On Saturday morning I picked up my new mobile phone. Despite my previous ravings about Windows Mobile devices this time I chose to go for the iPhone. Which if you have been following my blog possibly wont come as a surprise to you. As I have recently migrated from a Windows based world (with a little Linux) to a pure Apple Mac world. So it seemed to make sense to get one which worked in harmony with my new MacBook.
As with all new devices I spent countless hours customising it and downloading applications from the millions available. One of the main things I was looking for was remote control applications. My MacBook also acts as my digital streaming solution and dvd player so is often tucked away under my TV. Although I have a hardware remote I wanted something ‘built’ into my iPhone.
Of course there is Apple’s own Remote which is all well and good for controlling iTunes. However I was looking for something with a wider range of application support.
Which is where Rowmote came in.
Rowmote is perhaps the perfect replacement for a hardware remote. (if you have an iPhone obviously) Rowmote works via your wireless network and connect to a ‘listener’ client (Rowmote Helper) running on your Mac. Once connected you have all the controls over your mac that you would expect from a remote. But wait – if doesn’t stop there! Rowmote is also capable of emulating the touch pad, enabling you to control the mouse curser and scrolling around documentswebpages etc.The touchpad supports all the things you would hope for, such as landscape mode, two finger scrolling and right clicking, dragging, accented / extended character support, and more.
Rowmote supports a massive collection of applications, with more been developed constantly. You can swap between applications without touching the mac’s keyboard of touchpag, using the simple menu system:
As you can see it’s a straight forward interface, which is easy enough for anyone to use!
It is available for download in two flavours, a ‘light‘ version which comes in at $0.99/£0.59 or a professional version $4.99/£2.99. I wen’t straight for the pro version, and can’t fault it at all.
To add to the applications fantastic ability and styles the developer of the app was quick to answer a support email and provide guidance on working around an issue I had.
Rowmote received 4.5 out of 5 mouses from Macworld
So what are you waiting for? Grab your copy now!