Like many of the others at TUAW who really wanted to see this remote, I got my new Apple Remote a few days ago, and here are some of my impressions.

I've become very accustomed to remote-controlling my computers for a while, but nothing ever seemed to get it right. Apple's Remote for iTunes is great, of course, but what about all my other stuff on my Mac, like Boxee or VLC? Yeah, you can get some specific remotes for those apps (frankly the VLC remotes I've used were terrible and would just quit working sometimes). But what you really want is a master remote that'll take all those tasks over for you. Enter Hippo Remote [iTunes Link], a wonderful, simple, brilliant little remote app for your iPhone or iPod touch and Mac -- or PC.

Hippo Remote starts off as a trackpad, and supports gestures, multi-touch (like scrolling and zooming) and even replicates circular scrolling. There's a keyboard with F-keys, a history and navigation keys. There are app profiles for Powerpoint, Boxee, VLC, even Gmail and Windows Media Center. There's also a login manager for stuff like Gmail or Twitter, so it's very, very fast at getting you to where you need to be all via iPhone screen.

Hippo Remote's response is like butter. Scrolling, swiping, tracking are all wonderful, even on my congested network. I can even use wake-on-LAN or wake-on-wireless to zap those computers alive from anywhere in my house.

All this and the only setup was to add a password for VNC connections in my System Preferences on my Mac. There is a HippoVNC application which enables a few other features, but I don't use it. Instead, I have a saved profile for the Mac I have hooked to my HDTV, and with one tap I'm controlling that Mac via iPhone. It just doesn't get any easier.

Now you can win a copy of Hippo Remote for your own iPhone or iPod touch. Just leave a comment on this post and you're entered. Promo codes are only available for the US, sorry.

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment on this post.
• The comment must be left before Saturday, November 7, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: One promo code for Hippo Remote (Value: US$4.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

If you're rocking the Mac mini -- or any other Mac, for that matter --as a media center, then chances are pretty good that you've had some tough times following the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Anticipating such problems, some of us held off upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6. Now the wait is over.

Shortly after Elan discussed the details of a workaround for Plex, a new release has been let loose on the web. Plex 0.8.3 was announced earlier this week with improved Snow Leopard compatibility as well as several other fixes and new features. For users of Apple's latest OS, the biggest new feature is probably the integration of the Candelair driver which returns Plex to the days of Apple Remote compatibility.

Other notable improvements and new features include:

• Fixed an issue with MKV playback over the network
• A problem with the media server crashing has been fixed
• Video playlists work again
• A new feature where downmixing 5.1 surround audio to 2.0 stereo audio has multiple dynamic range compression options. In other words, surround audio will not be as "quiet" when played through headphones.
• New handling of quitting/suspending commands that includes a new scheduling feature.

The new release of Plex means I can finally stop holding my breath and upgrade my Mac mini to Snow Leopard. It is available now, for free (!!!) right here. Anybody else ready to upgrade to SL now that the Plex release is out? Once my mini is upgraded, rest assured that Plex will be the first thing I install.

[via Macworld]

In the universal scheme of things, it's not a big thing, but it's a welcome update. Apple has announced a new Apple Remote that has aluminum niceness and works with the iPhone, iPods with the Universal Dock, and iMacs introduced since 2005 that have a built-in infrared receiver.

According to Apple, the remote "gives you total command of your music, photos, videos, and DVDs from anywhere in the room. It works with Front Row to make accessing the digital content on your Mac as simple as navigating your iPod."

On an iPod or iPhone connected to a dock with IR you can "experience your songs, slideshows, and more from across the room. Plug your iPod into the Universal Dock and choose a playlist, slideshow, or video. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy. Ready to move on to the next song? No need to get up. Just press the Next button on the Apple Remote. Getting a call on your iPhone? Press Pause, then pick up where you left off."

It's a spiffy new design, with darker buttons instead of the all-white older model. Might make it easier to use when fumbling in the dark.

The remote will sell for U.S. $19.99 and is shipping in 2-4 weeks.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Apple has quietly pushed out software updates for both the Apple TV and the Remote application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update, identified as version 2.4 for the Apple TV, and version 1.3 (24) for the Remote app, adds gesture support for controlling Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod.

Our in-house Apple TV geeks, Megan Lavey and Christina Warren, both installed the updates and gave them a try. Megan indicated the gestures were quick and responsive, and coupled with the ability to use the iPhone/iPod keyboard to search for shows, the new versions made it much less tedious to navigate through your shows.

Boxee users may wish to hold off on updating, however, as it seems that you may not be able to reinstall Boxee after completing the update. Also worth noting is that the new Remote app requires the 3.0 software update to be installed on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Vimeo user UnBoxedLunch brings us this hilariously botched unboxing of an Apple Remote. Thankfully, no hospital visits were necessary as a result.

As someone who professionally designs packaging, I'll know I've reached the apex of my career when someone destroys a container I've designed, and captures it on video.

Nothing but a bit of levity for your Monday afternoon.

If you're like me, then you have multiple Macs with IR sensors in the same room. What happens when you push the menu button on your Apple remote? Chances are it will launch Front Row on every Mac in the room. I had this problem until I discovered Apple remote pairing.

To pair your remote with a specific Mac or Apple TV, just hold down the menu and the next (fast forward) buttons for 5 seconds making sure you're within 5 inches of the IR sensor on the device.

You can unpair a remote by going into System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences) and click security. From the Security System Preference pane, select the "Unpair" button at the bottom the preference pane.

Lastly, you can disable the use of remotes all together. To do this, head back to the Security System Preference pane and click the check box labeled "Disable remote control infrared receiver." This will keep rogue remotes away from your Mac.

Here's a neat little hack with some retro gaming chic. A clever modder has basically stuffed the guts of an Apple Remote into an old NES controller sans cable. He's got step-by-step instructions if you want to make your very own very Mario-friendly Front Row / Apple TV controller. Personally, I'd love to leave one of these sitting on my coffee table.

[via Gizmodo]

The MacBook / MacBook Pro update wasn't "major" but it brought about some changes to the Apple line of notebooks. However, one feature that the new 'books are lacking is the inclusion of an Apple remote. The Apple remote is now a $19 accessory. Currently, the only computers that Apple is including the remote with (as standard) are the iMac and Mac mini.

You can still use Front Row (Apple's media management application) without a remote. To start Front Row, just press Command + esc on your keyboard. You can also launch Front Row by clicking it in your applications folder (if you are running Mac OS X Leopard). To navigate through the menus, just use the arrow keys on your keyboard.

What do you think about Apple not including the remote with their line of notebooks? Sound off in the comments!

The Apple Remote is a slick little gadget, but Apple made a particular design choice that annoys the bejebus out of me: out of the box, every Mac is set up to work with any Apple Remote. If you have a couple of sleeping MacBooks in your living room like we do when you pick up a remote to watch something on the Apple TV, you could very well wake all three devices with the press of a button or two. To make matters worse, Apple isn't very forthcoming about solving this problem or giving you an easy way to bind an Apple Remote with one device or another. Fortunately, there are a few options that aren't hard to pull off.

Your first choice is to completely disable the infrared receiver on your Mac. If you rarely or never use your Apple Remote, you can disable the infrared port on your Mac so it simply no longer accepts signals, intentional or otherwise. This is done with the setting you see above, accessible at the bottom of the Security Preferences Pane.

Your next option is to pair your remote(s) with their respective devices, a step that I wish Apple could somehow implement from the get-go so you don't have to. Here is an Apple support doc detailing the one simple step to pair an Apple Remote with a Mac, and another on pairing and unpairing a remote with an Apple TV. In case you ever have to unpair a remote from your Mac, you can simply open the Security Preferences Pane and click the Unpair button at the bottom right (note that this button is only illuminated when an Apple Remote is actually paired with your Mac; otherwise it's faded out).

For your sake, I hope you don't have too many Apple Remotes to pair, but this should solve those sudden waking moments for your Macs.

Geeze, those MacZOT guys either have strangely coincidental timing, or I need to consider changing the locks on my house. This is either the second or third time that I discovered and thoroughly enjoyed an app, only to find it go on sale at MacZOT the next day (i.e. - I'm buying a license as I type this). The app in question is yFlicks, which we wrote about back in January (and I probably missed because of all the Macworld craziness). yFlicks is more or less a really cool 'iPhoto for your movies,' allowing you to organize and rate your movie files, as well as update the metadata associated with them. This is a great thing if, like me, you're switching from iPhoto to Aperture, because one drawback of the latter is that it doesn't import or organize movies shot with a digital camera.

But yFlicks does some great stuff I've never seen in a full-on movie organizer before: it offers live video previews when you mouse over the thumbnail (so you don't have to open each movie just to get a look at it), complete support for the Apple Remote, a bookmarklet for downloading movies from popular communities like YouTube, Daily Motion and College Humor, and even a great temporary folder system that doesn't simply copy every movie into your movies folder when playing it, allowing you to pick and chose which movies you actually keep and catalog.

The great thing about yFlicks is that the cleverness doesn't stop there; its developer, Peter Maurer - who Mat Lu pointed out in January has developed a ton of other great Mac apps, has sprinkled all sorts of handy magic throughout yFlicks, from a simple rotate button for movies that were shot with the camera rotated to Smart Folders for organizing your flicks and even one-click access to viewing your movie file in its location in the Finder. In fact, I'm so happy with yFlicks, I'm still buying it straight from Mr. Maurer. If you want to save some cash though, yFlicks is on a 40% sale today at MacZOT: its U.S. price is typically $20, but today-only it's just $11.95. That's a killer deal on one of the best darn movie organizing apps I've ever seen.

Of course, before you decide, you can grab a demo from Many Tricks, Peter Maurer's software company, and take it for a spin before throwing down your cash.

Macworld's Mobile Mac blog has a post on cases to keep your Apple Remote safe and sound while on the go. First up is Tuneware's rather bright, red and white leather TuneRemote case with detachable clip ($20). You'll be pleased to know that the "TuneRemote is designed to be suitable for both casual and formal occasions" (I hate it when my Apple Remote case doesn't match my shoes, don't you?).

Rather more practical, perhaps, is zCover's iSA Key silicone skin case for $14.95, which includes a removable lanyard if rocking it old school iPod Shuffle style is your thing.

We've even asked before where you keep your Apple Remote. Personally, I don't worry about mine very much and I either leave it at home, or just throw it in my all purpose gadget bag and forget that it's there. What about you?

Stephen Korecky has posted a bunch of handy Apple remote tricks over at MacInstruct. His post shows you how to pair your remote with a Mac, how to use the remote to send your Mac into sleep mode, and more. Who knew that holding down the remote's Menu button produced the same disk-switching behavior on an Intel Mac as pressing the option key as you boot? Some of Korecky's tricks are a bit obvious (flipping through iPhoto slideshows and controlling Keynote presentations) but most of them are gems.

[Via Digg]

Iyaz Akhtar over at theappleblog points to a nifty little device from Twisted Melon called the Manta TR1, which enabled the Apple IR remote on any older Mac via USB. Just plug in the Manta to a free USB port and your old G4, etc. can rock with an Apple Remote, just like the newest Intel Macs. The Manta is meant to work with Twisted Melon's own Mira Apple Remote software, which we mentioned earlier. In addition, the Manta hardware supports IR blasting (to control other devices) but that functionality is not "used with Mira at this time." Check out Iyaz's original post for more info on RF Remotes.

The Manta TR1 sells for $19.99, and Mira runs $15.95, or you can get them bundled together for $32 from the Twisted Melon store. Of course you'll also need an Apple Remote if you don't have one already; they run $29 from Apple.

Update: chanting over and over again, "Manta"

I think iKana is pretty cool, even if you're not trying to learn Japanese, because it demonstrates how even a simple flash card tool can be done the Mac way. In addition to the built-in flash card sets, iKana lets you create your own, and then quizzes you in style. Maybe best of all is the integration with the Apple Remote for flipping cards and answering the quiz questions. In my view, ThinkMac should take the underlying basic ideas and expand them to make a general purpose flash card program that works in the same way. As someone who has filled out his share of flash cards for learning other languages, I really like the idea of sitting back with the Apple Remote and running through cards.

iKana is $18 and a demo is available.

[Via MacNN]