DarwiinRemote lets Wiimote control your Mac

We've seen the Wiimote do its fair share of damage during its short, spunky lifespan, but the serious crowd has done its part in hacking up the Wii as well. Aside from sensor bar, um, mods, and tricky wrist strap fixes, a few engineering minds have even found the Wiimote (somewhat) useful on a PC. Per usual, the endearing Mac crowd is up to the challenge as well, as Hiroaki has unveiled an admittedly "unstable" piece of OS X-friendly software to allow Nintendo's Wiimote to mimic the Apple Remote. While the possibilities for a more fleshed-out version are certainly obvious, the current build sports a full key map to help you push aside that delayed Apple Remote purchase, and reportedly allows you to mouse around a bit (albeit shakily). While the exact details are a bit scant at this point, the DarwiinRemote will purportedly work with IR-equipped Macs, as well as ones with Bluetooth, so be sure and hit the read link to get your download on.

[Via TUAW]

[PodMonkeys @ Dec 6th 2006 11:22AM]

- "the DarwiinRemote will purportedly work with IR-equipped Macs, as well as ones with Bluetooth"

Is this saying that the Wiimote can be used on a Mac with IR but without bluetooth, as well as a Mac with Bluetooth? I don't think thats correct. Its gotta have bluetooth, right?

[Josh* @ Dec 6th 2006 1:51PM]

All Macs aside from the profession towers have shipped with Bluetooth for years now, but IR only cropped up since the iMac G5.

So there won't be many Macs with IR but without Bluetooth.

[Rutch @ Dec 6th 2006 12:41PM]

as said about 10 times on the tuaw site, NO IR is needed to use the wiimote with your mac, just bluetooth. that is all.

[Matt @ Dec 6th 2006 12:55PM]

Wouldn't the fact that the Wiimote is an IR receiver as opposed to a transmitter make it unusable for an IR Mac? Granted, I don't have one so am unsure as to whether the IR LED is in the Mac remote or the Mac itself.

[Smeagol @ Dec 6th 2006 12:55PM]

CAn they go the other way. Instead of reading the Wiimote commands.. use the PC/mac to send commands to the wii??

[Kendall Ananyi @ Dec 6th 2006 4:21PM]

bye bye expensive ps3 now its now to wii or xbox 360. I will wait till the format war is over don't want to be stuck like the guys who got expensive laser disks players and later had to buy VCD/DVD players :) moreover i forsee new laptops coming with HD Drive by then all the early ps3 adopters drives would have been broken

[boss sauce @ Dec 6th 2006 2:06PM]

will this work with MAME?! another reason to get up early Sunday morning....

[M777 @ Dec 6th 2006 2:55PM]

You do not need IR in the mac, just bluetooth is enough.
This driver is good for the older macs that didnt come with the IR sensor and apple remote.

So you can use the Wiimote for Frontrow on an older PPC mac... got it?

[SOCOMRAIDER @ Dec 6th 2006 2:28PM]

The software is quite buggy, but once you get it working (around the second time), it usually works fine.

The button layout is weird, but so is the Wiimote itself. It perfectly controls Front Row without a problem.

Using it as a mouse is difficult at first. The Wiimote has to be at a specific angle. Then from there you lift or lower the Wiimote to move the cursor up or down. Then you twist the Wiimote to go left or right. If you bring it back to the specific angle it will no longer move. Definitely takes some getting used to, but works none-the-less.

[Mike @ Dec 6th 2006 5:08PM]

I'd love to see someone create a driver so the Wiimote could be used to control powerpoint or keynote. A/B buttons to flip through slides would be pretty cool.

For those that have a bluetooth notebook and a Wii, it'd be nicer than having to buy a seperate remote for presentations.

[max @ Dec 6th 2006 7:52PM]

You can build a wii like controller for PC too:
http://zedomax.com/blog/2006/12/06/preview-of-upcoming-zedomax-diy-make-your-own-pc-6-axis-controller-like-the-ps3-6-axis-controller/