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Hack 13 Remote Control OS X with a Sony Ericsson Phone

Use your phone as a remote control for
presentations or iTunes, or for about anything you can script with
AppleScript.

The Salling Clicker is one of the niftiest
applications for Bluetooth that I've seen. It
effectively turns a Sony Ericsson mobile phone into a full color,
programmable remote for OS X. You can launch apps, control
presentations, and even use it as a general purpose mouse. It works
with many Sony Ericsson phones, including the T39m, R520m, T68, T68i,
and T610. It is available online on
VersionTracker, or directly from
http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Clicker/.

The app will install itself as a new control panel and automatically
launch. Click on the tiny phone in the menu bar (Figure 2-1), select Open Salling Clicker
Preferences... and click Select
Device. Make sure Bluetooth is enabled in OS X and that
your phone is on and somewhere near your computer.

Select your phone from the list and save the changes. You can now use
your phone to steer OS X as well as to publish custom menus to the
phone itself. Under the Phone Menu tab, you can
create custom menus of whatever you like and publish them to your
phone. Control OS X by navigating these menus on the phone and
selecting what you want to do, such as launch an app or skip to the
next track in iTunes.

Some phones (like T68/T68i) will even allow
you to use the phone as a mouse, making it possible to control any
application. Just select System
Mouse mode, and you can use the tiny stick on
the phone as a pointer.

Since Bluetooth's range is limited to 30 feet or
less, it is possible to signal Clicker to take action when your phone
moves in and out of range. You can control this functionality by
looking under the Proximity Sensor tab (Figure 2-2). For example, you might want Clicker to pause
iTunes and turn on the screensaver whenever you leave your machine.
The interface is very simple: just drag the actions you want it to
perform into the relevant boxes, and away you go.

If the built-in actions don't do everything you
need, you can always create your own. The actions are just

AppleScript snippets, so
anything that you can do with AppleScript can be triggered with the
phone. You can edit existing actions or create your own under the
Action Editor tab (Figure 2-3)
in the Clicker control panel.

Clicker comes with handy actions for remotely controlling slideshows
in PowerPoint or Keynote, but since it can simulate any keystroke, it
can be used with just about any application. It is particularly handy
when making presentations, since you are virtually guaranteed to have
your phone with you (and it is likely to be charged). I bought an
infrared USB remote control ages ago specifically for this purpose,
but many times I don't have it with me, and when I
do, there is no guarantee that the batteries are charged, since I
don't use it very often. On the other hand, my phone
is always with me, and I charge it just about
every night. In my opinion, any application that takes advantage of
my own habits and laziness is worth investigating.

Most people think of voice or data applications when they think of
Bluetooth, but Clicker is a clever app that transcends the
traditional "cable replacement"
idea. If you own a Sony Ericsson phone and use OS X, you will
probably find all sorts of novel uses for this software. Particularly
since it is easy to use and is fully scriptable, Clicker is an
application that just screams "hack
me!"