iPod Universal Dock with remote control

Bad combination.

The iPod Universal Dock has an IR port on the front allowing one to
control the docked iPod with the remote control that comes with the
Macbooks and the iMacs. Or, you can purchase the remote directly from
Apple.

You can control the song playing with play/pause, track forward and
back, fast forward/rewind and volume up and down.

However, the menu button on the remote is useless. The iPod dock
ignores it.

Steve de Mena...

When my iPod is in that dock it is blinking with
the red circle and says "Do Not Disconnect". None
of the buttons on the iPod seem to function and
the remote from my MacBook Pro or Mac Mini don't
seem to do anything at all. I didn't even know it
had an IR capability until I saw your post and
noticed the black IR receiver on the dock.

Sandman...

It's for when you have the dock in your living room, connected to an
ordinary outlet, not a USB/Firewire port. The iPod charges and
responds to the IR port

And here's the biggest problem: there is no way to navigate the menus
on the iPod with the remote. That's right. You can't back out of your

Sandman...

Well, outside of fantasy land, the text is too small to read from 10
feet away and you can't navigate it.

Invid Fan...

Now, if he has great eyesight, let's give this to him. With a color
screen on one of the newer iPods, I can see being able to at least tell
where you are on the menu enough to be able to change things. You'd
have to know what the second item down is from memory, but that's
reasonable. I know I couldn't do it on my iPod, but that's not the

Sandman...

Possible? Sure. Common practice enough to have it as a function? No. :)

issue.

Chris Boyd...

This is correct. I can spot my Playlists from clear across the room
due to memory and I can still recognize it visually.

Sandman...

Lying comes so easily to you.

Sandman...

And now you're lying again. How come?

playlist, you can't select another, you can't scrub through the artists
list. All you can do is track forward and back through whatever
playlist you're currently in. Which in effect makes the remote control
practically useless.

Sandman...

So, pause/play and next track/previous track are features of a useless
remote control? :-D

Chris Boyd...

They are when you can't navigate anywhere with it, yes.

Sandman...

next/previous isn't navigation?

It's like having a TV remote and not being able to change channels.

Sandman...

No, it's like having a TV remote and being able to go to the next and
previous channel.

Chris Boyd...

Why are you being deliberately obtuse about this? Have you even tried
it yourself? I have both devices and I've tried it. It's practically

Sandman...

Of course.

useless compared to using it as an iPod. And it's not just me that has

Sandman...

It's not meant to be used as an iPod. It's meant to manage your
currently playing music from across the room. If you're close enough
to see the iPod screen and navigate it, then you don't need a remote
control any longer. Use your hand.

Chris Boyd...

So in other words don't use it. And the button on the remote, ignore
it. And for those with video iPods, forget an onscreen menu.

Nope. I can buy several 3rd party remote system that actually work the
way an iPod user would expect them to.

It doesn't take much speculation to connect the dots and realize this
was disabled so they could sell AppleTVs.

come to this conclusion, feel free to read the reviews on the Apple
store site:

All they had to do was enable the use of the menu button on the remote
and the problem would be resolved. If not, then don't put an IR port
on the dock or advertise the remote as being an iPod accessory as well
as a Mac accessory. If the remote is for Front Row, then leave it that
way unless you make the dock do the same thing.

Invid Fan...

My first VCR had a remote with only a Pause switch (for live editing
out of commercials while you tape). The Apple remote isn't useless, it
just has much less usefulness then you'd like :)

The argument I've seen for this is that the iPod video screen is too
small to see to navigate from far away, and if you're close enough to
see it you're close enough to use the wheel on the iPod.

Tim Murray...

Sounds legit to me, *if* the challenge to implement these tasks in the remote
is hardware, a recurring cost. If the issue is only software, then they
might have well have done it.

Chris Boyd...

I would have to imagine it is just software. The menu button is
already on the remote and it already performs this function on the
Macbooks and iMacs. The other buttons on the remote move the iPod when
docked. I don't see how there is any hardware issue keeping Apple from
enabling this feature on the docked iPod.

So in other words, the pro argument for it is not to use it.

George Graves...

I dunno, in spite of the limited functionality, I find that being able
to pause, play, change volume, and jump a track forward or back from
across the room is valuable.

Not good. I'm not sure of the reasoning for this, do they want people
to buy a Mac for Front Row or an AppleTV or the many 3rd party
accessories out there that do this (there are even HDTVs with iPod
docks now).

But don't sell me a $40 iPod dock with an IR port and offer a $30
remote control on your website and then cripple it like this.

Lawson English...

According to the Apple store, this dock has:

Pod Universal Dock
Dock connector
Audio and composite video output
S-video output

So it SHOULD be possible to watch TV from your iPod.

Lawson English...

Nvermind. Jumped into tailend of this conversation. You guys are arguing
about menus showing on the TV screen, not video.But, as Jobs proved in
the MacWorld iPHone intro, there is a need for the GUI of the iPhone to
show up on the TV, and you guys have already agreed that there is a need
for the iPod menus toshow up on the TV. Hope they fix this issue with
the next gen iPod AND with the iPhone before its release.

George Graves...

When I bought my dock, I assumed that the s-video port on the back
allowed one to view the iPod menus on one's TV, which would have been
super due to the small screen size of the iPod. When I found that this
only works on video iPods and does nothing on audio-only ones, I was
disappointed. Apple doesn't always get it right. But in this case, I
have to say that Apple likely wasn't even thinking about docks when they
designed the original ones - but maybe they should have been.

Chris Boyd...

I think the iPod Universal Dock should have been just left as that, a
dock. They may have made a mistake by adding the IR port and the

Sandman...

In general, Apple doesn't implement things that make little or no
sense, as in navigating the UI of the iPod from afar.

Now, if the iPod UI would be mirrored through the S-Video port it
could do it when it detected a connection.

Think of it like having an eject button on your remote, which isn't a
bad idea per se, but you still have to get up and walk over to your
DVD and pick up the disc, so it's the one button you can leave out of
the remote since the action requires you to be close to the player
anyway.

Sandman...

Of course it does.

s-video plug to it, raising our expectations a little too high.