Though it may not be quite ready for full classroom deployment yet, we’re sehr beeindruckt (that’s muy impresionado for you non-German speakers) with IOSPIRIT Gmbh’s recent iPhone port of Remote Buddy. Already available for the Apple remote, various Keyspan remotes, the Griffin AirClick, and Wii controllers (among others), the addition of the iPhone to the list of devices with which you can control a remote computer is a compelling and handy next step.
IOSPIRIT’s software installs on the remote computer (site licenses are available — up to 50 installs for €249 and up to 150 for €399 [that’s around $352 and $564 provided the dollar stays afloat]) allowing an iPhone or iPod Touch to access and control it through Apple’s zero-config Bonjour networking. Remote Buddy requires a password to keep out the unwashed masses, but once entered, you’re in business. You can now control iTunes, various presentation packages, and a whole host of other applications (more than 70!) right from your iPhone, all through the juicy goodness of AJAX and Web 2.0 (meaning no messy losses when iPhone update 1.1.2 comes out).
While we think deployment in a lab or classroom setting might be a bit difficult (”What’s station 16’s Bonjour address again?”), and while we’d like to see a few education-specific features, we think Remote Buddy might be a real boon for teachers, and we encourage you to check out IOSPIRIT’s new port — a task made even easier by the free 30-day trial version available from the site. Don’t miss the video on the Remote Buddy homepage, either… It’s a handy introduction to some of the basic features.
If anybody takes the plunge (or is already using Remote Buddy) for classroom deployment, we’d love to hear about your experiences. Just drop us a line…














