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Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a creative designer with a passion for accessibility and web standards. This is his personal website.

Fun or naughtiness with the Apple Remote

The one where Malarkey plays with his Apple Remote thingmy.

Being the proud owner of a new PowerMac Book ProMac Book BookPro Mac MacBook Pro with its dinky Apple Remote, I wondered what fun or naughtiness could be had with this (where the hell does the battery go) IR doofer.

Where DOES the battery go?The remote ships with and controls just about every new Apple thingmy. The other day I realised that in addition to controlling Front Row applications, the remote also works in my favourite presentation tool, Apple's Keynote.

With IceWeb 2006 and other events coming up, this got me a little concerned about the havoc that devious audience members might potentially wreak if they too carried one of the little white wonders: changing my slides, switching my Mac into FrontRow midway through an important bit, showing the audience my huge collection of pirated porn Eric Meyer home movies. So with a little help from the Apple web site I have (apparantly) successfully paired my remote with my Mac.


  1. Invade your iMac's personal space by getting up close to it (about 3 or 4 inches away)
  2. Point the remote at the Apple logo on the front of your Mac.
  3. Press and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons simultaneously on the remote for 5 seconds.

Your Apple Remote is now paired with your computer. You can tell the remote is paired because you will see a chain-link style lock.

Source: https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302545.

Now I'm living in hope that this will prevent any funny business, but I still wonder about the security of the remote, how the pairing actually works (is the pairing combination truly unique?) and whether there are any further precautions that I should be taking? Now where does that damn battery go?

Replies

  1. #1 On April 15, 2006 12:14 AM Justin Perkins said:

    Lovely info. I was just wondering whether or not the remote would work with Keynote, but I was too lazy to try. I gave a presentation the other day where I could have used it, damn.

    *pulls out remote to securitize with macbook*

  2. #2 On April 15, 2006 12:18 AM Justin Perkins said:

    > You can tell the remote is paired because you will see a chain-link style lock.

    Where?

  3. #3 On April 15, 2006 12:27 AM Justin Perkins said:

    Shoot, I'm sorry!

    > Point the remote at the Apple logo on the front of your Mac.

    Clearly, this does not apply to MacBooks. For MacBook people this should read:

    Point the remote at the black dot on the face of your MacBook, to the left of the "open laptop" button.

    Sorry Andy, prune and consolidate if you wish. Ignore the blank-eyed stare from a mac noob.

  4. #4 On April 15, 2006 04:06 AM Dustin Diaz said:

    It would definitely be nice if it was paired with Keynote. As for the pairing, it really wouldn't seem all that necessary if you're just at home doing whatever.... But it would be pretty damn hilarious if you were giving a keynote with keynote and your remote wasn't paired. Ah the things people could do to mess with you.

  5. #5 On April 15, 2006 12:12 PM James Darling said:

    Me and a friend have just got ourselves a macbook each, and oh the hilarity that ensued from two remotes and two macbooks.
    This is a damn handy tip.

    And the pushy springy dimple on the bottom is just too tentilisingly close to revealing something. Maybe it's a hidden feature we'll get told about by Steve Jobs. Or maybe it's just a battery slot.

  6. #6 On April 15, 2006 03:00 PM Jeff Wheeler said:

    The battery is inside the little springy thing on the bottom. Hit it with a paperclip end, and it'll pop out with your battery. :)

  7. #7 On April 15, 2006 05:31 PM Malarkey said:

    @ Dustin Diaz:

    "But it would be pretty damn hilarious if you were giving a keynote with keynote and your remote wasn't paired. Ah the things people could do to mess with you."

    Oh hell yes! Me, I'm sticking to my Bluetooth presentation remote and turning IR off during presentations. I don't want anyone in the audience flipping my Mac into iTunes and playing my ABBA collection. Oh the shame.

    @ James Darling:
    "... and oh the hilarity that ensued from two remotes ..."
    (Ed says: You and your friend should get out more, meet girls, maybe listen to some ABBA ;) )

    @ Jeff Wheeler:
    "The battery is inside the little springy thing on the bottom."
    Ta very much

  8. #8 On April 16, 2006 09:20 PM Jennifer Hershey said:

    Hey, when I get this thing (three days ago) witn mac - my first idea was - is this their shuffle mp3? Next should be a toothbrush looking the same. Saving some money on design?

  9. #9 On April 21, 2006 05:40 PM Alex Clarke ( Haga ) said:

    I can just imagine your face if someone changed your slides or flicked FrontRow on in the middle of your presentation. Oh, that would be a site to see!