I turned my Mac into an additional Apple TV distant without spending a dime

One characteristic I at all times benefit from on just about any streaming device — whether or not it is an Apple TV, Roku, or Hearth TV — is the power to make use of my cellphone as a backup distant. So, when your precise distant is out of attain (say, as a result of your cat is asleep on you, or it is vanished into the sofa cushions), you may simply pull out your cellphone and maintain watching.

With Apple TV, Apple gives a backup distant app for the iPhone, iPad, and even the Apple Watch, however not for the Mac. That is at all times struck me as unusual, and it jogs my memory of how lengthy the iPad went with out an official Calculator app.

Give it some thought: you may management your Apple TV out of your wrist with an Apple Watch, but not out of your Mac, which might be typically with you as effectively. I typically have my MacBook Professional open whereas the TV is on, so having the ability to management my Apple TV from it will be fairly helpful.

Fortunately, one developer has determined to resolve this drawback as soon as and for all by making a macOS app that permits you to management your Apple TV proper out of your Mac, since Apple clearly is not in a rush to make one.

The app is named Itsytv, and you’ll obtain it without spending a dime from GitHub (by way of 9to5Mac). The developer, Nick Ustinov, describes the app as “the lacking Apple TV distant app” for Mac, and, better of all, it is utterly open-source and filled with options.

The app appears to be like precisely like an Apple TV distant

It requires macOS Sonoma or later to run

Credit score: Itsytv

What I discover significantly neat about Itsytv is that it is a menu bar app, which makes it extremely fast to entry everytime you want it. Even higher, the app’s interface appears to be like precisely like an Apple TV distant, which makes it immediately acquainted and tremendous simple to navigate your Apple TV with (as you may see within the picture above).

When it comes to options, there is a Now Taking part in part on the backside of the distant interface, letting you shortly pause no matter you’re watching in your Apple TV or scrub by the timeline to leap to a selected second. Additionally, on the prime of the distant, there’s an Apps choice. Clicking it opens an app launcher the place you may browse all of the apps put in in your Apple TV and launch any of them instantly out of your Mac with a single click on.

Happily, working Itsytv in your Mac is fairly simple, with the one requirement being that your Mac is working macOS Sonoma (launched in 2023) or later.

Personally, I am actually impressed with this Apple TV distant app for Mac. The truth that it’s been designed to completely imitate the Apple TV distant is genius, and it actually appears to be like like one thing Apple may have made themselves. So props to developer Nick Ustinov for placing all of it collectively. If you wish to attempt Itsytv without spending a dime, it is presently out there solely on GitHub. As soon as you put in it, all it’s important to do is pair it along with your Apple TV, and after that, you are good to go.

Whereas I am glad to see a free, open-source app like this land on the Mac, it additionally makes me much more excited concerning the new Apple TV 4K that’s supposedly coming. After years of ready, it is rumored to launch someday this yr, and I am hoping it arrives after Apple rolls out its updated Siri within the spring.