Sofa Control

Sofa Control allows you to control your Mac using your Apple Remote. This remote used to come bundled with every Macbook, but now it currently only comes with AppleTVs.

You can buy it separately of course. Sofa Control allows you to use the remote to control many aspects of your Mac. The application comes preloaded with a set of scripts that allow you to control apps like VLC, Keynote, QuickTime, and MPlayer out-of-the-box.

When you first run the app and decide to open the tutorial (you should), you will see a presentation that will guide you through some of the apps features. Here you will learn how to use your remote to go to the next slide in the presentation, go to full-screen mode, or call the dashboard to check your widgets.

This is a great app for presentations, because you can zoom in and out and control your presentation from a distance. It can also be used to control media playback and open files on your Mac. There is a feature that allows you to use the Apple Remote as a virtual mouse. Although this is not as sensitive as a real mouse, it works when you don't want to get off the Sofa to do something.