How to pair & unpair an Apple Remote w/ your Mac or Apple TV

Posted by Ant on July 1st, 2009 at 8:24 PM under Hardware Tips
 
How to pair & unpair an Apple Remote w/ your Mac or Apple TV

The small and simple Apple Remote is great for navigating Front Row menus on a Mac and browsing the contents of an Apple TV, but anyone with more than one of these floating around might want to pair each remote with a device.

Here’s a real life situation that is surprisingly common… A friend comes over with their fancy new Mac and starts messing around with Front Row using the tiny white Apple Remote. Suddenly your own Mac, which is sitting in the same room, starts taking orders from the remote. That’s certainly not what you want and, luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid this kind of interference. In just a couple steps you can “pair” an Apple Remote with one Mac computer or an Apple TV, thereby preventing accidental signals from being sent to other infrared-equipped devices. Not only that, but the paired Mac or Apple TV won’t accept commands from any remote other than its own.

Pairing and unpairing with a Mac

To pair an Apple Remote with your Mac, simply place it a few inches away from the computer’s infrared sensor and hold down the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons on the remote for 5-10 seconds. A confirmation will appear on-screen and that’s all there is to it.

Unpairing a remote from a Mac is just as effortless. Open System Preferences, click on the Security pane, and click the Unpair button under the General tab. You can also choose to disable input from all remotes by checking the “Disable remote control infrared receiver” option on the same window. Read the rest of this article.

No Comments - Add to the Discussion

Keep your Mac safe from snoopers on public WiFi networks

Posted by Ant on June 29th, 2009 at 11:32 PM under Software Tips
Keep your Mac safe from snoopers on public WiFi networks

Any time I travel and bring my MacBook Pro along there are a few things I do to keep my personal information safe from hackers. Connecting to public WiFi networks is risky, so knowing how to fend off snoopers is extremely important. Free…

Read the rest of this article.

2 Comments - Add to the Discussion

Nifty Dock tricks: Add spacers, temporary magnification, shortcuts

Posted by Ant on June 27th, 2009 at 10:13 PM under OS X Tricks
Nifty Dock tricks: Add spacers, temporary magnification, shortcuts

The Mac OS X Dock is already extremely useful, but it seems there’s always something new to learn about it. Find out how to add spacers between Dock icons, temporarily reverse magnification settings, and more. The Dock needs no introduction…

Read the rest of this article.

1 Comment - Add to the Discussion
View the MacYourself Archives for older articles.
Subscribe to MacYourself's RSS feed!Submit a tip or fix to MacYourself to publish!
Featured Products & Services
Agile MessengerSwitching to Mac for DummiesMini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter
Article Categories
Get Updates via Email

Enter your email address to receive new MacYourself articles directly in your inbox:

  

We will never sell / rent your email address to a third party for any purpose. It will be used solely for site updates.

Featured Content
Special Deals & Offers
Save money on Mac desktops and notebooks Save 5-10% on all iPod models Save up to $20 on Apple's Time Capsule networked backup drive