As previously we offer 2 versions:

• Threemote – All gadgets (Ad Supported)
• Threemote (Pro) – £3 – All gadgets (Ad Free)

The only difference between the 2 is the availability of adverts.

We’re excited to offer our customers the full Threemote experience across all versions!

Threemote is available in 2 versions.

- Threemote (Lite) – Free – Windows Media Player only, a taste of Threemote
- Threemote (Full) – £3 – All compatible gadgets!

Thank you all who helped during the testing phase!  We really appreciate all the feedback we’ve received.

(Windows Mobile is coming … promise)

The Windows Phone build has hit Beta!

And to celebrate, we added Bluetooth support (it turned out to be easier than we expected so it made sense to throw it in the first build)!

From day 1, when the application is on the marketplace you’ll be able to choose Bluetooth or Wi-Fi!

Also, we’ve added a few extra improvements to make sure that the HD2 has a good experience.

If you’d like to join the beta, please send me a message on our contact form and I’ll hook you up .

Enjoy !

If anyone would like a demo of Threemote (and maybe some of our upcoming projects) or would like to talk about SideShow or tech and are attending MWC then feel free to Contact Us.

We’ll also be mingling with the Kopin crowd talking about the Golden-i.  It’s going to be exciting times !

Look forward to seeing you there

Just a quick update on the Windows Phone Beta.  We’re still on track for a public release this week and the candidate build is making the rounds through our private beta testers.

We’re keen to get a good cross section of lots of different WM devices so if you’d like to test, please Contact Us mentioning your WM device.

(Note, we only support WM 6 and higher)

(Update: we were a little late with this but the build is now live, see this post for more details)

So, feel free to ‘fan’ us on http://www.facebook.com/threemote.

We’re going to keep our Blog, Twitter and Facebook all up to date regularly.

Enjoy!

Remember, to active/deactivate any gadget, simply open the Windows SideShow control panel (type “Windows SideShow” in the Vista/7 start menu).

So, first off, Windows Media Player.

Gadget Name: Windows Media Player
Developer: Microsoft
Download: N/A (built into Windows Vista / Windows 7)

Basic Tasks:

1. Controlling current track on PC
2. Browsing media library

Glance:

So, the glance screen of Windows Media Player is really descriptive.  When the gadget first starts it shows the play state and the current track.

Selecting any gadget on the home (glance) screen will open the menu system.  Selecting “Go to Current Track” will show details of the currently playing track.

Controlling Playback:

Once in the Current Track screen there are numerous ways of controlling playback:

• Tap the screen to Play/Pause
• Swipe left/right to advance the current track
• Use the track ball / D-Pad to control the playback
• Bring up the context menu to:
  • Change the volume
  • Navigate the current playlist

(Tip: you can bring the context menu by holding the title bar or selecting Menu > More)

Browsing the Media Library:

From the Main Menu, select Browse Media Library and choose a category.  From there you can either drill deeper into the items (Albums / Artists / Playlists / Genres) or hold onto an item to Play the entire item.

Selecting a single track will only play that 1 item.  To play an entire Album/Artist/Playlist/Genre, go back to the list and bring up the context menu for the item.

Anyway, so that is Windows Media Player.  It’s great that without needing any extra software this gadget is available within the OS.

Stay tuned for a deep focus on other gadgets.

However, how do you access all those great features?  Well, you need 2 things:

• More Gadgets !!
• Windows SideShow Control Panel

You can get Threemote / Windows SideShow gadgets from the Windows Live Gallery (http://gallery.live.com/default.aspx?pl=7).

And, once downloaded and installed, the Windows SideShow Control Panel can help you enable the gadgets for each device.

As you can see, my own SideShow screen has a lot of gadgets!  But hey, I really like Threemote.

Anyway, hope this helps

So, less than a week after we announce Threemote, we’re proud to launch our first public beta.  In a few days the Windows Mobile version will be available also.

Note: Threemote requires Android 1.6 as a minimum and is currently Wi-Fi only

So, first off, I must warn you all, this is Beta!  However, we’ve been sitting on the application for a few weeks in its current state and we’re really happy with the performance and stability.

In preparation, as this is a non-market application you need to perform an extra step to get the installation files.

To do this; on your device go to Settings –> Applications and tick “Unknown sources”.  If you’re unsure about this, don’t worry, Threemote will be available on the market soon .

There are many ways to get the APK onto the device.  The easiest by far is to navigate to http://www.setupremote.com on your device and download the software.  You must have an SD card inserted into your phone so the installer than copy to that.

http://www.SetupRemote.com

Once the software has downloaded, the next step is to get it paired with your PC.

1. Ensure that your device is connected to your wireless network
2. On Windows 7:
   1. Go to Start –> Devices and Printers and click “Add a device” (at the top)
   2. Windows will search for Threemote
   3. Double-click and follow the installation
3. On Windows Vista:
   1. Go to Start –> Network
   2. Double click Threemote on your Network screen
   3. You will need to enable Network Sharing, Vista should walk through this
   4. Accept any driver prompts
4. Your computer will download and install a driver automatically from Windows Update
   1. You may need to reboot if running Windows Vista

If the above steps don’t work, restart your device.

Once the device is paired and the driver is installed, you can now connect from your device.

From Threemote, press Menu –> Refresh/Connect.   Threemote will try to connect to your PC and then will enable by default the Windows Media Player gadget.

To enable more gadgets, download them from http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?bt=8&pl=7.  Remember, you need Windows SideShow gadgets, not Sidebar gadgets.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed other gadgets, enable them through the Windows SideShow control panel.

As this is a beta, we’re actively encouraging all feedback.  Please submit all feedback and queries to http://www.threemote.com/contact.php.  With crashes or issues, please include reproducible steps.

Enjoy

One of these features allows us to install the Threemote software without needing any extra apps.  I am of course talking about PnP-X with UPnP (you knew that right?).

PnP-X ?

PnP-X or Plug and Play Extensions is a nifty feature of Windows Vista / Windows 7 that allows devices to be enumerated (discovered) through non-standard PnP methods (ie: USB).  You see, with Threemote we need a driver.  Without a driver, we’re … lost at sea without a paddle.  The driver allows us to get the content from the PC, but to install a driver traditionally you need a plugged-in device.  So, PNP-X does away with that and remotely we can trigger driver installs.

What does that mean for me?

Ok, so chances are you don’t care about PnP-X.  That’s fine, we’re done with the technical details.  What PnP-X means is that you can use standard Windows dialogs to create your device without having to plug it in.

So, you’ve just started Threemote on your device, how do you connect?

Well, here’s how (Windows 7 is cooler for this but Vista does it too):

1) Go to start and click “Devices and Printers”

2) At the top, click “Add a Device”

Windows will go off and search the network and Threemote will respond.

3) You select Threemote and click next

Windows will then ask Threemote for some extra data and voila, the driver starts to download and Threemote has a connection.

4) Threemote will now appear in your “Devices and Printers”

You’re now connected and can start navigating PowerPoint slideshows, controlling music or whatever it is you want to do with Threemote.

Don’t worry, we’ve put enough help screens in to the device to walk through all of the above steps.  And yes, Android does it the same way .

Until next time …