INTRODUCTION

    Having a PC remote control for media is nice luxury. Some notebook providers do include a decent IRDA hardware solution but most cases offer poor hardware quality and the obvious need for line of sight. Considering hardware is practically un flexible also limits their option to control more than what its buttons are designed to offer. Salling Software came up with a neat concept in their award winning Salling Clicker where many types of devices, Windows Mobile included, can serve as a Wifi or Bluetooth remote control for certain applications of your PC with flexible scripting that allows software to solve the limitations a hardware remote control can’t. Will Salling Clicker be a true Remote Control solution for your needs? Read On!

WHAT’S HOT

    Salling Clicker 3.5 supports over 300 devices to allow you to control many popular media applications in your PC. These include your Windows Media Player, iTunes, Power Point and it also allows you the ability to control certain system tools in your PC like volume and even a remote shutdown. Since all these are scripts that are run between your mobile device and your PC in real time, probably one of the best things Salling Clicker offers is the ability to add or remove these as you like and even add third party scripts that control even more aspects of your PC.

SETUP

    The Setup process can cause some pain; it’ll probably take you more time to get this done than what it takes for the app to run and get you entertained. Since installing it on your PC is relatively standard (Welcome, Accept the License Agreement, Install and Thankyou), I’ll focus this section mainly on what you need to do to get the clicker working.

Once installed, your PC’s system tray links you to the clicker’s control panel to setup your device. Since my Herald is not included in the list, I chose WM6 and copied it to my desktop.

The next option allows you to pair your device with your PC for the ability to connect from the PC. Wifi requires you to be on the same network and specify a password.

Once ready, the Salling Clicker will let you know what connections are available and you can choose to connect either from your device or from your PC.

    Through Bluetooth things are fairly simple after your device’s are paired, please remember to make them both discoverable before you reach this menu so they can find each other. I honestly prefer the Bluetooth connection since my device keeps Bluetooth active while on standby and won’t loose its communication with my PC.

    Wifi on the other hand was simply impossible for me. I honestly wasn’t very interested in it since my device drops the connection in standby but I at least wanted to try it and compare distance reception and speed against Bluetooth for the sake of the review, but, I just could never get it to work. I don’t want to hold it against Salling since the error I always get lies on my Firewall, but I did everything I could think of including Ad-hoc (PC to Device) connections and activating the ports needed through the Firewall or even disabling it and it still didn’t work. I would’ve appreciated it though if the application would make things easier. Just for the record, I use Windows Vista Ultimate with Live OneCare’s firewall so if your specs match mine and you got them working, let me know!

PRODUCT FEATURES

    In a nutshell, the Salling Clicker provides a small real time preview of which ever application you choose to control on your PC as long as it’s supported. I consider it to have a very practical interface which reminds me much of how an iPod works with progressive menus depending on what you’re currently doing with it. Since these previews work both your device and your PC simultaneously, I’ll try to portray what happens in your PC after your device sends a command.

Your initial home screen depends on which ever scripts you activate to be available. The scripts lie on your PC and you choose these through the PC interface on the right menu.

    In addition to the script options, one nice to have feature is that all these can be ordered in which ever way you prefer. If you probably enjoy volume controls to be available in the Media Player menu, System or in both, you can just drag this to the preferred menu. You can also choose to rename these or classify them to your needs. Just keep in mind that even though you’ll find many commands available, it’s best if you filter these through categories so you avoid the confusion of adding commands that aren’t compatible with that specific interface.

iTunes and Media Player Controls

    Probably one of the features I enjoy most is media controls. Both the iTunes and the Windows Media Player are fairly similar so I’ll focus on the Media Player being the application I use the most.

The application manages to synchronize its preview seamlessly with your pc and deliver a pretty good mobile version of what’s going on in your media player.

The media controls allow you to control your play list or change your artist as you please as long as your music is available in the media library.

Which ever commands you use on the application pop up a pretty neat transparent preview on your PC.

All these controls extend to Audio and Video play lists, track rating, play list control, repeat, shuffle and even sound balance just to name a few.

Power Point Controls

    Another feature I found to be very useful is Power Point controls. Just as Salling Clicker previews your current PC status in what pertains to media, Power Point is another thing that’s controlled similarly. If you ever end up having to do a presentation that requires you to move a lot, this application will actually transcribe the text from the presentation into the preview you’ll be controlling from your device.

You’ll not only be able to control your presentation but also view a preview of it on your device’s screen.

Once in full screen, your device also gives you a thumbnail preview of the current slide and there are many options available for you to control the presentation.

System Controls

    The application also allows you the ability to control certain System tools like system volume, shutdown and even a mouse pointer.

The system volume option will also offer a PC transparent preview of the current volume status and where you’re updating it to be at.

    The shutdown option is pretty standard. One thing that really caught my eye at first was the built-in mouse pad which controls your mouse pointer through your finger or stylus. Just keep in mind though that your device’s screen will usually be much more sensitive to touch than any typical mouse pad. In my case, I stopped using it after the first test because there was no way of controlling this.

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HELP SUPPORT

    Salling Software offers pretty good help and support for their product. They’ve have a very good FAQ page with many scenarios where problems have been detected and also a user forum for questions and answers. Probably one of the things I liked the most is the fact that when I was trying to get WiFi to work and requested help through email support, I got timely helpful responses from the support team. Tough luck on my side though, because my device specs never seemed to pull through the troubleshooting.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    Even though I ran my review on a Windows Vista Ultimate notebook and a my WM6 Herald, the Salling Clicker supports many device options that include Macs and many popular mobile phones. There are so many in the list I’d rather recommend you see if your device is supported since specs vary depending on the operating system you use. Bluetooth compatibility can be an issue so make sure your PC runs at least WXP SP2 because of the improved bluetooth stack.

BUGS AND WISHES

   
Probably the only bug I noticed was the complications there are in getting the application to work through Wifi. In what pertains to wishes:

• Video demos or simple tutorials for a walk through on the most popular firewalls in the market for better Wifi support
• I would enjoy for application options to be available even when the Clicker is in idle since these don’t work unless you’re connected
• Mouse Pointer sensitivity options
• A file explorer option would be great at least for media player purposes since many users don’t necessarily prefer the play list interface
• Toggle full screen modes for power point and full screen animations for the Media Player are also good things to have
• A system tool that allows switching between a your screen and a projector are also neat additions
• An image control script
• A Windows Media Center script
• Some sort of gesture recognition for quicker navigation
• Automatic connection when connected through activesync when using bluetooth would also be nice

PURCHASING

   
Salling Software offers a fully functional trial for a limited time which would later lead to $23.95 for purchase. You can purchase it at the Salling Software web page. I would consider it a fairly decent price considering a spare hardware remote control for my notebook costs just around the same amount of money.

PROS

• Great flexible remote control option
• Seamless synchronization between devices
• 
  

  Supports many mobile device platforms

CONS

• Sensitivity problems on the mouse pointer feature
• Complicated setup
• Current interface options could improve

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

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OVERALL IMPRESSION

    After a couple of weeks of testing, I do find the concept for a software remote control to be something nice to carry along. Probably the only thing that bugged me into not being a frequent user is the hassle it takes to get things connected and working each time. I do congratulate Salling Software on the concept and I also encourage them to keep on searching for more ways to make this good application become a great automated solution for controlling our PC remotely.