We’ve complained a lot around here about Apple’s official remote application only being available on the iPhone. When I’m on the couch listening to tunes I don’t want to have to dig through my pockets for my iPhone, especially if I’m already doing some browsing on my iPad.
Turns out that the new remote app, updated today, is a universal application, and better yet, the iPad edition looks a lot like iTunes. Curious, isn’t it? Does this qualify as a streaming iTunes player? We think so, but it doesn’t exactly stream your media to the iPad. Instead, it acts like a remote, playing the audio out of your computer speakers. Missed opportunity here? Probably.
The application also adds support for retina displays, and the new Apple TV, so once we get our hands on either of those devices, we’ll let you know how well integrated they are with the remote.
As it stands, we have a bit of a difficult time seeing how this doesn’t duplicate functionality with the iPod application. While the remote plays files remotely, we’ve got a gut feeling that these two apps could merge down the road.
Here’s some first look screenshosts
