Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Tips and tricks, iMac
Who needs Front Row? I have Salling Clicker and a Palm
I'm starting to think Front Row is a little overpriced. Why? Because Front Row (at least for now) only comes on a shiny new iMac. I have a previous generation iMac G5 at my disposal, and for the mere price of a wifi Palm TX ($299) and Salling Clicker 3.0 ($23.95), I can do just about everything Front Row can and more - thanks to Clicker's friendliness with Applescript. Sure, Scott's solution for using the Palm as an iTunes remote might be a little cheaper, but for a more robust, expandable and all-encompassing solution, I really think Clicker has the one-up on Apple.Clicker works with a variety of Macs and a whole host of devices from mobile phones to PDA's. With my Palm, the iMac and an AirPort Express, I've got one heckuva slick setup for controlling the music that plays in most of the apartment in the palm of my hand. (Hah! Get it?) This setup would fully trump Front Row if I was fortunate enough to afford a Mac mini with wifi to just stick right next to our TV and stereo in the living room. Then I'd have video, images, audio and more importantly - anything else that Applescript would allow. In addition to audio and video I can view new Mail messages, new headlines in NetNewsWire and iPhoto images right in my hand, almost anywhere I go in the apartment - and that's with just the base install of Applescripts that come with Clicker.
I've only been playing with this setup for a couple days now, but so far it's been bliss. If the AirPort Express did video I'd be sending everyone in the engineering teams at Apple and Salling a very, very large batch of cookies.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan Pourhadi said 8:19AM on 10-23-2005
Front Row overpriced? New iMacs are the same price as old iMacs. Seems to me Front Row is just a free addition one can use if they're your average user who doesn't want to spend a bunch of money on other devices/software.
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Jacques Lema said 8:49AM on 10-23-2005
Well, that's still ?99$ remote :-) ... which is fine if you already own such palm. SonyEricsson phones and others support HID files so you can build your own remote yourself for any app (and map your phone keys to app shortcusts).
However I still think the confort of a nice, big, readable display on your TV is beetter than that same display on a small palm. Just imagine being two watching the list...
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Scott_D said 8:59AM on 10-23-2005
my understanding is that frontrow comes with a new imac G5 and that if you already have one, you would have to buy another and with a new imac costing 1600 canadian thats a lot of cash for a remote and a little more power, and sexiness, i know it has a bunch of new little features but i would be pissed if i recently bought one and i couldn't get FrontRow.
So 350 for the remote isnt too bad, if your not looking to upgrade your computer, although i would take the saved dollars and get more ram.
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Matt said 9:21AM on 10-23-2005
The whole media center computer thing is alluring but I'm a cheap bastard. Instead, I picked up an XBOX (grab a used one for under $100) and flashed the TSOP (it was an older box) and threw the fabulous XBMC on there. I picked up the XBOX DVD controller for $25 or something and use that to control everything. On my Mac mini I set up SMB sharing so I can just browse to my folders for pictures, or iTunes, or what have you and view things on the HDTV. I grab stuff that airs on BBC off newsgroups and watch those on my TV also. It's great, and a cheap alternative.
Plus it's got an emulator for damn near every system so I can play my 8-bit Mario action in HDTV glory.
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SR said 10:12AM on 10-23-2005
my brother in london loves his mac mini, salling clicker running off his sonyericsson k700i bluetooth, and also elgato eyetv etc... mac mini is his 480p home theater solution hooked up to a 28? inch sized CRT tv... works great. once we all move to 720p i how apple comes out with a stunning home theatre solution for that, or in anycase hopefully elgato and salling will be part of that somehow to offer people a nice wide range of choices for a nice [720p 42" or more] solution. for the record, i do not want microsoft anywhere near my home theatre setup. winxp64 for games, a bit of videolan, websurfing, flash authoring, that's enough microsoftness for me.
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SR said 10:15AM on 10-23-2005
i have suse linux 9.3 running as my primary bittorent client on an old pentium 2 sh1tbox and 20gb hard disk. good enough for all-day downloading and then transferring out via smb to my amd64pc or ibook g4 for viewing and storing what has been downloaded
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Thomas said 11:03AM on 10-23-2005
I don't have anything like as fancy a set up as those in comments here... but I do think Salling Clicker rocks and use it to control my iBook and iMac G4. Works well in presentation mode too.
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narco said 1:07PM on 10-23-2005
I use Salling Clicker all the time. I use my Treo 650 in the bathroom (and I KNOW for a FACT I am not the only one) so it's nice to just sit there and control my music from afar. It really is an amazing device.
Fishes,
narco.
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mitey said 2:37PM on 10-23-2005
i've been using salling clicker and my airport express together for more than a year now and it never ceases to amaze me or my guests. i just got a new k750i over the summer in hong kong and salling clicker 3 managed to outdo it's predecessor in every way, especially with the new phone. had a party last night for which there was no dj, no computer in the living room, no ipod, just an AE base station and my phone, very cool. great customer service from salling too, very impressive. don't know when apple will get the idea from them to do this but front row has nothing on salling as far as i can tell.
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byron church said 3:00PM on 10-23-2005
Yes Yes! I've been wondering why there hasen't been more raving revews on the sailing clicker. If you haven't checked it out go now! It will remote your world!
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bhamm said 4:23PM on 10-23-2005
mitey,
absolutely right.. i used to take my ipods to parties, and while it was a hit to have a few thousand songs to pick from, i do things differently now. I take my powerbook, my airport express and my phone (i've used salling clicker with my previous SE T630 and current SE S710. I also run 'jewelcase' to serve as a 'now playing' window. I've done this for about a dozen parties and people just think i'm from mars or something.. "you can do that??!?!?!!". Yep. ;)
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Bishop said 12:50PM on 10-24-2005
Clicker absolutely Rocks! I finally took the time to buy a copy after playing with it over the last year or so....
It is a mighty, mighty fine piece of software running on my Nokia 6600. I'm looking forward to getting a Palm giving it a go with the larger screen.
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Jemaleddin said 1:35PM on 10-24-2005
David: Did you get it to sync with iCal etc. over BlueTooth yet? My wife bought a T|X over the weekend and we haven't had any luck. Tips?
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Jemaleddin said 1:51PM on 10-24-2005
Looks like good info - thanks a lot! I'll be trying that out tonight. One question: that looks designed for using their HotSync Manager - is that what you're using? My wife really wants integration with iCal, and we were under the impression that you have to use iSync to do that...
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zollo di pollo said 3:00PM on 10-25-2005
What I need is a frontrow sailing clicker script... and you get the best of two worlds. a remote for my brand new non microsoft media center
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Dave said 5:44PM on 10-28-2005
zollo di pollo, here's a front row script for salling clicker, http://www.salling.com/forums/download.php?id=72
and here's some more cool scripts for various applications, http://www.salling.com/Clicker/mac/scripts.html
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David Chartier said 3:15PM on 11-02-2005
Sure Jemaleddin, here's a Knowledge Library article at Palm's site with a good step-by-step:
http://tinyurl.com/9dbze (this will redirect you to a Palm site, as the original link was long, ugly and it broke in our comment system.)
One catch about their tutorial: they instruct you to go into the Palm's preferences, tap "Communication", then tap "Connection." In the TX, "Connection" is right in the Palm's main Preference section, there is no "Communication."
Hope this helps.
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Gergely said 8:43AM on 11-23-2005
12. Posted at 5:10 PM ET on Oct 23, 2005 by Bishop
Hi! I also use a Nokia 6600 mobilephone. Can you tell me, what is the exact name of the software, that you installed on your phone? And where can I find it?
Thx for reply!
Gergely
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Martyn Ford said 10:27PM on 12-06-2005
Software company Geniecommands today introduced an exciting new Macintosh software program designed to give consumers more control and fun over their digital entertainment experiences in their lounge room.
GenieCommands is a unique programmable software application that allows you to control all your applications and media via simple menus and a KEYSPAN REMOTE, in a theatre or lounge room environment.
They provided a complete set of demo Applescript menus to get you started, with links on where to download additional software. These menus can then be edited to suit your lifestyle or create a new one.
Genie is not a one stop solution like Front Row, it is more user definable and can do more with iTunes. It's about audio and good cheap content is what we want. We know Apple will take Front Row further and we love what they have done with the first version, so we have incorporate it into our software on top of the first menu so nobody misses out.
Future upgrades to Geniecommands in the coming weeks will include a Themes importer. There has also been suggestion of an small screen version in the near future.
Talking with distributors of a remote control brand they have said that it may come down as much as $20 in the near future. As for the rest of the hardware more choice and lower costs are only just round the corner. So dip your toes in the water is warming for the Mac Media Center.
www.Geniecommands.com
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