Mac Remote Control

How about a wireless keyboard and mouse?

That would be tricky because I'm not able to see what I'm clicking on from the front of the room. I've got the computer and projector in dual screen mode, so the projector is always showing the slides while iTunes is on the computer. To see what I'm clicking on, I would have to walk over to the computer anyway.

I suppose I could have the computer and projector mirror each other so that everything is one screen. But in that scenario, when I want to stop or start an audio track I would have to bring the iTunes window to the front of the screen for a moment, which means everyone would lose sight of the Powerpoint slide during that time. Not a tremendous problem but something tells me that would distract the students even more than my walking back and forth between different parts of the room.

The ideal situation would be to have my computer at the front of the room with me, I guess, but I think the IT folks would rather try to find a remote than get all of the necessary extension cords (one for the computer's power, one for the audio, one for the projector, etc.).

You can probably get a keyboard with programmable hotkeys. It would then operate much like a remote.

That's a thought. How do hotkeys work? I can assign an application to a key such that when I hit the key it will switch to a specific application?

I believe so. Haven't done much with hotkeys, myself, but my keyboard has mute, volume up, volume down, and play/pause buttons.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/home-entertainment/5a20/

Awesome! .....if only I had a PC! But now that I know this exists, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before I find the Mac equivalent.

Thanks for your help!

I keep seeing this topic on one of our dev sites with a db export from around this time and wanting to answer it, so I'll go ahead and answer it here:

You could use VNC on an iPhone or an iPod touch to control the Mac. Here is a video demo (someone else's video I just found to illustrate the software):

Great... thanks for the tip, Robert.

A few weeks ago I acquired an iPad and have since discovered a similar application called HippoRemote. In function it's similar to what you posted above, but I like VNC's ability to view the exact contents of your desktop. I might have to give it a try despite having already paid for HippoRemote's Pro version....