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