What's the driver needed for?
The driver is needed for:
- best-in-class support for the Apple® Remote
Remote Buddy provides its own driver ("Candelair") for built-in Apple® Remote IR receivers. Here are some of the many advantages:
- Ability to distinguish between multiple Apple® Remotes and allow their individual configuration.
- Accurate measurement of the duration of button presses. Without the driver, the actual duration of Play and Menu button presses can't be measured at all.
- Remote Buddy is not affected at all by a bug in the HID system (introduced by Apple® back with a Security Update for OS 10.4.9 and unfixed since).
- support for USB-based remotes/receivers
This includes all supported Keyspan™ products. Again, Remote Buddy's drivers offer substantial benefits over a purely userspace-based solution:
- Support for advanced features of the supported devices (like wake-from-sleep for the Keyspan™ Express).
- Lower overhead (and thus less CPU time consumed) thanks to a lower number of kernel-userspace-boundary-crosses.
- support for Bluetooth® remotes
It's not possible to reliably operate many Bluetooth® based remotes, like for example the Wii® Remote with a Mac® purely from userspace due to limitations in the operating system. The Remote Buddy Driver provides a solution to these limitations.
- the emulation of a virtual built-in IR receiver
Control applications that have support for and listen to an Apple® Remote - with any remote control of your choice supported by Remote Buddy. And on any Mac®. This allows you to f.ex. use iAlertU side by side with Remote Buddy or accessing special functions and modes inside applications that would otherwise require these apps to have full control over the built-in IR receiver of your Mac® - and that your Mac® actually came with one.
Do I need to install the driver when I only want to use the AJAX Remote?
No. The driver is not needed at all by the AJAX Remote.
Can I use Remote Buddy without the driver installed?
Yes. However, some features and drivers will not be available in that case. You can install, testdrive and uninstall the driver at any time using the "Setup Wizard" provided in Remote Buddy. You can open it by clicking on Remote Buddy's icon in the menu bar of your system and subsequently selecting the entry "Setup Wizard..".