PowerPoint:mac
PocketMac Remote
Reviewed by Geetesh
Bajaj, August 3rd 2007
Introduction
About PocketMac Remote
Download and Installation
Using PocketMac Remote
Pricing and Support
Conclusion
Introduction
It's almost a norm to advance presentation slides with a remote these days,
especially if you are at a larger venue and want more control over the play
of your presentation. Most projectors do come with remotes as well that do
work with PowerPoint. And you can always buy one of those fancy remotes that
include a laser pointer as well. But what about the lightweight and small
remote that was bundled with your Mac? Why not use that to advance your
PowerPoint and Keynote slides? You can't -- that remote may have the
necessary controls but it does not know about animals named PowerPoint and
Keynote! Luckily, an enterprising company created a small program to
rectify that omission!
About PocketMac Remote
PocketMac Remote is from Information Appliance Associates, a company based
in California, USA. You can learn more about their products from
their site...
PocketMac Remote uses the play/pause, volume, and forward/back
buttons on the Apple Remote to control your presentations.
My contact at PocketMac for this review was Tim Goggin -
thank you, Tim.
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Download and Installation
There's no trial version available -- the full product however
costs only $9.95.
Once you buy the product, you can download it immediately. The
installation part is easy -- see the installation interface in
Figure 1.
Figure 1: Installing PocketMac Remote
Just drag the top icon to your Applications folder.
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Using PocketMac Remote
To use PocketMac, follow these steps:
- Launch PocketMac Remote from the Applications folder.
- You'll see the PocketMac Remote icon both in the dock, and
in the menu bar. You'll need to click the icon
on the menu bar and choose whether you want to use the Apple
Remote with PowerPoint or Keynote (see Figure
2).
Figure 2: Choose between Keynote and PowerPoint
- Thereafter launch the program you chose, or just click the
Open Presentation option in the Pocket Remote menu (see Figure
2 above).
- Play your presentation -- and you'll find that you can use
your Apple Remote to control the navigation of the slides.
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Pricing and Support
PocketMac Remote costs $9.95
Support options include an online knowledge base, phone support,
and e-mail support.
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Conclusion
PocketMac Remote is an amazing application -- an example of a
simple idea very well implemented. I just wished they found a way
to make the Apple Remote work the same way in dual boot Macs that
run both Windows and OS X!
At this price point, the cost:performance ratio makes this
product a no-brainer purchase.
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