iPhone as music server remote control

Playback is on the iPod Touch. If you want to record, make new playlists, or otherwise manipulate iTunes, you would need a keyboard (and something to see what you were manipulating presumably).

The iPod Touch is really cool. I got one over the weekend and finished setting it up last night. It is great. As an ipod, it is very ergonomic, and the screen (combined with the zoom-in and zoom-out touchscreen "push-pull" technology) makes it easy to deal with things like webpages (and my web-based email).

I will try to manipulate iTunes on the Mac when I have a free moment later this week.

As to the what else... it has wifi connectivity and the Safari browser (you could theoretically control your complete iTunes implementation on the iPod Touch if you downloaded directly over the wifi connection and did not have a PC but space is limited to 16GB for the moment). Like the more recent iPods it has video, photo, and music capability with a big screen. It also has a few other apps and there are a bunch more which are downloadable (some games, some mini apps) and given what is supposed to become a more open architecture, I expect more out of it going forward.

And the touchscreen is about the coolest thing going...

Apple has a patent for the iPhone/iTouch to this effect:
"Make them work as remote controls for audio-visual servers".
Wouldn't surprise me a bit if we have that capability soon
via a software update.

Thanks T-bone,
I appreciate your doing all the groundwork with the itouch. I will get one when i get back on my feet after this remodel!

First, for those not familiar with this type of remote functionality:
these remote apps (at this point) are for playback of music. they are not full function input devices for a music server/pc.

I posted a few comments in another AG thread but it seems more apropos here:

...I have set up my iPod Touch (with WiFi) to also act as a handheld remote for my music server using an application on my Apple G5: Alloysoft's Signal (www.alloysoft.com/ ) Using the iPod Touch or iPhone's Safari browser you are able to access your server's iTunes albums, playlists, etc. Even cover art is displayed on the touch screen. Signal's UI is well done. This shareware application provides basic play, pause, RR, FF, and volume controls of iTunes. Comparing the two remote approaches I would say that Signal is convenient where NetTunes on a Mac laptop is powerful.

Of those listed in other posts above, Signal is the closest to the native UI of the iPod Touch/iPhone: very similar button graphics and location, similar heirarchal structure, etc. It only lacks the Cover Flow feature (flipping through the album art images to select what you want to listen to) I originally used RemoteBuddy which appears a bit more like a Windows app than one from Apple. I prefer Signal over Remote Buddy at this point, mainly because navigation is faster and smoother. Though RB is able to wirelessly control many applications on the main computer (eg iPhoto, Adobe Acrobat, Quicktime, NeoOffice) and now RB is able to manage the various Airport Express connections, which is not currenly available on Signal. I have a AE network for secondary speakers but don't have the need to switch them on or off remotely.

Why it's so great: Grabbing the super sleek, shiny and smooth Touch from your pocket or side table to repeat your favorite song that is nearly finished playing or to be reminded of the song title if you happen to be playing iTunes in Shuffle mode.

I agree it is likely that Apple with integrate the remote functionality into the touch devices in the near future.