SiriMote 1.2 Released – Control your Mac with your Apple TV Remote

Today, I’ve updated SiriMote to version 1.2.

What Is SiriMote?

With SiriMote, you can control your Mac with your Apple TV Siri Remote:

• Control your Mac’s volume
• Control iTunes (play/pause, next or previous track, fast forward, rewind)
• Control Keynote (next or previous slide)
• Control QuickTime Player (play/pause, fast forward, rewind)
• Control VLC Player (play/pause, next or previous track, fast forward, rewind)
• Control Microsoft PowerPoint (start/stop slideshow, next or previous slide)
• Control any Mac app that reacts to your Mac’s keyboard’s media keys

What’s New in SiriMote 1.2?

Most notably, SiriMote 1.2 lets you put your Mac (or its display) to sleep using your remote.
Press and hold the remote’s Home button for a second, and the following bezel will appear:

It’s a little larger than usual, because I figured you’d like to be able to read it from afar. It then lets you choose between putting only your Mac’s display to sleep or the entire system.
You can wake your Mac’s display again with any button of the remote – waking from system sleep currently only works with a keyboard or mouse/trackpad, not the remote.

SiriMote is now localized in German, Sparkle (used for the update mechanism) has been updated to version 1.14.0.
I’ve also switched to Auto-Layout instead of NSView’s autoresizing mechanism, which you can read about in this  What I… blog post.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Siri Remote is now not a graphic anymore, but drawn entirely in code, allowing for absolutely free resizing (which you can read about a bit here). The code for it will be open sourced soon.

Pricing and Availability

SiriMote is a freeware application, which means you can download and use it without limitations for free. If you like it, please consider taking a look at my other apps – thank you!
The app is available for download from SiriMote’s website (direct download).
SiriMote requires OS X El Capitan 10.11 or newer and an Apple TV Siri Remote.

If you’re interested in writing about SiriMote, you can download the press kit here, which contains screenshots and further information.

 

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SiriMote – Control your Mac with your Apple TV Siri Remote

Introducing: SiriMote

Apart from pairing the Remote with your Mac to test Apple TV apps running in Xcode’s Simulator, the Remote is not of much use on the Mac.
That’s where SiriMote comes into play: It enables you to use the Apple TV Siri Remote with all sorts of applications.

Using SiriMote

SiriMote requires you to pair your Apple TV Siri Remote with your Mac.
Once finished with pairing (detailed instructions are shown in the app), you’re ready to go.

Aside from controlling your Mac’s system volume with the Remote, you can now use it to control:

iTunes

Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Next Track, Previous Track

Keynote

Next Slide, Previous Slide

QuickTime

Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind

VLC

Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Next Track, Previous Track

… as well as many other applications. How? Keep reading ;)

Pricing and Availability

SiriMote is a free download from my website. OS X El Capitan 10.11 and a Mac with Bluetooth 4.0 is required.

I decided to make it a free app as I’m uncertain as to how long the app will be needed.
I suspect at some point, Apple might actually implement this functionality right into the OS.
If you like the app, though, I’d love for you to take a look at my other applications – thank you :)

How it Works

SiriMote translates remote buttons into media key presses of your Mac’s keyboard. For example, when you press Volume Up on the Siri Remote, the app will translate that into the Volume Up key on your keyboard and send it to the system.
Likewise, it translates the Play/Pause button on the Remote to the Play/Pause media key on your Mac’s keyboard and sends that to the system.

That enables your Remote to interact with any application that hooks into the media key event system.

The Mac App Store and the OS X Sandbox

SiriMote is not available from the Mac App Store, as it uses an API that does not work in the OS X sandbox to send media key events (CGEventPost).
As the Mac App Store requires the app to run in the sandbox environment, I couldn’t submit it. Either way, you will stay up-to-date as it uses Sparkle to deliver app-updates easily and quickly.

Links

SiriMote Website: http://eternalstorms.at/sirimote
SiriMote Direct Download: http://bit.ly/sirimotezip
SiriMote on ProductHunt: https://www.producthunt.com/tech/sirimote