Salling Clicker: A Remote for Your Mac (or PC)

Today I bring you a review of the best smartphone utility I never knew I needed… Salling Software’s Clicker.

Being the savvy technophile that I am I’ve heard a lot about Clicker over the last couple of years, but never really understood what all the fuss was about until I tried it on my trusty Nokia. Simply put, my E61i is now (among other things) a full-featured remote for iTunes that I can control from anywhere in the house!

But that’s just the beginning… If I wanted to I could also use Clicker to control Keynote or PowerPoint presentations via Bluetooth or WiFi. These two features alone justify the app’s $24 USD price tag for me — which is probably a good thing, as the rest of what Clicker can do is of arguable value. Here’s a quick rundown (based on Mac version):

1. Media Remotes – Clicker can control your software DVD player, EyeTV, VideoLan Client and/or QuickTime installation, which is nice if your computer monitor does double duty as your TV set.
2. Mail & News – You can check your email and launch NetNewsWire. For anything beyond that you’re just going to have to get up off the couch, fat-ass!
3. You can launch an iPhoto slideshow or find a particular pic in your iPhoto library. Again, fairly useful if you have a large monitor on public display.
4. System – My Nokia can now pinch-hit for my Mac’s mouse… Kind of silly but pretty cool nonetheless!
5. Clicker Network – Apparently you can control more than one computer at a time. Or connect to another computer through its connection to the computer you’re connected to. Oh-kay…

Like I said, Clicker connects to my Nokia via Bluetooth or WiFi. I’ve chosen WiFi because of it’s longer range (and also because my iTunes library resides on a Bluetooth-less Mac), which requires a couple of extra hurdles…

First, if you’re running a software Firewall — and really, why wouldn’t you? — you need to open up these ports to let Clicker through. Second, just quitting clicker won’t disconnect it from your Mac; you need to kill the connection from within the app itself before exiting. This is surprisingly counter-intuitive, but if you don’t perform this extra step you’ll have to restart your phone to initiate a new connection. And on the subject of phones, Salling’s Clicker works with E-series & N-Series Nokias, and from the look of it just about every Palm and Windows Mobile handset on the market, and more. No BlackBerry support as of yet, but BB users are all mindless cattle, anyway. There, I said it. You’re welcome to test Clicker on your own system for free. Once you get it up and running I predict you’ll be buying the full version in about fifteen seconds — it’s just that cool!