Wireless Hacks

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.

Figure 2-1. The Clicker’s menu bar icon.

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 ...