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Archive for September, 2009

Google Reader As Magazine With Media Center PC

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The tip about using the Wii-optimized site is pure gold.

[Link]

Written by Albert

September 30th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

Posted in Asides

HippoRemote Tip #2 – Faster Access with Auto-Connect

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If you use HippoRemote to control multiple computers, then this tip is not for you.

However, if you primarily connect to one computer, then you’ll want to enable Auto-Connect. It’s easy to do. The next time you’re in HippoRemote, go to the Settings page, scroll down a little, and flip the Auto-Connect switch. This will tell HippoRemote to automatically connect to the current computer on startup.

As an added bonus, if you configured HippoRemote for Wake-On-LAN (see our FAQ for details), HippoRemote will also automatically power up your computer during the auto-connect process. This means waking up your media center from sleep or even booting from a complete shutdown (if your hardware supports it)!

(*) Note: We don’t have much control over how long it takes your computer to boot or wake from sleep, so Auto-Connect might time out before your computer is ready. If it seems like HippoRemote is timing out just a hair too soon, please send us a support email and maybe we can help you tweak a few things…

Written by Albert

September 30th, 2009 at 10:50 am

Posted in Tips

Building A Boxee Remote Control

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Not for everyone, but an impressive hack.

[Link]

Written by Albert

September 29th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Posted in Asides

HippoRemote Tip #1 – Save Battery with Proximity Sensor

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One of our favorite new features in HippoRemote is support for the built-in Proximity Sensor.

If you don’t touch your iPhone for a while, it automatically goes to sleep. While this is great for saving energy, it’s annoying when you’re watching TV. You’re engrossed in a show and then it’s commercial time. You reach for HippoRemote to fast forward, but the iPhone has gone to sleep. Now you have to unlock and wait for the WiFi to reconnect. This is generally pretty fast, but it’s still annoying to have to do it at every commercial break. Well, now there’s an app for that! =)

HippoRemote has always had a setting to force the iPhone to stay on. But us OCD types would fret endlessly about draining the battery. With the new Proximity Sensor setting, we can have our cake and eat it too! Enable both Stay Awake and Proximity Sensor in the settings. Then, when you’re not actively using HippoRemote, simply flip the iPhone on its face. HippoRemote will continue to run with the screen off, greatly reducing the drain on your battery.

(*) Note that this only works for the iPhone. The iPod Touch sadly doesn’t have a proximity sensor.

Written by Albert

September 29th, 2009 at 11:54 am

Posted in Tips

HippoRemote 1.2 Now Available!

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So Apple caught us a little by surprise. Not only did 1.2 get approved weeks faster than any previous release, but it also was approved on a Sunday! Looks like some people over at Apple are working overtime.

Anyway, HippoRemote 1.2 is a really big update. We’ve added a bunch of stuff, applied more polish to nearly every aspect of the app, and of course, fixed some bugs. We’ll be posting in more detail about what’s changed in the next few days, but here’s the short list of new features:

* New Profiles. By popular demand, we’ve added profiles for VLC, PowerPoint, Keynote, and Gmail.
* Auto-Connect. This saves a lot of time if you only connect to one machine. And if you’ve entered the MAC address, HippoRemote will also try to wake up the machine using the built-in Wake-on-LAN functionality.
* Macros. It’s not really feasible for us to track every available shortcut in every supported app. With Macros, you can now add any we’ve missed. Furthermore, Macros let’s you create sequences of shortcuts so you can automate any repetitive tasks.
* Landscape Keyboard. For those of us who need the extra space.
* Unicode Support. We now support all the languages available on the iPhone. Note that you’ll need to use HippoVNC (our customized VNC server) to enable this feature. See the setup page for more info.
* Proximity Sensor Support. To save battery, enable the Proximity Sensor setting. When you’re not using HippoRemote, simply flip your iPhone on its face to disable the screen.

And our favorite new feature:

* Automatic App Launching & Switching. Another feature that requires HippoVNC. Now changing a profile automatically launches the app or switches to it if it’s already open.

One more thing…A lot of you have asked for the ability to create your own profiles. We’ve added it, but we’d like to gather some more feedback before making it broadly available. If you’d like to try out profile creation, please send us an email at our support address. Note that to get the most out of profiles, you’ll need an image editor as well as a text editor.

Written by Albert

September 27th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

Posted in News