Here’s the second in a series of posts about the nominees in The Spotties. Yesterday we covered the Best URL Tool Nominees. Today we’ll look at the tools to control Spotify remotely, from iPhones, smartphones, mini-controllers, or web-browsers: here are the candidates for Best Remote Control App.
Spotify Mac Remote
Alex and Duncan’s Spotify Mac Remote is a plugin for Spotify that allows you to use your Mac’s remote control and multi-touch gestures to Play, Pause and change tracks. The next, play/pause and previous buttons work as expected, the volume buttons control the system volume and holding the menu button quits Spotify (in case you want to use Frontrow). Requires SIMBL.
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MiniSpotify
MiniSpotify is a Windows add-on that provides a mini-controller for Spotify. It lets you play, pause, and change track as well as giving you search, lyrics, and a remote control feature. The developers are hard at work creating MiniSpotify Reborn, a rewrite that contains new functions and extended GUI support.
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Music Controls
Music Controls is an iPhone app that lets you run and control Spotify for iPhone in the background, in other words you can multitask. It also supports a host of other music apps, such as imeem, Last.fm, Rhapsody and Orb. Music Controls is available on Cydia and includes a 5-day fully-functional free trial. Note it requires a jailbroken iPhone.
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SpotifyBTind
SpotifyBTind a mobile remote for Sony Ericsson phones. To use, download the HID-file to your cellphone then connect the phone to your computer via the bluetooth remote control. Start Spotify on your computer and let your cellphone decide a song in the playlist.
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Spotify Web Remote
Spotify Web Remote provides a remote control for Spotify via the web. Once installed on a Windows PC, use any web browser on any device to start, stop, and move through tracks in a playlist. The site has a couple of demo videos showing how to use the browsers in an iPhone and BlackBerry to control Spotify and full setup instructions.
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Remoteless
The newest iPhone remote, Remoteless is a feature-rich Spotify remote for iPhone or iPod touch, controlling Spotify for Windows (they’re working on a Mac version). Features include standard transport controls (start/stop, next song, volume), search & browse, shuffle & repeat, start playlist from remote, and Tweet currently playing song from the remote. Remoteless is available in the Apple App Store and costs $3.99.
ReSpot
ReSpot is a Spotify remote control for Android devices such as the Google Nexus One, HTC Hero, and Motorola Milestone/Droid. It supports most of the features found on the desktop Spotify, including transport controls (play, pause, stop, volume, previous/next song) and search. You can also browse album and artists, save the play queue to a new playlist, and tweet the currently playing song to Twitter. ReSpot is a free app but note it requires Spotify Premium.
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Have you voted in The Spotties yet? Vote now for a chance to win three months of Spotify Premium!