I knew this but had forgotten. The first MacBook Pro included a remote in the box to control Front Row - a sort of proto-Apple TV app.
Back in those days the laptops had an IR sensor. I thought the Apple Remote functionality died with the IR sensor.
TIL the Apple TV Remote pairs with MacBooks for presentations and playback
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Re: TIL the Apple TV Remote pairs with MacBooks for presentations and playback
#12MacBooks have been using remotes since at least 2005. There was a cinema app on there you could use to watch movies and use the remote to control it. I think you could use it with Keynote when it first came out too.
Yeah it was called Front Row, which brought up an Apple TV like interface in OSX. Pretty dumb they removed it IMO it was pretty good with iMacs.
It was great with the Mac mini. The actual Apple TV had its limitations, but with a Mac mini I had Front Row, plus a host of other media apps. I also had an app that would let me control everything with the IR remote they came with it. That was back when they still came with an optical drive as well, so I could also play (and rip) DVDs.
Re: TIL the Apple TV Remote pairs with MacBooks for presentations and playback
#13MacBooks have been using remotes since at least 2005. There was a cinema app on there you could use to watch movies and use the remote to control it. I think you could use it with Keynote when it first came out too.
iMac G5s too! They even had a spot on their right side which was magnetic where the remote from that era could be stuck when not in use. My 20” iMac G5 doubled nicely as a TV in my high school years (and the 27” model with its dramatically nicer IPS panel even better in my college years).
My first Intel iMac had that spot too.
Re: TIL the Apple TV Remote pairs with MacBooks for presentations and playback
#14This just seems to link to the front page of the macOS Tahoe user guide. I guess this information might be in there somewhere, but...
Yeah, sorry about that. Not sure if that was HN being weird, or my mistake. Here's the real link though: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp2926/10....
Re: TIL the Apple TV Remote pairs with MacBooks for presentations and playback
#15The old Apple remotes also worked together with the iPod dock. Great feature.