Remote Control is a revolutionary feature of PhoneValet that allows you to dial up your Macintosh and request that it perform certain actions. With this feature PhoneValet becomes a new telephone-based interface to your Macintosh. PhoneValet complements the traditional screen/keyboard and the newer Internet methods of accessing the system.

You can run up to five remote controls in a single call, and each remote control can speak text to you over the phone or play an audio file to you!

We've provided some ideas about how you might use Remote Control below. In addition, we are sure that PhoneValet's remote control will become a central feature in many Macintosh installations as our users invent creative ways to leverage this tool.

Provide Customized Information to Callers
PhoneValet allows you to choose to offer remote controls through the regular voicemail menu. You can create up-to-the-minute information to be read to your clients, or pass a callers information through to other applications on the Macintosh. Our simple voicemail configuration system makes it easy to specify which remote controls to make public. Your users can even return to the main menu to make an additional selection once the Applescript has executed.

Read on for examples of how you can use Remote Control, or:

Order Now!

Remote Control: An Interface with Many
Possible Applications
With PhoneValet's remote control capabilities you'll be able to command your Macintosh from wherever you are in the world. Here are just some of the ideas we've had to highlight the power of Remote Control:

• Command your X-10 home controller while you're out: Turn lights on and off, take photos through X-10 enabled cameras, open the garage door as you drive home, open and close windows and blinds based on weather conditions, even reset the thermostat before you return from your evening engagements.
  
  
• Tell your Macintosh to restart or to restart a particular process. This tool is perfect for system administrators who need to perform routine maintenance from home and for maintaining servers at remote locations. Kick off a long movie rendering session or other event that needs to take place after hours.
  
  
• Have today's iCal events spoken to you over the telephone (by way of Apple's speech synthesis system) in case you've forgotten where you're supposed to be next.
  
  
• Call your computer and get it to read updated weather conditions over the telephone.
  
  
• Play your local radio station's last news broadcast (downloaded from the Internet as an audio file).
  
  
• Execute UNIX shell scripts to control other computers on the local Ethernet.
  
  
• Reset your iChat status to indicate the telephone number you're at (using Caller ID information).
  
  
• Punch in or out using an AppleScript-aware timesheet application — no matter where you are in the world.
  
  
• Leave password-protected "secret messages" for friends and family .

Remote Control: How it Works
All Remote Control scripts are enabled and disabled using our friendly Remote Control configuration panel. You do not need to create complicated folder hierarchies to use PhoneValet's Remote Control features.

The basic configuration for a Remote Control item involves three steps. First, you select a secret code for that item. The secret code can be as long as you want. Then, you select an AppleScript, which will be run when the secret code is entered. (We provide a few AppleScripts to get you started, including a script that reads your iCal events for the day.) Lastly, you specify if the script will return information to be read over the phone, or whether it will return the name of an audio file to play, or whether it simply executes and then stops.

That's all it takes to configure a remote control. You can have as many controls as you like — just select a different secret code for each control. screenshot

Parameters
PhoneValet's remote controls boast parameters. This means you can provide a script, which does something common (like turn on a lamp for example) and re-use the same script multiple times (for multiple lamps). Each remote control code can specify a parameter: you could have a code for turning on the kitchen lamp, another for turning on the driveway lamps and a third for turning on the basement lamp. Each code shares the same script, but in each case a different parameter (perhaps the X10 device number) is passed into the script.

This is just one more example of the flexibility of PhoneValet's Remote Control system.

Remote Security
Our remote control interface was designed by experts who have experience in securing networked computers. We have taken steps to ensure you have the tools to carefully secure your Macintosh:

1. Remote Control is only enabled when you explicitly turn it on.
   
2. Only you know your secret codes... there is no menu.
   
3. If you enter an invalid code, the system pretends that a command has been accepted (although it does nothing) which means that no one will be able to distinguish real codes from fake ones.
   
4. All secret code uses are visible in the call log, so you can tell what secret codes were used, how often, when and from what numbers. screenshot
   
5. Secret codes can be as long as you like. Prefix each one with a 6-8 digit code, and the result is equivalent to a password.
   
6. There are no default or backdoor actions. In order for your Macintosh to accept a command you must write (or install) an appropriate AppleScript to do so.

Order Now!