Front Row is great. I love browsing movies, music, podcasts and TV shows from my sofa with a remote. But what whether you’re watching a movie in QuickTime or playing music in iTunes Party Shuffle? perhaps you want to browse iCal to see whether there is any reason for you to get up from the sofa in the next few hours.

iRed Lite makes it possible to control just about any application using an Apple Remote and lets you customize the operate of each button. Switching within selected apps you want to control is simple. You switch amidst iRed Lite and Front Row by holding the menu button on the remote for a second. A window pops up allowing you to choose amoung “layers” (apps), and, once activated, a crib sheet showing the functionality of each button is displayed.

The app comes packaged with some presets for apps like iTunes, QuickTime, VLC, PowerPoint and Keynote, but it’s real potential is in the ability for the user to program any app to be controlled by a remote, allowing coders to trade layer files. It even supports AppleScripts, meaning

you could do just about anything with a remote. However, tweaking iRed Lite for other apps, called creating layers, is not for beginners. whether you plan to take on the grand task, be certain to read through the manual on the software’s website and the creating layers tutorial.

For obsessive e mail checkers, Vic Shih has created a Gmail layer that can be downloaded from his blog. You can browse within conversations and messages and even increase or decrease text size. Unfortunately you won’t be able to reply to messages using the remote, so your boss probably won’t approve your desire to work from your sofa at home.

Unlike its brethren Mira, which offers nearly the same functionality, iRed Lite is freeware. For Macs without infrared receivers — those that didn’t ship with a remote — developer tin:b Software has iRed (minus the “lite”), which is included with the IRTrans USB receiver, retailing for 99 EUR.

Orginal post by Mark Milian