Salling Clicker Remote Control for iTunes

Murphy stumbled across an old HP iPaq the other day and intalled Salling Clicker on it. Instant remote control for iTunes, via the Salling Clicker pane installed in System Preferences.

It’s amazing there aren’t more Wifi remotes these days. With computers acting as media libraries line-of-sight infrared seems totally inadequate. That’s where Salling Clicker comes in. The software works with either Bluetooth or Wifi to control functions on a remote computer. And the list of devices it works on is extensive. The bad news is for LG phone users. You’re on your own.

Watch the screencast to see how Murphy controls his iTunes library. He can even use the hardware buttons on the Pocket PC to advance to the next song or go back. The same button also controls the volume.

If you dig a little further into Salling Clicker you’ll see it can be used to control a slideshow in iPhoto or to send a Mac off to sleep. There are functions for news feeds and mail too.

Murphy is looking forward to seeing Salling Clicker on an iPod Touch and iPhone when the platform is opened up to developers early in 2008. The Touch might be the perfect Wifi remote control.

A trial version of the software shows all the functionality, but locks after a finite number of clicks. If you’ve got an old Pocket PC lying around you might want to take a look. Or check to see if your phone is on the list of supported devices. There’s a Windows version too.

Quicktime - Always on Top

You don’t need third party tools to keep your Quicktime movie always on top. Select your movie in Finder, hit Shift-Command-Y, and your movie opens in a Sticky.  (The keyboard shortcut invokes an item in Services)  Set the Sticky to float and the movie stays on top of other windows. Now you can get some work done with the movie playing in the corner, but your other windows won’t cover the video.

You could also look at this as an easier way to play your Quicktime file back borderless. They won’t be perfectly borderless, like Murphy showed you in this tip. But setting the Sticky color to gray makes it look pretty close. The extra screen real estate is nice to have on a laptop. And Murphy’s other Quicktime tip didn’t have the Always on Top option.

It’s a little surprising Apple hasn’t added an Always on Top menu to Quicktime. But this seems like a reasonable workaround. Take a look as Murphy plays with Quicktime and Sticky notes in the screencast.

Make a Widget in Five Seconds

Murphy’s never tried to make a Widget before, but it sure was easy using Safari. Take a look at the screencast to see just how easy it was.

We’re not sure what the limits are, you can make yourself some Widgets and see. Murphy made one from a webcam on Waikiki Beach and it updated just like the one on the web page.

If Murphy gets a chance he might try to make a more complicated Widget that runs commands in Terminal.

Leopard Install and Boot Camp

Murphy installed Leopard using the Erase and Install option, which thankfully left his Windows XP install from the Boot Camp beta intact and fully operational.

After installing Leopard Murphy rebooted holding the Option key and the XP install was still an option. Once booted into Windows you can use your Leopard dvd to update your XP installation to the latest drivers. It couldn’t have been much easier.

Murphy was afraid the Erase and Install option might have wiped out the Boot Camp functionality, but it only erased the partition OS X was installed on. Having to install Windows XP again would have been a hassle.

Some kind of upgrade was a tempting possibility - the options all have their purpose and benefits. But there’s something about a clean install that’s hard to resist. When things start going a little flaky it’s nice not wondering if your upgrade is the problem.

Murphy has only had a couple hours with Leopard so far, but he likes what he sees. The CoverFlow view is smooth on the Mac Book Pro. Very smooth! And the spacebar preview is incredible. PDF files just pop into view. Anything like that on Windows?

Murphy could easily get hooked on Spaces. It’s far more responsive than he anticipated. He wasn’t sure what to expect there, and wondered if the Desktop could be set to hide icons or the Dock in certain spaces. But that doesn’t seem to be the way it works. However, it’s just as snappy as Exposé and the spaces slide into place from wherever they are in the virtual geography. A nice touch.

The new Finder looks promising but there hasn’t been much time yet to get a good look beyond CoverFlow.

Stacks in grid mode could be a nice secondary app launcher. Not sure yet. Not sure what all the crying is about over the Dock either. Doesn’t seem so bad, and apparently there are alternatives.

A couple things missing:

Right-click slideshow from Finder. You can still get there, but you have to open Preview first. Anyone know a way around this? CORRECTION: It’s built into Quick Look now. Thanks Henry.

The Bluetooth menu seems to have disappeared from Address Book. Murphy’s phone isn’t compatible anyway. Anything else?

So far Murphy thinks Leopard is a worthy upgrade. Maybe not for his G5, but he likes it on the Macbook Pro.

So much to do, so little time…

Murphy’s New Feature

Murphy spends a lot of time fretting over how long each bubble should stay on screen when he’s creating screencasts, down to tenths of a second. Some people want the demos to move faster than others.

You can always use the controls at the bottom of the demo to move from one bubble to the next. But Murphy now provides arrows in the bubble itself, which you might find more convenient, and more interactive.

Click to see the screencast demo of the new functionality. And let Murphy know what Leopard screencasts you want to see!