Product Reviews

You can't criticise Keyspan for failing to give its products explanatory names. There's little room for doubt about the purpose of this white credit card-sized device.

It's most important feature is the fact that unlike Apple's remote control, which uses infrared, it uses RF to send and receive signals. This means you don't need line of sight between the remote and the Mac on which Front Row is running to use it.

The remote has nine rubberised

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buttons on its front that control all aspects of Front Row and allow you to eject a CD or DVD. There are also mute and sleep buttons.

Setting it up is a matter of plugging the USB stick into a spare port on your Mac. In our tests, the remote worked flawlessly from 60 feet away - the furthest we could get from our Mac without putting a wall or door between us and it. It also worked from the landing of the floor below the one on which the Mac was situated. Two floors down, however, was just too much for it.

So why would you want RF rather than infrared? Good question, given that you need to be facing a TV or monitor that's plugged directly into the Mac being controlled in order to use Front Row. However, if you have a Mac mini plugged into your TV and prefer to keep the mini tucked away out of sight, this RF remote allows you to keep it hidden away even while you use it. Besides, the infrared sensor on the mini is small and not particularly conveniently positioned, so could cause problems which this will eliminate.