Control Your Mac With Bluetooth Phone 69
reidconti writes "Ever wanted to control your Mac remotely? Now you can, with the Sony Ericsson Clicker by Jonas Salling. Play MP3s or DVDs, command Keynote and PowerPoint presentations, all from your Sony Ericsson Bluetooth phone. Nifty proximity mode lets you pause your music when you leave the room and automatically resume when you re-enter." It uses AppleScript, to control whatever AppleScript can control.
Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:2)
Great geek aid (Score:5, Interesting)
On a serious note it's saved me having to buy a remote from Keyspan [keyspan.com].
Re:Great geek aid (Score:3, Informative)
I actually own one of the keyspan remotes, and I gotta say, it's great. One of the coolest features is that you can program it for any remote (this only works in OS 9 unfortunately). If you know the bit time and frequency of your remote, you can point it at the receiver, press a button, and it will tell you what the command consists of. This is great for those of us with huge universal remotes.
Plus, the Keyspan remote costs $50US, the T68i cost about $100 more than a similar-but-not-BlueTooth phone from my carrier.
Is Ericsson the new Newton maker? ;-) (Score:3, Funny)
Dum controllers filling your pockets again.. (Score:1, Redundant)
Need longer battery life now.. (Score:5, Insightful)
We need longer battery life now. Bluetooth is a real drain on your cell phone (or your Palm for that matter).
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:5, Funny)
On another note, I've finally realized my dream of having theme music on cue when I enter the building.
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:2)
It is a cool idea though. I'm working on having my leave area script lock both my Mac, and the XP PC next to it. I just need to decide the best way to script the telnet session to the XP box without leaving my password open for anyone to see. Anyone know how to send NTLM authentication to the XP Telnet server?
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:1)
On preview: If the 10 meter figure is true, it'd have to pause for a bit before doing so... Suggestions?
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:1)
Re:Need longer battery life now.. (Score:1)
demo movie (Score:3, Interesting)
http://homepage.mac.com/rtouris/iMovieTheater38.h
This is the first truly cool thing I've seen with BlueTooth
Re:demo movie (Score:1)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
This software only listens to a bluetooth connection from a specific device which has to have been paired with the Mac before hand.
It's quite safe - robably more so than having WiFi connections.
Think how many businessmen who use WiFi in Hotels etc have firewalls running. My Mac does all the time - even when I'm at home behind a hardware firewall.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2)
I mean come on...
Re:Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Your sig. (Score:1)
Stuffing keystrokes and mouse clicks? (Score:1)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:1)
Tell Finder to Delete All Files with tag="Critical,
Can't seem to work (Score:2)
Tried pretty much everything.
Anyone have any ideas on how to get it to work, or anyone with similar problems... looks very cool, would like to get it working!
-Nex
Re:Can't seem to work (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Can't seem to work (Score:1)
Will it work with Nokia 6310i? (Score:1)
Re:Will it work with Nokia 6310i? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm working on alternative methods for the P800 though, as it seems to be the hot new phone to have
[Note: am in no way connected with Clicker]
Bluetooth integration (headset ...) (Score:2)
Now that someone has opened the door, I'd like to see more of this. Technically, Mac OSX already supports talking commands to the computer ("Speech" application)
So using a bluetooth headset, you should be able to produce the same result. Turn down volume when leaving the room and controlling the computer by executing applescripts.
Some Additional Applescripts (Score:5, Informative)
-DVD player - get back into the menu -Start up the screensaver (for when you leave the range) (make sure screensaver is turned off or two of them will run)
-Telling you when you are in or out of range (so you know how far you can go). This application is so great. The possibilities are endless. -
Re:Some Additional Applescripts (Score:4, Funny)
How about some more:
say "Get back to your desk you slacker" -- going out of range
say "Help me, he's coming right for me" -- coming into range
tell application "Safari"
set docList to index of every window as list
repeat with theWindow in docList
if URL of document theWindow contains "microsoft.com" then
quit
else if URL of document theWindow does not contain "microsoft.com" then
end if
end repeat
end tell
-- coming into range or going out of it!
-/-
Mikey-San
The future inj your hands (Score:1)
Beware it's time limited (Score:3, Informative)
There's no indication of how much it'll be to buy at the moment, but hopefully not too much. I'd not want to spend more than £10-£20 on this, as a techy it's of limited 'real' use.
Here's hoping the author will issue another time-limited release...
It Works?! (Score:1, Informative)
Theme Song (Score:1, Funny)
Getting Powerpoint/Office X setup (Score:3, Informative)
Actual website now up (Score:2)
I was going to post about this, but wanted to wait until the actual website was up...
dear God.. i guess i have to face the facts... i've become a KARMA WHORE!
oh well, it could be worse.. i could be a California asembly person.. and spend other people's money like a CRACK WHORE.
Simple Bluetooth Keychain (Score:4, Interesting)
Does anyone make a very small Bluetooth keychain type device? I really like the "Proximity Sensor" mode... but I don't want to need a Sony/Ecicson phone to use it...
Something like a keyless entry keychain, but with Bluetooth... someone must make one, right?!?
Later,
-Affe
Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your sc (Score:5, Informative)
I have proximity locking and unlocking both running beautifully here. 10-12 second delay for either. Big wow factor around the office.
Range on my T68i is way more than 30 feet. Maybe the author will add a range slider on the proximity tab. For unlocking you need something like Extra Suites http://www.kanzu.com/ ($10) or your prefered OSAX that can generate keystrokes. This allows you to enter text via AppleScript as if from the KB and thus unlock the screen. The 'type string' and 'type key' commands are part of Extra Suites.
To lock the screen use this as your action.set previousState to do shell script "defaults -currentHost read com.apple.screensaver askForPassword "
do shell script "defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword 1"
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to run
do shell script "defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword " & previousState
This will not permanently alter the preference you have set in your screen effects panel.
To unlock the screen you can use the following script. NOTE! This requires entering your user PW as plain text into the script. Use this method with caution. A person who gets access to your box could, with the appropriate tools, extract your PW from the preference pane plist and then get access to your box!
Oh, I guess they'd already have that huh? ; )
tell application "Extra Suites"
type key "enter"
delay 1
type string "YourUserPasswordGoesHere"
delay 1
type key "enter"
end tell
Hoping this helps someone wow their boss into mac lust.
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:2)
Secondly, you will need the GUI interface scripting beta, downloadable from Apple at http://www.apple.com/applescript/GUI/. Be sure to follow all of the directions of the readme when installing.
Thirdly, the coordinates for the "click at" command are probably specific to my computer (PBTi), so you will need to set these yourself. (I did it using the UI element inspector downloadable from Apple at the link above. Start it. Start the screensaver. Hit Apple-F10. It will be in the red text in the UI element inspector.)
Finally, you need this text: For whatever reason, this generates an error in Applescript, but it still works. Go figure. Set this to a new action and then to act when you come into range.
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:2)
keystroke return
Though I did need a 3 second delay between the password loop for it to work properly.
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:2)
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:1)
The following script is similar but handles multiple instances of screensaver running.
try
set ssInstances to do shell script "top -l1 | grep ScreenSave"
on error number 1
set ssInstances to {}
end try
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
set ssInstances to (text items of ssInstances) as list
repeat with thisInstance in ssInstances
try
do shell script " kill " & word 1 of thisInstance
end try
end repeat
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:1)
Oh, I guess they'd already have that huh? ; )
Not really. The entry for the screen saver looks like: The password is not stored there or in the plist.
Re:Scripts to automatically lock & unlock your (Score:1)
It stores the scripts as plain text...
*dict>
*key>AppleScript*/key>
*string>do shell script "kill `ps axww | awk '/ScreenSaverEngine/ {print $1}' | head`"*/string>
*key>GUID*/key>
*string>7A69A305-48BC-11D7-9839-000393A38870*/str
*key>Title*/key>
*string>unlock screen*/string>
*key>Type*/key>
*string>AppleScriptAction*/string>
*/dict>
*dict>
*key>AppleScript*/key>
*string>set previousState to do shell script "defaults -currentHost read com.apple.screensaver askForPassword "
do shell script "defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword 1"
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to run
do shell script "defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword " & previousState
*/string>
*key>GUID*/key>
*string>7D9669C8-48D2-11D7-9839-000393A38870*/str
*key>Title*/key>
*string>lock screen*/string>
*key>Type*/key>
*string>AppleScriptAction*/string>
*/dict>
*/BLOCKQUOTE>
Range? (Score:2)
Perhaps other people have better range than I do. But this seems like one of those solutions in search of a problem. That or else it is akin to the theming software or Konfabulator which is just to show off to geeks and nerds while people who use their computer to *do* things couldn't care less.
Just one man's impression.
Re:Range? (Score:1)
Just another man's impression (Score:1)
Now all I need is a T68i instead of this 6310i!
Voice Recognition Activation? (Score:1)
Has anyone tried hooking this into the Speech preferences or [insert your favorite ASR software here]?
"Computer, get new mail"
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Dave..."
No auto-redetect? (Score:1)
I noticed a note on the Clicker application that says that not all BT adapters support auto-redetect. However, I am using the standard DLink USB adapter.
Any ideas what might be going on?
Tips (Score:1)
I was having trouble getting autoredetect to work, but a few things helped out. First, go to the bluetooth serial connections utility and uncheck the iSync port. Second, do not put the computer to sleep. On my iBook, auto-redetect would work as long as the computer was not put to sleep (screensaver mode works fine). If the computer goes to sleep, it appears that the connection cannot be re-established until the computer has been restarted.