If you ’ve got an AirPort Express Base Station that you use to send music to a removed stereo or talker system , the biggest drawback is the deficiency of a path to control playback . to begin with this week , I cover webRemote , which can keep in line iTunes remotely via a Web web browser app — effectively providing music ascendancy from any wireless machine ( PDA , nomadic phone , PSP , Sidekick , or laptop ) that let you surf the Web . But in that article I also mentioned that if you ’ve got two Macs connect on a local web , wire or wireless , an even skillful solution is Shirt Pocket ’s $ 20netTunes 2.2 ( ) . Although we yield netTunes a 2004 Eddy Award , we have n’t actually reexamine it , so I fancy it was due some Mac Gems present time .
The problem with most of the “ outback control ” usefulness for AirTunes / iTunes is that even though they give you control of the most common iTunes mathematical function , they simply are n’t iTunes — you do n’t get the familiar and intuitive iTunes port . NetTunes overcomes this restriction by establish the primary Mac ’s literal iTunes window visible on the outside Mac , via a technology much like VNC ( Virtual connection Computing ) . When you click a button in the iTunes windowpane on the remote Mac , you’reactually clicking that buttonon the main ( “ server ” ) Mac . This may sound a bit confusing , but once you get started , you ’ll surely see it to be the easiest way to remotely see to it iTunes .
NetTunes is very easy to mark up . You just replicate the netTunes practical program onto your principal Mac and any distant Macs from which you might want to hold in it . The first prison term you launch netTunes on each computer , it will ask if you require that computer to be a server ( the computer actually playing the medicine ) or a guest ( a data processor controlling the server ) . If you choose waiter , a newfangled netTunes pane will be added to System Preferences that lease you check the netTunes waiter :
For most people , the only detail to occupy about is the Start / Stop Server button . But there are also a few forward-looking options : If you need to utilize a specific port wine for firewall reasons , you may limit it here . ( If you do n’t , netTunes will automatically select a port for you . ) you may have the host ’s filmdom go blank when idle ; have the waiter disconnect clients and quit iTunes after 30 minutes of stopped-up playback ; and choose whether or not you require the host to be take into account to catch some Z’s if no clients are tie in . you could also watch currently connected clients , and unplug them if desired .
Once the netTunes waiter has been begin , you launch netTunes on the distant Mac , choose “ client ” mode , and then relate to the server :
you may use the back / gambol / forward controls in the client window , but what you really want to do is select the server and click Show iTunes ; the termination is the host ’s iTunes windowpane exhibit right on your remote Mac . you’re able to control iTunes on the host just as if it were a local copy of iTunes . ( Well , almost : You ca n’t get at iTunes ’s fare — only the main iTunes window . ) you could get at and edit playlist , dominance playback , even browse the Music Store ; even though it appears as though you ’re working on the remote Mac , everything ’s actually happen on the “ server . ” ( If your distant screen is smaller than your server ’s screen , netTunes can slim the size of the waiter ’s iTunes windowpane to meet or scale down the image on the removed computer . )
A prissy bonus : NetTunes is also AppleScriptable and comes with actions for Salling Clicker and iChat Status .
So whatisn’tgreat about netTunes ? Its biggest drawback is that you ca n’t use the host Mac for non - iTunes project while someone else is controlling iTunes remotely ; iTunes must be the frontmost program on the waiter . ( Because of the way netTunes works , if you change to another software on the host , that software will appear on the distant Mac instead of iTunes . ) And because netTunes is transmit the server ’s genuine projection screen to your removed Mac , there ’s sometimes a slight interface lag , especially on slower networks . ( Although netTunes has a place setting that rent you choose an acceptable balance between swiftness and display tone . ) Finally , iTunes must already be running on the host so as to control it remotely . ( Shirt Pocket has another product , the $ 7launchTunes , that can launch iTunes remotely ; you could purchase netTunes and launchTunes together for $ 23 . )
Still , when I ’m sitting in our family way enjoying the music stream via AirTunes on our main Mac , netTunes on a laptop is the best “ distant control ” I ’ve used .
NetTunes work with Panther and Tiger
