RSM musings: All my friends are buying iPads.

An interesting thing keeps happening to me. Over the last few weeks, several friends and family who have long known my obsession with Macs and all things Apple have contacted me out of the blue to either get advice on or announce with great fanfare their purchase of a new iPad.  They contacted me to let me know that the “got it” and knew that I’d be as excited about their purchase as they were. The finally understood why I’ve been such a fanatic all these years. They finally see what I saw in the simplicity and brilliance of the creations coming from Apple and what has made me such a devoted fan.

I remember when I was the only person in my family who even knew of the Macintosh computer, let alone owned one. Everyone else used PCs running Windows and they never really understood my devotion to an operating system that ran on such a small segment of the market. How would I get anything done on a machine that less than 5% of the personal computer users owned?

I knew why. I knew that Macs were different. The Mac was built as though Apple knew how I thought, knew how I worked, knew I just wanted to get things done.  By simplifying things, Steve Jobs and his team at Apple made me a better engineer, a better rocket scientist.  I wish I’d been able to thank him.

I remember sitting in a Mac User Group meeting about 9 or 10 years ago, and one of the attendees held up their Palm Pilot and asked when Apple would make something better. Several folks in the room concurred (myself included). We all liked having a portable electronic calendar and note taker, but it was so limited. It was so hard to use. We wanted something made by Apple so that, like our Macs, it would just work. The Apple rep just smiled. All he would say is that we weren’t thinking big enough.

That was years before Apple announced the iPhone and the iPad, but I have the sneaking suspicion that prototypes for both existed inside Apple headquarters in Cupertino at the time we were asking. Jobs knew what we wanted in those devices even better than we were able to articulate.

I am glad that we are living in the interesting times we’re living in now. I am glad I have always been a Mac fanatic. I am glad that so many of my family and friends are finally getting their hands on revolutionary technology. And I cannot wait to see what is going to come next.

Think Different

RSM

RSM Experiment: Using my iPad 2 as my only computer –part III: Editing Photos

Continuing my series of articles on using my iPad 2 as my only computer (see Part I the background here, and part II on podcast streaming here).

I take a lot of digital photos. A. Lot. My MacBook’s hard drive is probably equally filled with movies and photos. After every family vacation, I have been using iPhoto to manage my photos and create photo books of the trip. I used to upload photos to Shutterfly and order prints to put into photo albums, but I’m running out of room in my house for physical photo albums and the time to actually do the ordering and putting photos in the albums. The iPhoto books seemed a good alternative.

One year I made my mom an iPhoto book of the grandchildren. It was such a big hit that she’s requested an updated photo book every year for Christmas s the only gift she wants. I try to capture photos of all of our get togethers during the course of the year into one album in iPhoto, and then spend November painstakingly putting together the book.

I have found I like to do this in iPhoto even though there are online options like shutterfly because our home internet connection is so very ridiculously slow. Working off line saves my sanity.

Now that apple has finally introduced iPhoto for the iPad, I might be able to move the whole iPhoto book creation over to my iPad as well. For now, all of my photos sit on the hard drive that lacks a computer to access them, so I will have to wait a bit to test this out.

Since I don’t yet have the iPhoto app to test, I am not sure how the workflow will go. Would I need to move the photos to my iPad to edit them, or can I push them to the iCloud (When I get there) and bring them down onto the iPad to edit them. Given the previous statement about our slow internet connection speeds, whatever I do, I will want to have the photos offline on the iPad to do the editing.

I am also concerned with the screen size. I have found that using even my 13″ MacBook has become difficult because I can’t really see if a photo is blurry or not. I can only enlarge them so much. The fact that I use my laptop mostly for photo editing is the primary reason that is driving me toward an iMac as my next computer.

This one is going to have to wait on hold until I can get the photos from my hard drive to my iPad to actually test it out. Let’s consider this a placeholder for when I actually have time to get the iPhoto app and give it a proper review.

RSM

RSM Experiment: Using my iPad 2 as my only computer –part II podcast management Stitcher app

I mentioned here that I am conducting a bit of an experiment to see whether I can, at least temporarily, live with my iPad 2 as my only computer. In going through this experiment, I decided to walk through all of the things I typically use my computer for and not my iPad to try to identify iOS alternatives.

First up is podcast management.

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Up until now, I have listened to them all on my 6 year old iPod video. I liked the organization of my iPod and iTunes syncing for podcast management even if that meant I couldn’t sync and update podcasts on the go.

Initially I looked into a syncing only option as opposed to an app that would allow you to download to listen to later. This option wontakings up any space up on my iPhone. I have a 60 GB video iPod and it’s pretty crammed full of podcasts (and music). I only have the 32 GB white iPhone 4 (the largest hard drive they made at the time) half filled with photos, apps and a couple Lost episodes, and I’d rather not fill it the rest of the way up with podcasts. So, streaming is an alright option. Since I am grandfathered into the unlimited plan, I am not worried about streaming bandwidth taking up my data as I roam away from my home wi-fi hotspot. I have yet to use very much of my data plan (when I remember to check) because I am usually within a wi-fi hotspot when doing anything substantial on my iPhone.

Stitcher radio app – (free)

The the first app I have tried is the Stitcher radio app. I had heard anout it from one of my Disney themed podcasts, WEDWay Radio, They mentioned that they were both on itunes and on Stitcher. Simple web searches on podcast iOS app reviews also mentioned Stitcher being a noteworthy free option to stream podcasts on your iOS device.

After downloading the app, I successfully subscribed to all the Disney podcasts I listen to and streamed them as was driving in the car. My first impression is that i don’t like the interface. I don’t like that it starts to play the selected podcast right away. I can’t figure out how to change the icon on the favorites grouping. It just seems messy. Granted I haven’t played with it extensively, but the user interface is the first thing you notice and this one seems non intuitive.

Interface aside, the only other potential issue is that not all podcasts are available via Stitcher. I believe that the podcasters have to submit or somehow get their podcast into the Stitcher radio system. That being said, so far all of the podcasts I wanted to listen to were available.

I think this is a solid app to stream podcasts, especially because it’s free. I am going to try out one or two more apps, though, because I don’t care for the interface and I think i would like to have the ability to download the podcasts to listen to later instead of streaming them.

Since it’s free, it’s worth a look.

http://www.stitcher.com/

Enjoy!

RSM

RSM Experiment: Using my iPad 2 as my only computer – Background

Well, that’s done. My 2007 MacBook has finally up and died. I’ve spend the last few months trying to eek out more time with my MacBook by upgrading the RAM, then the hard drive. Then upgrading the hard drive again for more space and because that drive, at 7200 rpm, might have been running too hot for the inclosure.

It all seemed to be going just fine until last week, when my MacBook would not wake from screen saver mode. The drive wasn’t asleep. I could still access my iTunes home sharing via my Apple TV, but the MacBook itself wouldn’t come out of screen saver for me to do anything else. After trying a few of the force quit key combinations I just held down the power button to force it to shut down.

That’s the last thing she was capable of doing. Rebooting the machine brought up the dreaded folder with a question mark on it indicating that the Mac couldn’t find a system folder to boot from. Luckily, I still had my old drive in an external inclosure, so I booted from that via USB. Running disk utility showed that the new internal drive had a catalog b-tree error and would need to be reformatted.

I thought that perhaps this new drive (which had only been in the MacBook a week) was at fault, and perhaps I could fix it. If I couldn’t, then it was still under the 30 day no hassle return policy at newegg.com. I decided to try to boot into single user mode and run fsck and try to repair what I could. Unfortunately, the MacBook never booted up again after that. I could no longer get the MacBook to boot from the external old drive I knew still worked (I had mounted it to my husband’s iMac and verified all was well), let alone the internal new drive. There was no more question mark system folder icon on the blueish grey startup screen. There was only the blueish grey startup screen.

Since I cannot boot from either drive, my suspicion is that the mother board has finally died. Whether this is related to the rechargeable battery which had started to warp and which I had removed so I could take it to an Apple store, or it just failed because it’s almost five years old, I don’t know.  I’ve decided that it’s not worth putting any more money into this machine and it’s finally time to get something new.

Since I am fairly familiar with Apple’s typically cycle of hardware updates, I know that both the MacBook Pro and the iMac are very close to new revisions. I am leaning toward an iMac because I have found I need more hard disk space than a laptop would come with to hold movies to stream via my Apple TV. Since getting my iPad, I’ve used the laptop less as a laptop and more as a desktop machine. The currently shipping iMac was released in May of 2011, so it’s very  very close to a new model’s potential release date if Apple holds to my perception of their schedule. All of which means, that whether I replace my old black MacBook with a new MacBook Pro or an iMac, I am going to have to wait.

This leaves me with no computer for the next month or so, giving me an opportunity to test whether I can get along with just my iPad 2. I thought I’d take the opportunity to document how I use the iPad 2 and whether I really could get by without a computer. In the end, since I plan on buying a new Mac as soon as I can, I know the answer is no, but it’s going to be a challenge to see how much I can get by without one.

It is worth noting that even though I have an iPad, I still used my MacBook from time to time. To see if I can use just the iPad, I will be listing all of the things I typically use my MacBook for and go through one by one to with iPad only solutions.

This should be interesting.

RSM.

RSM app review: Wunderlist

I have been a long time user of “to do” lists, both at home and at work. Making a list of the things I need to get done is the best way for me to keep my world organized.  When I started working at my current job, I was introduced to a formal list making program by the folks at Franklen-Covey.  Once I got my very own Franklin Planner, I never looked back. I am never without it.

Once my family gave me my original iPad, I started to think that perhaps I could replace the physical planner with an electronic one on the iPad (and hopefully the iPhone).  I’ve been searching for a while, and I think I might have finally found my replacement. Let me walk you through all of the apps I’ve tried and my thoughts on their usefulness.

The first app I tried to use was Evernote. I still think that Evernote is an awesome app and gets daily use on my iPhone, iPad, and my Mac to share bits of this or that as I coordinate my life. The synchronization between all of my computers makes it a hit. I can use it from whatever Apple device I find myself using at the time, and all of the data is gathered into one place.  It’s a great way to gather data  into topics for use later. I’ve taken to using it as an invaluable tool in the planning of our Family Disney World vacations.  But it’s not a to do list app. It’s too much for that. I need something a bit more simple that just does lists.

Then I tried a series of apps specifically called “to do” or “getting things done” apps. All of them let you manage lists and some offered the ability to put those lists into related folders, but none of them were easy to use. I kept using my physically planner, hoping I’d eventually find something. Among them were: Nubi Do, Toodledo, and Apple’s Reminders. I thought that both Nubi Do ($4.99) and Toodledo (free) did what I wanted but I didn’t care for the interfaces. I actually started to use the Reminders app (also free) at the beginning of the year as an experiment, but since I am not yet moved to the iCloud, I couldn’t sync between all my devices so I stopped using it.

Then I read a review on the blog of a fellow Disney fan, Kidani Katie, of a to do list called Wunderlist. As Katie puts it, this one is also free so it doesn’t cost you anything to check it out.  Immediately, I liked the interface. Versions are available for just about any platform, mobile or not, that you can think of. I downloaded it to my iPhone, my iPad and to my Mac OS X laptop. Even though I am an iOS fanatic to the core, I still find typing just a bit easier with a physical keyboard over a virtual keyboard. There, I said it, and I will deny having said it to anyone.

I started  by setting things up with the Mac OS X app interface. First, I set up a wunderlist account. This is how all of your lists will synchronize across your devices. Since I will be sending these lists up to a server, I am mindful not to include anything that I wouldn’t want to be saved to a cloud interface. Next, I set up boxes for work, for home, for kids specific, etc. In my Franklin Planner, I’d categorize my to do list by splitting it into two: work and home. Wudnerlist allowed me to break that down even further.  Then I went about figuring out how to enter to do items. It took me a few minutes of tinkering to figure out how to link those to do items with a date. If they are entered under the boxes they don’t have a due date. You have to put those in by hand.

Once everything was set up, I logged into the wunderlist app I’d installed on my iPhone using the same account I’d set up on my OS X machine.  After a little bit of syncing, all of the boxes and to do items I’d created on my Mac magically appeared.

I found the iOS interface to actually be a bit more intuative than the Mac OS X interface. It was easier for me to add information (notifications, due dates, categories, notes) to individual to do items via the iPhone than on my Mac just because of the layout on iOS. In spite of not initially thinking I’d use the iPhone interface other than to add or check off the occasional items from my lists, I actually do most of my list making on the iPhone. I think that once everything was set up the way I wanted it to be, that day to day entering is simpler on the iPhone.

My great experiment really started when I noticed half way through my day that I had left my Franklin Planner in a bag in my car. I hadn’t even needed it.  I did all my lists entirely electronically and aside from some notes I took in a notebook in a meeting, I didn’t even need paper.

It’s been about a month now, and I can safely say that the iPhone has replaced my Franklin Planner in tracking my to do list. It’s always with me; fits in my purse; is on my night stand. In fact, I use the iPhone more than the iPad to do my list tracking because it is the thing that I always have on hand.

If you are looking for a getting stuff done to do list tracking app, I’d heartily recommend you give wunderlist a try.

Enjoy,

RSM

Getting ePub books onto my iPad

I have a number of epub formatted books to read, that up until now I have had on my nook for when I wanted to step away from my computer to read them. In keeping with my goals of trying to read things on my iPad2 now, I wanted to move these documents onto my iPad2.

I know the brute force method is to take them from my MacBook, I could drag and drop the books into iTunes to be uploaded into my iBooks bookshelf while the iPad2 is tethered via its USB cable and syncing via iTunes.

But I don’t want to do that. I want to be able to do as much as possible without having to go back and tether the iPad2 to my MacBook. I know this has got to be possible, but for a while I was at a bit of a standstill.  Then I thought of dropbox.  Looking back at it, I am surprised I didn’t think of it sooner.

Here is my solution. I loaded all of the ePub formatted books into my dropbox from my Macbook. Note how this still required me to go to a Mac at first. Then I launched the dropbox app on my iPad2 and navigated to the epub book. Choosing one of the book file names brings up a drop down menu where I can choose which application to use to open the documents. iBooks was one of the choices. Choosing iBooks opened the iBooks app where I watched the epub book I was hoping to read enter the iBooks “bookshelf” to find a home right next to my Steve Job biography.

I have not yet synced the iPad2 to my MacBook, so this setup hasn’t been backed up and saved into iTunes, but the book is still in the iBook bookshelf every time I open the application.

It worked and, more importantly, it was easy.

RSM.

Reading eBooks on my iPad2: My experience

About a year ago, I purchased the nook so that I could read eBooks since my iPad was almost entirely dominated by my children’s use. Last fall, my loving husband bought an iPad2 for my birthday so that I could have my own iPad to use. I share this one with my daughter, but she doesn’t use it nearly as much as my son uses my original iPad.

This year, I decided to give reading books on the iPad a try.

My first eBook was, naturally, the Biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. I purchased it via Apple’s iBooks store more out of loyalty than any other technical or monetary reason. I have the nook and kindle apps for my iPad, so I could have easily purchased it via Barnes and Nobel or Amazon respectively.

I enjoyed the experience of reading on the iPad2 more than I thought I would. Initially, I though that the lighted screen might be a strain on my eyes. While I still prefer the eink technology for eBook reading, I did enjoy the ability to read in the dark while getting my children to bed that reading on the iPad2 gave me.

Aside from the backlighting, the first thing I noticed was the speed contrast between my Wi-Fi + 3G nook and the iPad2 iBooks book. There was no comparison. The iPad2 page turning was responsive. The nook’s page turning was slow.  The iPad2′s iBooks layout was more book like, the nook’s was less so. Given that my nook is a generation old now with the introduction of the nook simple touch, I would hope that the new hardware might provide a little snapper response. I’ve only had the chance to check out the nook simple touch at Target in demo mode, so I cannot speak to it’s function.

Not all book reading apps on the iPad are as nice. I have tried out three other apps to read books checked out from the library (article with instructions coming).

First I tried Overdrive, an application recommended by my local library. For some, but not all, eBook (epub and pdf format) titled in my local library’s eBook catalog, I can check the book out from and read it within the Overdrive application itself. While the ability to do this within the app, and without having to go to an additional Browser or my Macbook in order to get the content onto my iPad was nice, the interface left a lot to be desired when compared to the iBooks reading experience. Gone were the paper-like page turning graphics. Instead of a page turn, the page simple changes to the pervious or the next page depending on which side you’d tapped on. It works and it’s fast but there’s something less graceful and less book-like and more computer-like to this experience.  What I did like was the ability to set type size as well as page color between white to ecru, both of which made reading easier on my eyes.

The next app I tried for reading library eBooks was Bluefire. From the app, it appears that there is a way you check out books out from within BlueFire through some of their affiliates, but since I don’t see my library listed there, I have not tried that method. How I got the content onto my iPad2 here was to check out the book via my Safari browser, download the DRM key to my Macbook. Use Adobe Digital Editions to verify the DRM and download the file. Upload that file via iTunes to the BlueFire app with my iPad2 mounted. Once in the BlueFire reader, you can also set night mode (white text on black background) and text size, as well as fit to page width in the settings. The page turning here is a slide to the left or slide to the right motion, not a page flip. It reminds me of the old microfiche readers our library at work used to have.

To read pdfs, my go-to application is GoodReader. I could write a blog post on GoodReader alone (perhaps I will). The GoodReader app is available as a free and a paid version. I liked it enough that I paid for the full version of both the iPhone and iPad versions. There are a variety of ways of getting pdfs into GoodReader to read on your iPad2. I’ve used most of them. You can use iTunes and upload to your iPad or iPhone at sync, you can link to a dropbox account, your MobileMe iDisk (for as long as that will be around), or download pdfs directly from the web. The application is easy, quick and intuitive. It’s hands down the best pdf reader on iOS.

Overall, reading on the iPad2 has been a really good experience. I don’t find the iPad2′s form factor too big and bulky to use as a ereader. In fact, the Isaacson book is heavier than my iPad2 even in it’s Protenzo case.  Now that I’ve figured out how to check out library books both directly to the iPad and via an iTunes sync, my nook might just be relegated to sitting unused on my nightstand.

Your experience might vary, but the iPad2 has become an everything device for me.

RSM.

Checking out an electronic epub formatted library book: part 1 – to read on my nook

About a year ago, I bought a refurbished Barnes and Nobel Nook so that I could check out eBooks from the local library and read them in my spare time. I already owned an iPad, but my children used it to play games and drawing applications so much that I didn’t think I’d have use of it enough to read.

I wanted to check back in here and describe the steps I had to go through, and still have to go through, to check eBooks out of the library and put them onto my nook. I found that doing this for the iPad was almost the same but slightly different. I will write up those instructions separately.

All of the instructions below are for the epub or pdf format and follow this simple path: check out the ebook, download the eBook to your Mac, put the eBook onto your eReader. I have found at least one eBook that I was able to check out directly to my iPad2 without having to use my Mac as an intermediate step.

Note: While I do not have a kindle, from what I have read, checking out a kindle library book is a different process altogether and takes place almost entirely in the cloud. Most libraries now have epub, pdf and kindle formatted books. Only epub and pdf formatted books are covered in these instructions.

Step one: Checking into and out of the library

Reserving and checking out an epub formatting ebook from the library is a fairly straightforward process. For the following instructions, the library in question is the Cuyahoga Country Public Library, although I would assume that other libraries will work the same. Once you have a library card and associated account number, you simply go to the library’s website and create an electronic login complete with a pin number.  At the library’s digital site, you can check out an epub formatted eBook by putting it into your “cart” or place a hold so that you will get a turn in the queue to check out the eBook.

Step Two: Downloading to your computer

Once you check out the cart from within your browser, you are given the option to downloadsa small file. I do not believe there is a limit to the number of times you can download it. This file is not a pdf or epub file itself. It is, I presume, is a link to download the ePub book (which is my choice).   To open and read the DRM marked file you will need another application.

Step Three: Adobe Digital Editions

In order to open the file on my Mac, I had to install the application Adobe Digital Editions. ADE requires an account. This account is needed to open these borrowed eBooks, whether you read them on your mac or some other platform.

From the ADE description: “Digital Editoins makes is easy to transfer protected eBooks between multiple computers and mobile devices”.

When you download the ebook file via your web browser and double click it, the ADE application launches and downloads the borrowed library book. The interface is similar in concept to the iTunes store, with the ability to create folders of books. A folder titled “borrowed” is created once you download borrowed material. Within the ADE window, you see the file name of your book with a designation of “borrowed” at the end as well as the date that the lending period will expire. Once you reach that date, you will no longer be able to open that document.  In the same way that iTunes is a front end for the content in your iTunes folder, the ADE creates a folder in your documents folder called “find the name” where it downloads the epub-formatted files. Deleting them from within the ADE window does not delete them off of your mac.

Step Four: uploading to your nook

With ADE launched, plug in your nook to the USB port. The nook will load within the ADE window as an additional folder, similar to the way that iPads, iPhones, iPods will mount within the iTunes window and allow the user to drag and drop content into them. With the nook mounted within ADE, you can drag the borrowed library book onto the nook.  Now, your nook has the borrowed library book loaded and you are ready to read. You can read it either on your Mac within the ADE application or on your nook.

Step Five: Reading on your nook

Now that the eBook is on your nook, simply unmount it from your mac by ejecting it, and you are ready to read. The DRM restrictions on the book file will lock it from being opened once your lending period has expired.  For me, this has left me with a number of epub files that no longer open. Every once in a while, in order to free up disk space, I try to go and clean up the files that have expired.

Loading the epub formatted eBook onto my iPad is similar to the above steps in some cases, but easier in others. I will write up those instructions in another blog post. I have found that for some digital books,  on the iPad I don’t need to put my computer in the download path, and for others, I do.  Since I found it all a bit of a process, I thought I might as well capture it here for others.  Consider that your coming soon preview.

Enjoy your reading.

RSM.

RSM: eBooks and physical books, my dream solution

I am a gadget girl. I love gadgets. I love anything that Apple makes but I also just love gadgets. I had a Palm V back when they first came out. I have a Barnes and Noble 3G + WiFi eInk nook (the version before the Touch) and have been thinking about the Nook Color even though I already have two iPads. I have the original iPhone, the original iPad, and several versions after.

Yet, I also dearly love books and the feel of paper in my hands. I will read a physical book over an electronic book if given the choice. If I am traveling, spending time waiting in a doctor’s office, etc. I appreciate the convenience of having books in my iPad (or the nook). But in the end, I want a physical book. I have more faith that the books sitting in my library will still be there in 10 years than I do in Amazon or Barnes and Noble or even the ePub format itself. For all the embracing I have done of digital technology, I still feel that digital media and digital content is fleeting and non-permanent. Books are moreso. I have books I inherited from my grandparents. I hope to pass some of my books along to my grandchildren. I don’t see the same thing happening with eBooks.

For me, eBooks are easy to carry but not archival. I use my nook to check out eBooks from the library that I want to read but don’t necessarily want to own. Books I own I reread the same way that DVDs I own are movies I want to be able to watch again and again. I guess that in the simplest terms, for me, digital content is for renting, physical content is for owning.

Reading on a friend/blogger I follow’s facebook status today, her publisher, ECW Press, has just announced that you can get a free eBook copy of any of their books when you buy the physical book. You can’t go back and get eBooks of past books you purchased, but starting today, with the proof of purchase, you get an eBook to go with your physical book. That is awesome.I love this independent publisher for doing this and I plan on supporting them like crazy now, especially since I’ve been meaning to buy Nikki’s Finding Lost series of books on the Series Lost.

I’ve been saying to anyone who will listen that Amazon should have offered free eBooks with the purchase of a physical book from the day it launched the first kindle. They easily know what books I buy. It would be simple to give me the eBook as well. I know, then they can’t change twice for the same content like they do now. The thing is, with me, they don’t. I buy either the physical book or the eBook. More often then not, I just buy the physical book.

The only eBook I bought in addition to the physical book was the Steve Jobs Biography. That one, out of respect or homage to Mr. Jobs, sits on my night stand and also in my iPad’s iBook shelf.

In the same way that I only buy Disney DVDs that include the digital copy, I’d spend an additional dollar to buy a book that came with an eBook download code. I am not sure if the industry will ever get there, but as a consumer who likes to own actual books, but who’d like to take them on travel with her in her iPad, this is a model I would love to see happen. I am not sure what barriers there are in the industry to make this happen, or even how much theft might result, but as an honest consumer, this is what I’d love to see.

Books are great. I want there to always be books.

I think eBooks and paper books can live in harmony. At least they do in my house.
RSM.

Setting up the Apple TV: Part 3, Apple’s Remote app

Continuing the series (part 1, installation, and part 2, Airplay) on setting up our new Apple TV at home, this post will sum up my thoughts of an app I had known about but since I didn’t own an Apple TV when it was released, had completely forgotten about. Apple has a tiny app (free) in the app store called Apple Remote, and it does just what it’s name implies. It turns your iOS device (iPhone, and, I presume, iPad, and iPod touch) into a remote to control your Apple TV.

Using the Apple Remote app came out of a fit of laziness. I was sitting on the couch with my daughter, and the Apple TV’s actual remote control (a beautiful and slender silver stick with a click wheel similar to the original iPods) was sitting across the room next to the TV. It was then that I remembered that Apple had an app called Remote and I immediately downloaded it to my iPhone4.

Upon first tapping the app, with the iPhone already on our local wi-fi network, it immediately found the home sharing that I’d set up via iTunes on my MacBook, and also subscribed to by our Apple TV. Once I’d logged into the home sharing, taping the screen turned on (or, more correctly, woke from sleep) the Apple TV. After it woke up, I saw the Apple TV navigation titles on the screen that are controllable by the left/right/up/down clicks on the silver remote’s click wheel. The controls on the Remote app are super simple. You swipe left right, up or down, to move a cursor on the screen in that large black open area in the center of the iOS device’s screen. The “Tap to Navigate” directional arrows on the image to the left are exactly what you’d see. Once you have moved the curser over what you want to choose, you simply tap on the iPhone’s screen. Tapping does the select.

I was, again, surprised at how easy it was to work. So easy, in fact, that my six year old daughter immediately took the iPhone from me and went about to scrolling through the list of movies we were streaming from my computer via Home Sharing (details coming soon) to pick out the movie she wanted to see (Ella Enchanted for those interested).

I know I am an Apple fan girl from way back, but it’s easy to see why when the things that Apple makes just work. I understand the hacker culture’s need to be able to jailbreak and tear apart the tech that they buy, but I also totally appreciate the culture of insanely great products that just work instilled into Apple’s design philosophy by Steve Jobs. The Apple TV and associated Apple remote all are two bits of technology that I know my Mom and Step Dad would be able to master is short order.

Whether or not Apple has the best TV ever in development for 2012, I am still happy we took the plunge with this huge Panasonic TV with the second gen Apple TV.

Enjoy,
RSM.