Nintendo Wii + Mac Mini = entertainment paradise
As some people know, I purchased a Nintendo Wii about a week ago (from Pittsburgh, PA because they are extremely hard to find here in Toronto!) I’m having a great time with it so far, and have a few events planned and had a few that have passed where we’ve used it to play some games, such as WarioWare, Zelda, and of course, some Wii Sports. I’ve had it for a week now, and so I began to ponder: what else could I do with it?
There’s that Mac Mini that I have…
I have a Mac Mini that I haven’t touched since obtaining my MacBook Pro, and it’s just been sitting on my table, collecting dust. I had thought of using it as an ‘entertainment hub’ for my home for some time, since it has built-in wifi.
The synergy of the Wii and the Mini is a great thing
I thought of purchasing an infrared receiver for my Mac Mini so that my Apple Remote which came with my MacBook Pro could be used for it. My eyes then laid upon my Wii Remote, with its simplified-yet-useful set of buttons, and inside of it, its built-in motion sensor… and I thought, why can’t I use that as a remote for my Mac Mini? Well, it turns out that I can, with the help of DarwiinRemote! I installed the application immediately, and lo-and-behold, I’m now using my Wii Remote as a remote for both my Nintendo Wii AND my Mac Mini. The Wii Remote works with my Mac Mini because both devices have Bluetooth enabled. I’m now deciding upon which media center program to use; my options include Front Row, MediaCentral, and CenterStage, among others.
At this point, the Nintendo Wii is used for gaming purposes, which the Mac Mini can also be used for - but primarily, the Mac Mini is used for viewing media, such as movies or TV. I’m also thinking of also integrating my Tivo box into the equation to include time-shifting abilities, but that’ll be a project for the future.
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Thats pretty cool! I’m going to have to try that out.
Michael,
Yeah, I think it’s a pretty neat experiment myself
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How did you connect the Wii to the Mac Mini? Do you have to disconnect the Wii to use the Mac Mini as a regular computer?
I want an all-in-one package - Wii, Movies, Music, Internet, Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and all the iLife products with a wireless keyboard and mouse and without having to disconnect and reconnect anything.