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Control Your Computer’s Media Playback Using Your Android Phone

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''Some of us use our PC as a Home Entertainment System. This is done by hooking up the PC to your living room's smart TV to play and watch high definition movies or even just play music across the room. There are third party remote controls that can control our desktop even though we are far from it. But it would be nicer we could just pop up our phones and use it to control what we are playing on our desktop. Luckily there is an app in the Android play store called "Gmote" that can make it possible to use our Android device to remotely control and play multi-media files in our computer as long as it is in the same WiFi network.''

== Instructions ==
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# You have to download two '''(2) part of Gmote'''. One for your Android phone and another for your PC/Mac. The app for your Android phone could be download from the Play Store, while you have to download the app for your PC/Mac  from w w w. gmote.org/server. This will be the server application that you need to install on your desktop that will communicate with your phone. Just install the two (2) apps to their respected devices.
# Make sure that your WiFi is both activated on your phone and on your PC. That means that they are connected to the same WiFi network for them to communicate. Take note of any message that may come out from your PC once you begin to attempt to connect and just allow the connection.
# Run the Gmote application on your PC. The first time you do this you will be prompted for several settings. One is to enter a password to ensure that no non-verified devices will be able to connect to your PC without permission. Just make the password just short enough that you can easily enter it in your phone. Yen you have to point the application to certain folders in your PC where your media files are located. You could skip this step if your media files are located on standard location.
# You could now open your Gmote app on your phone. The default screen is the media controller, check if you could connect to your PC by pressing the Menu button and select the option "find server". There will be a single entry on the top of your screen on your phone, which is the address of your PC. Click this to connect to your computer.
# Click on the server name. At this point your phone should establish a connection to your computer and return to your home screen which is the media controller UI on the device. Depending on the OS which is installed on your computer the app supports iTunes and Windows media player and few different media players.
# Click the browse button on top left of your phone screen. And you can see a list of locations where you can select the media content you want to play. The other option will enable you to search manually through folders on your PC for any additional content you want to view. You will be able to play DVD if there is one on your drive and also view the contents that you have on your media player. When you find the track that you want to play, just tap on it to begin to play. Just be aware that selecting ones that contain music tracks would take some time to show on your phone.
# You could also play the file on your phone by tapping the "Play on Phone" option at the top of the screen. This will stream certain files from your computer to your phone. However, iTunes Play list is not supported so you have to manually search for the file on your hard drive to play it. Mp3 files are supported to play on your phone but most video file like avi will not work.
# You could also use the app as a virtual mouse by clicking the menu button and choose the touch pad option. As you swipe your fingers on your phone screen, the mouse pointer on you PC screen will move along with it. You have to tap once for left click and tap and hold for the right click command. If your phone has a track ball or D-pad you could also use this to scroll up and down the screen. Tapping the keyboard icon on the screen will activate you Android's virtual keyboard and you can enter text if you want.
# Lastly you could also browse any website on your phone and then display it on your PC screen. By pressing the menu button and selecting the option regarding the web, you could browse on a site and then tap the "Open on Computer" option at the top right of the screen.

== Tips Tricks & Warnings ==

* If you plan to use Gmote regularly it would be advisable to run the application on your PC at start up.

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We'd like to introduce Frank, Started programming the Commodore VIC-20 at the age of 11 and over the next 15 years turned that into a Computer Science Degree with a minor in Math. Currently work as a database administrator for the government. Some of articles he has participated are: How To Control A Samsung TV With Your Smartphone; How To Turn An iPhone or iPad Into A Universal Remote Control; How To Stream Movies And TV Shows To Your TV With An Android; How To Turn An Android Into A Universal Remote Control

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