HippoRemote – a review by Gidon Coussin (aka @boxee_bd)
30 seconds into playing with the HippoRemote iPhone App I knew this is what I as looking for a while now!
I don’t like using my keyboard and mouse in my living room (even the sexy Apple bluetooth mouse & keyboard are not really awkward to use when sitting on a couch). The Apple Remote or the Boxee Remote on the iPhone is what i use on a regular basis, but in some cases you still need to pull out the mouse & keyboard.
HippoRemote to the rescue with an all-in-one remote app! It serves as a replacement for a keyboard and mouse in the living room (a blessing as far as my wife goes) and has fully integrated remotes for several key apps, most importantly Boxee!
The mouse trackpad is VERY nice, intuitive and responds nicely. double-clicking is an ease and HippoRemote did a great job emulating a real mouse.
The Boxee remote is also great. They did a full implementation of navigational keys, esc/home , search + virtual keyboard and even OSD controls (skip, ff etc).
The app is supper quick and I have not found one error or mishap since started playing with it. kudos.
Couple of things that may make it hard for HippoRemote to gain quick market adoption:
- You need to setup sharing on your computer and thus will need a keyboard + mouse for first time setup
- Although 4.99$ is nothing compared to similar devices on the market (for example, ~ 120$ for Logitech diNovo Mini), it’s still a relatively expensive iPhone App
Overall, this is another step in making it easier for people to connect their computers to the TV.
Cheers,
Gidon
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Hippo looks pretty nice, I’m going to try it.
Currently I use two iPhone remotes:
1) Zemote
2) Air Mouse Pro
The Air Mouse Pro (AMP) is very sexy and configurable, but I prefer Zemote anyway. It’s not as feature rich as AMP, but its trackpad is more accurate, and that’s what matters.
I got my review (with screenshots) for Zemote here:
http://ulanoff.com/blogs/mediacenter/2009/07/01/how-to-use-iphone-to-control-htpc/
Also, The Ultimate List of Home Automation Software for iPhone has a few other alternatives.
http://ulanoff.com/blogs/automation/2008/11/05/the-ultimate-list-of-home-automation-software-for-iphone/
A couple of things to truly eliminate the keyboard/mouse from the living room:
1. WakeOnLAN utility to wake my mac mini from sleep
2. App launcher for common apps like boxee, safari, itunes, iphoto, Finder
Agree on both
Hi, I’m the HippoRemote developer.
We do have app launching in HippoRemote for the built-in profiles. It’s not enabled by default, so you have to activate it in the settings. It will try to use Spotlight on Macs, and Start Menu Search on Vista. Or, if you already have a launcher utility like Quicksilver or Launchy, you can configure HippoRemote to use whatever hotkey that you’ve assigned.
Wake-on-LAN is coming in our 1.1 update which we submitted to Apple today.
Thanks for your interest!
Thanks for the update, Albert. I am glad to see you are already using Quicksilver type launchers. Can’t wait for the WakeOnLAN utility.
Hi,
you should give RemotePad a try… it’s opensource, free and available on all three plattforms.
http://www.tenjin.org/RemotePad/
It is working pretty well for me!
Will check it out. thanks
I see support for Boxee. Is the HippoRemote keyboard available in Boxee running on the Apple TV?
Hi, the HippoRemote developer again.
Unfortunately, no. We’re looking into what we can do. If you need something right away, I believe Rowmote can work with the AppleTV.
http://rowmote.com/Rowmote/Apple_TV_Instructions.html
“but in some cases you still need to pull out the mouse & keyboard”
Does that mean when using other apps on the computer, or when using Boxee? If it’s the latter, I gotta say that’s a bit disturbing to hear from a developer.
I think it was reviewer gidonc who had said that.
More to the point though any chance of a free version time limited so we can check it out because it seems like what i’ve been after, the boxee app is sweet and i’ve enjoyed the remotepad app and its pretty nice also, it sounds like this app does both with more to come will be keeping an eye keep up the good work.
“Overall, this is another step in making it easier for people to connect their computers to the TV.” – nice!!!
1. yes , when the wifi needs setting, admin password pop ups etc, a keyboard must be handy – un related to boxee
2. boxee_bd = boxee business development , not a developer
Hey I’m just wondering if you have any experience with Air Mouse? I think it’s pretty comparable to HippoRemote but am curious about the differences…
I run Boxee on an Apple TV. Unfortunately I have neither an iPod nor an iPhone. The one thing that tempers my use of Boxee on the Apple TV is having to use the remote to type words for searches etc.
Is anybody aware of an application I could run on a Mac that would allow me to use its keyboard to input data for Boxee on the Apple TV? Perhaps an application on the ATV that listens for and receives the keystrokes from the Mac and simulates the key presses using a remote?
Thanks!
- m
So I tried HippoRemote on my iPhone…WOW is all I can say. This has to be one of the greatest apps Ive seen in a long time. How they get it to work so flawlessly is well worth the $4.99
As far as a remote needed to type in root password is not true. All you need to do is click keyboard on the upper right corner, type in the password, click return and the password is sent to your computer. Only bad thing is your password will be in clear text on your iphone screen.
HippoRemote on Ubuntu is well worth the money, and I think it needs to be the offical Boxee Remote app.
Just left a review for this app on the itunes store(uk) if you have boxee get this app! i love it best solution yet.
only thing it would be great to see is a simple way switch spaces, eg i have my mini set to auto boot Hulu desktop in one space, boxee in another and firefox in the third. be good if i could easily switch between them. withou having to exit what im already in, or even better when selecting boxee profile if the app could auto switch me to that space? it would need me to be able to send a keypress of say ‘Appple+f8′ and to be able to manually assign which one.
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