How To: Control your Mac with a Wii Remote

For those of you who have an older Mac that doesn’t have Front Row, there is still hope for you. What if I told you there was a way to control your Mac with a Wii remote? All it requires is a Bluetooth supported Mac, a Nintendo Wii Remote (use this if you don’t have a Wii), and a small free application called DarwiinRemote (Direct Link).

You can also configure the remote to control pretty much anything. Interested?

Getting Started
Once you have the Wii Remote, be sure to take it out of the package and put the batteries in it. Open up the disk image and drag the application into your Applications/Utilities folder. Go ahead and open it up. Grab your Wii Remote and be sure to check that bluetooth is on. Press the (1) and (2) buttons on the remote at the same time to allow DarwiinRemote to search for it. Once paired, DarwiinRemote will display a graph showing the forward, up and down, and left to right sensors on your remote. You can let go of the (1) and (2) buttons now.

Once you’re done playing with that, press the (1) button on your Wii Remote once to toggle the motion sensor mouse feature. Tilt the remote to move you mouse up, down, left and right. To move it left and right, turn the remote instead of moving it. Press the (2) button to toggle the IR sensor mouse feature. Please note that this only works if you have a Mac that supports the original Apple Remote. Now you can literally point and click on the things on your screen. Cool no?

Connecting With iTunes
One of the great features in DarwiinRemote is the ability to match buttons on the remote to key combinations in Mac OS X. iTunes has many key combinations to control everything from the keyboard. To setup these mappings, go to DarwiinRemote > Preferences. Click on the Wii Remote tab. Now you can tie every single button on the Wii Remote to a key combination in any application. You can also create different settings such as Apple Remote or GarageBand for easy customizing.

Up, Left, Right, Down, and B can be left alone. Set the + and - buttons to change the volume if you’d like. Apple + Up turns the volume up and Apple + Down turns down the volume. Key commands can be found in iTunes’s help menu. Once you’ve set it up, simply enter the new Full Screen CoverFlow feature in iTunes to control your music from a distance.

Other Options
CoverSutra is a great alternative to controlling iTunes from Full Screen CoverFlow. With CoverSutra, you can use it’s key commands without having to select iTunes before hand. Use any key mapped iTunes controller for a great experience.