Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Apple remote works with iPod universal cradle - what about AirPort Express?

First, I will vent about my iMac. I bought my 20" about 2 months ago. Now it's utterly obsolete. Gnash. Weep.

I'm not interested in the iPod video for now, though I could see using a future version to stream video to in-car monitors when we travel. I am, however, interested in the Apple Remote. For me it was the most interesting part of the presentation:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

This may not be the biggest new Apple product of the day (not by a long shot), however, it is long overdue. Apple has released the Universal Dock that will fit all versions of the iPod that have a dock connector. iPod photo owners need not hang their heads in shame because of their less than svelte iPods now.

Besides embracing all iPod models, this dock works with the new Apple Remote control (bundled with the new iMacs, and available for purchase separately) so you can control your iPod from across the room. Pretty sweet, and all for $39.
So the universal cradle works with the Apple Remote, eh? Might be just the ticket for the new compact multi-room home stereo setup I'm assembling. If it's wireless [jf: it's not] with decent range it might work just swimmingly. The next thing I want is an add-on to my existing iMac to enable the Apple Remote and/or a version of the AirPort Express that works with it. I wonder how long I'll have to wait for the latter ...

Update 10/13/05: Alas, won't work. It's IR. From Macintouch: "[Ray Sanders] A tidbit picked up on the ars-technica forums... The new remote control is IR. The new iMac has no IR receiver per se. It appears that they use the iSight cam to receive the IR from the remote. Some of the wags over there *really* want to hack the iSight driver so as to do IR imaging." I love the use of the cam to do IR, I wonder when they'll add gesture control (raise hand to control volume?). Maybe the remote will become obsolete ... IR is very retro; I generally like IR but it won't work for my scheme ...

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