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iPhone owerPoint Remote

iPhone PowerPoint Remote is an iPhone application that lets you use your cell phone as a remote control for PowerPoint presentations. The presentation is controlled by your iPhone and your finger: you swipe or tap to move between slides, and you drag your finger around to display a pointer or make annotations, which will be visible on your projector as well.

The application is available from the iTunes Application Store. To run the application, your Mac needs to run a plug-in, which is available in the Set-up & Requirements section. To view a demonstration video showing the basic controls, go to How to Use. For a list of common questions, see the Frequently Asked Questions, or contact me if your question is not in that list or if you just want to say hello.

Set-up & Requirements

1. First, make sure you have the following installed or available:
    
   

   For your Mac: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later (for Windows or Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, see F.A.Q.) Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 or 2008 iPhone PowerPoint Remote Service (45kB) (a background process that handles the iPhone - PowerPoint interaction)   Download now iPhone PowerPoint Remote Service (66kB)   (Changes to previous versions) For your iPhone or iPod Touch: iPhone OS 2.0 or later (or the iPod Touch equivalent) A Wireless connection on the same network as your Mac PPT Remote (iPhone application)

2. Start the iPhone PowerPoint Remote application.
3. From the list of computers to connect to, select your Mac.
   (Do you see no computers in the list? See our F.A.Q. below)
4. If this is your first time to use this application, you will be asked to connect your iPhone to the USB port of your Mac. This is a one-time security step, intended to prevent unauthorized access to your computer, either from somebody else’s iPhone, or from hostile attackers trying to use this service to gain unauthorized access to your important documents.
5. Your iPhone should now display a list of open presentations on your Mac. Select any and press "Next" to start.

How to Use

• Running a presentation

  1. Tap the screen to advance to the next slide
  2. Swipe your finger left/right to go to the next/previous slide
  3. Drag your finger to display a laser pointer on the presentation projector
  4. Double-tap your finger to highlight the pointer
  5. Swipe your finger down to show slide notes (comments)
  6. Click the "x" (top-right) to close the slide show
  
  

• Making annotations

  1. Hold your finger on-screen. A blinking pencil-icon will appear in the top-right, indicating that you can now make annotations.
  2. Make strikes on the screen with your finger to draw lines
  3. Tap the blinking pencil-icon (top-right) to change the color used to make annotations
  4. Tap the screen to finish making annotations. To erase all annotations, use a double-tap instead.
  
  

• Get on-screen documentation

  1. Tap the "i" icon (top-left) to display on-screen help
  2. Close the window by tapping the "x" (top-left, same position as the "i" icon)
  
  

Video Demonstration

The video demonstrated version 1.0 of iPhone PowerPoint Remote Service used with iPhone PowerPoint Remote 1.0 on the iPhone 3G. Several improvements and bugfixes have been released since then, see the ChangeLog for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Will Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), Linux, OpenOffice.org, Keynote, Blackberry or Android be supported?

  • Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) will not be supported, because it lacks support for the Quartz Window Services API (and others).
  • I’m uncertain whether I should support Windows at this point. If you’re interested in such a version, please drop me an email so I know whether there is any interest at all.
  • Linux is unlikely to be supported.
  • OpenOffice.org and Keynote are unlikely to be supported. For Keynote, I recommend Apple’s Keynote Remote.
  • I’m currently not intending to support Blackberry or Android, but might be convinced otherwise.
  
  



• When trying to install the Service, it won’t let me press "Continue" while selecting the installation destination.

  • This problem - probably a bug in the Mac Installer software - occurs occasionally when trying to install software, see (1) in the image on the right.
  • To workaround this problem, click (with your mouse / touchpad) on the text that says "Install for me only", see (2) in the image on the right.
  • The "Continue" button should now become sensitive, allowing you to continue the installation.
  
  

• I can’t see any computers in the start-up screen

  • Make sure your iPhone and computer are connected to the same wireless network. If no wireless network is available, set up internet sharing or a host-to-host connection on your Mac, and join that network on your iPhone.
  • Make sure you installed the iPhone PowerPoint Remote Service on your Mac, as explained in the Set-up and Requirements section. To test whether it is installed, check whether the file com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist exists in the folder ~/Library/LaunchAgents/.
    To test whether it is running, open a terminal (Applications => Utilities => Terminal) and run the command "launchctl list" and ensure that com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService is in that list. If it is not running, you can load it using "launchctl load -S Aqua ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist".
  • Make sure your Mac firewall allows incoming connections from your local network.
  
  

• When starting a presentation, I don’t see the current slide, but only a dark-gray screen

  • Always upgrade to the latest version of the PowerPoint Remote Service.
  • If you are running a localized (non-English) PowerPoint, then PowerPoint Remote Service 1.4 or earlier failed at localizing the name of the application window correctly.
  • If you are using PowerPoint Remote Service 1.3 or earlier and your "Display Mode" (in the "System Preferences" of your Mac, see the "Displays" pane) was set to "Mirror Display Mode", then a bug in version 1.3 and earlier could lead to this behaviour when running in any other than "Mirror Display Mode".
  • It could be caused by incorrect service permissions (non-GUI-session). Run the following sequence of commands in a terminal (Applications => Utilities launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist
    launchctl load -S Aqua ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist
    
  • If that doesn’t fix it, please email me.
  
  

• On my iPhone / iPod Touch, I don't see the current slide. Instead, I see one of my previous slides (or)

  My WiFi connection breaks up, resulting in a "Socket Error: Connection Reset By Peer" message

  • Often, this is caused by having a poor wireless network connection between the iPhone / iPod Touch and your Mac. Try a direct host-to-host connection.
  • Always update to the latest version of iPhone PPT Remote Service.
  • There have been numerous suggestions that this ("intermittent WiFi issues") can happen on jailbroken devices, particularly those running any version of iPhoneOS between 3.0.0-3.1.0 with the software unlock "ultrasn0w" or on any iPhone 3GS running the software unlock "blackra1n". This is acknowledged in their blog. I can recommend to not jailbreak your device (this is what Apple would recommend), or (if you want a jailbreak after all) to upgrade to the latest version of iPhoneOS (3.1.2) running (if you have this choice) ultrasn0w, rather than blackra1n.
  • Try resetting your network settings (in the iPhone: Settings => General => Reset => Reset Network Settings) and then reboot your device immediately after.
  
  

• What display / presentation modes are supported?

  • Since version 1.4, PowerPoint Remote Service supports all display configurations supported by Mac OS X and all presentation modes supported by PowerPoint.
  • Version 1.0 to 1.3 of PowerPoint Remote Service only supported "Mirror Display Mode", which means your Mac display will show a copy of what’s visible on the projector. To change your display mode, use the "Displays" applet in the "System Preferences" of your Mac. In these versions, use of the "Presenter Mode" in PowerPoint is not recommended.
  
  

• Are there Graphical User Interfaces for Launchd control?

  • LaunchD Editor
  • Lingon
  
  



• Why is the "iPhonePPTRemoteService" process displayed as "Not Responding" in Activity Monitor?

  • If you look at the thread listing of the service, you’ll notice that the window manager starts a new thread once a presentation has started:
    (gdb) thread apply all bt
    Thread 3 (process 86983 thread 0x460b):
    #0 0x917fc46e in __semwait_signal ()
    #1 0x918273e6 in _pthread_cond_wait ()
    #2 0x91826dcd in pthread_cond_wait$UNIX2003 ()
    #3 0x94c0745c in pthreadSemaphoreWait ()
    #4 0x94c19d8e in CMMConvTask ()
    #5 0x91826155 in _pthread_start ()
    #6 0x91826012 in thread_start ()
    This is a process owned by the ColorSync framework, part of Mac OS X itself, and the non-responsiveness of this task appears to correlate with the "Not Responding" status in Activity Monitor. A quick Google search shows that this is a common problem.
  • Note how this is not a big issue since the service will automatically shut down after 60 seconds of inactivity.
  • If you have suggestions, please let me know.
  
  

• How do I disable or uninstall the service from my Mac?

  • To disable the service, open a terminal (Applications => Utilities => Terminal) and run the command "launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist". To re-enable it at a later time, use "launchctl load -S Aqua ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist"
  • To uninstall, disable the service as per above and then remove the files ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ronaldbultje.iPhonePPTRemoteService.plist and ~/Library/Services/iPhonePPTRemoteService. There is also a datafile in ~/Library/Application Support/iPhonePPTRemoteService/authenticated.list and a logfile in ~/.iPhonePPTRemoteService.log.
  
  

Problems / Contact

If you have questions or problems, please email me at rsbultje@gmail.com.