TUAW Tip: Turn off your remote control infrared receiver

here's and AppleScript to toggle the remote on/off. Use Script Editor and save as an application.

set currentValue to do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleIRController DeviceEnabled"
if currentValue is "0" then
set status to "disabled"
else
set status to "enabled"
end if
display dialog "Set remote control infrared. Right now it is " & status & "." buttons {"Enable", "Disable", "Cancel"} default button "Disable"
copy button returned of the result to button
if button = "Cancel" then
return
end if

-- only change it if it needs to be changed

-- currently disabled and button is enable
if currentValue is "0" and button is "Enable" then
do shell script "defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleIRController DeviceEnabled -bool yes" with administrator privileges
return
end if
-- currently enabled and button is disable
if currentValue is "1" and button is "Disable" then
do shell script "defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleIRController DeviceEnabled -bool no" with administrator privileges
return
end if

Yeah, Any one have a fix so that I can use my apple remote without it turning up the tempeture on my window a/c??

Since I've only the one iMac to wake, I haven't encountered this situation, but -you can "pair" your specific remote to your devices - it's a button located right under the check box for disabling the remote entirely in the Security section of System Preferences. Clicking this button is supposed to link the Apple remote that came w/ the Apple computer to that computer & block any other I-R signals.

It should be noted, for those security conscious folks that never use an admin account for every day work, that this requires admin privileges to work. You need to log in as an admin, not just unlock the security pref pane.

The Apple support doc fails to mention this little nugget.

Cheers

I've forever paired my remote with a press of "Menu" and "Play"....

And as much as I would love to try the "press the menu button at a conference", I'm the only one with a mac :)

Are you able to pair the same remote with multiple Macs? I only have one Mac, so I can't test it.

Chris, please RTFM before you claim something is impossible to do. It's in the manual of every device (from what I've seen and own) that comes with a remote or 30 second google search.

Head over to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302545 and follow the instructions to get your remote paired with your machine. The machine will then only work with the paired remote.

If you really want to disable the remote, the setting is in the Security preference pane.

If there's one thing that annoys the bajeesis out of me, it's double-negatives in a UI.

Why, why, why can't you people learn that you should never turn on a check box to turn off a feature????????


Cheers,
FL

The remotes don't do anything being paired. It's only the computer that stops listening to any remote except the paired one.
So if you pair a remote with a mac, that remote still works with all macs that aren't paired (still listen to all remotes).

does anyone know a solution to my problem? -

i have 3 macs, imac, mac mini (tivo) and macbook pro. i paired the imac remote to the imac, the mini remote to the mini, but the mbp is not paired, however, when i use the mini remote it would access the mbp even though it was paired to the mini.

i ended up disabling the remote all together on the mbp since i never use it anyway, but i dont want to have to do that forever.

any ideas?