wuzelwazel said:
I have the Keyspan remote in my bedroom and it works well, but it would be nice to have some visual display to let you have full control of iTunes from a remote location.
Hopefully it will be both IR, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. That way it could adapt itself to control older electronics as well as interacting with Airport Express, being used for a remote control for DVD watching.
First of all: Welcome to MR MarcusS !
Looks nice, and it supports quite a lot of Audio formats. I'd be very tempted if i was in the market for such kind of device. On the other hand, iTunes playlists a.o. will probably not work with the squeezebox. Or do they?
If i would be in the market i would probably wait for another 200$ to show up and buy me a mini to hook up to tv and stereo.
MarcusS said:
Looks nice, and it supports quite a lot of Audio formats. I'd be very tempted if i was in the market for such kind of device. On the other hand, iTunes playlists a.o. will probably not work with the squeezebox. Or do they?
If i would be in the market i would probably wait for another 200$ to show up and buy me a mini to hook up to tv and stereo.
whifi would be much better
if it was a wifi remote you could just link it to the airport expresses and use it any were in the house, with out having to move the reciever to another room also,
philips have a wifi system where you have 1 main sterio and secondary sterios in other rooms, you can control all music and room choices off a poorly designed breeze block of a keypad, like change room for music and volume track everything and all you need is a wireless router.
now if apple did somthing like this and used the computer as the main hifi and expresses as the secondary hifi's with lcd display then, i believe they would clinch the market.
alterativly make piece of softwere for my palm t3, that would do a similar thing, like salling clicker but allow it to change sound destination also. and have that work off wifi so all i need to purchase is a wifi sd card (apple could do there own with softwere)
or am i just floating into the realms of fantasy
MattG said:
if it was a wifi remote you could just link it to the airport expresses and use it any were in the house, with out having to move the reciever to another room also,
philips have a wifi system where you have 1 main sterio and secondary sterios in other rooms, you can control all music and room choices off a poorly designed breeze block of a keypad, like change room for music and volume track everything and all you need is a wireless router.
now if apple did somthing like this and used the computer as the main hifi and expresses as the secondary hifi's with lcd display then, i believe they would clinch the market.
alterativly make piece of softwere for my palm t3, that would do a similar thing, like salling clicker but allow it to change sound destination also. and have that work off wifi so all i need to purchase is a wifi sd card (apple could do there own with softwere)
or am i just floating into the realms of fantasy
I would love to get an apple designed remote that can bundle all the things you need 5 other devices and or software to do. Currently, I have all my mp3's on my G5 in the office at home, which i use to stream to the media center airport. It then goes into a multi zone amp, so I can have music in the media center, as well as the entire house. ( the main amp sends the signal to a second amp in a cabinet tucked away, which sends stereo audio to 5 other zones in the house via a speaker selector box ). This works fine for my main goal which is to have the same music in the entire house simultaniously - for parties mainly. So I usually just set up a huge playlist for a party, and stream away, keeping my airclick remote handy if i want to skip a song.
However, it would be nice for apple to give us something that allowed for multiple base stations to stream simultaniously ( much easier a solution than buying multi zone amps and running miles of speaker cable through my attic ), select songs on the fly or change playlists as well as show status of itunes on the remote. We shall see....
on a side note, I have 2 of the Harmony 659 remotes. I have had several high end macro remotes, and this is by FAR the easiest to set up and use. Configured via setup questions on the website, then you send a small info package to the remote via a USB connection. Backlit LCD, smallish form compared to other macro remotes, and flash memory. When the batts die, you dont need to completely reprogram all of your macro keys. Just hit watch DVD, my IR lighting dims, thermostat lowers, the tv turns on, goes to the correct input, amp and dvd player turn on and each set to desired soundfields or other options and then the disc starts playing. So easy my tech challenged girlfriend mastered it in about 5 seconds!
However, it would be nice for apple to give us something that allowed for multiple base stations to stream simultaniously ( much easier a solution than buying multi zone amps and running miles of speaker cable through my attic ), select songs on the fly or change playlists as well as show status of itunes on the remote. We shall see....
on a side note, I have 2 of the Harmony 659 remotes. I have had several high end macro remotes, and this is by FAR the easiest to set up and use. Configured via setup questions on the website, then you send a small info package to the remote via a USB connection. Backlit LCD, smallish form compared to other macro remotes, and flash memory. When the batts die, you dont need to completely reprogram all of your macro keys. Just hit watch DVD, my IR lighting dims, thermostat lowers, the tv turns on, goes to the correct input, amp and dvd player turn on and each set to desired soundfields or other options and then the disc starts playing. So easy my tech challenged girlfriend mastered it in about 5 seconds!
So did we ever decide how this remote works? It looks like IR in the picture with the iPod on Apple's site. Can't say that thrills me much, but I don't really know what this thing can do or what other products it might work with.
I have been trying to find something about this as well. The remote works with the NEW iPod cradle that you can buy. The cradle looks like it has a IR spot on it, but the iMac does not say anything about having IR (and the remote works with it too). I am thinking it is BT, but cannot find anything about it yet. If it is BT then it should work with all BT enabled computers as long as apple releases the Front Row software, which I assume they will. That would be nice.
robbieduncan said:
Wow! Sorry for our idiocy and thanks for clearing that up for the dumb people.
Anyway, that is weird that they do not show anything about the new iMac having IR. Unless they changed the specs on the site since I last looked, it did not say anything about IR on the new iMac.
I wonder why they went with IR? That really kills the recently released product line for being compatible. Hope they come out with a USB dongle or something in the future.
Jestered said:
I think that they did not mention the IR becuase it cannot be used for anything else. I don't think it's IrDa which would (for example) allow it to be used to sync phones etc (basically as a wireless serial port). It's for the remote only and not available to anything else
robbieduncan said:I think that they did not mention the IR becuase it cannot be used for anything else. I don't think it's IrDa which would (for example) allow it to be used to sync phones etc (basically as a wireless serial port). It's for the remote only and not available to anything else
That makes sense. I also read that the IR from the iMac probably comes from the integrated iSight. Apparently Jobs said that the iSight, with Photobooth, can detect IR heat... I just hope they make an add on for older computers to use the remote and Front Row. Knowing Apple, it will happen, but who knows when.
What I am wondering now, is if this Apple Media Center will eventually spell an end to the Airport Express. What would be the point of AirTunes if your computer is hard wired to the stereo. I think these products would be crossing ideals if a true vision of the Front Row comes into play. In the mean time, I still want that Airport Express w/Video N.
My apologies. In all the chaos of the releases yesterday and my own schedule I hadn't seen your definitive post on the subject yet. Thank you for the info.
mactastic said:
I think that the Store page was updated with the IR "warning". I seem to remember seeing the page without it...
asif786 said:dear steve,
please, please, please
can i have an lcd airtunes remote? pretty please?
dear asif786,
here is your lcd airtunes remote, the iPod nano, that would be 200 $.
yours,
steve