For the last few months, I've been iterating on an Apple TV remote app for Mac called Better Remote. It's free for now, and it has made me use my Apple TV 4K way more than ever. Better Remote makes tvOS feel like another window I can control from my Mac.

Better Remote is on the Mac App Store. Give it a download and let me know how it goes.

One catch: the way I run Better Remote isn't allowed in the Mac App Store. When Better Remote is the window in focus, I use my Mac's media keys, including play/pause and volume, to control the Apple TV. I made a standalone helper that adds the feature.

There's also a TestFlight version with macOS 27 Golden Gate considerations.

Some cool things in Better Remote

You can rename Apple TVs inside Better Remote without changing the device name itself. That's useful for those “(1)” situations, and for times when HomePod means you need a different name.

The app sidebar lets you favorite apps, but you can also hide apps like Computer and Arcade. Right-clicking, or two-finger tapping, the TV picker opens or closes both side panels.

YouTube videos playing on Apple TV can open on Mac at the current timestamp, and you can send YouTube URLs from your clipboard to Apple TV. Keyboard navigation is pretty thorough too, plus there are options to tone down YouTube titles in the Now Playing panel, including caps-lock titles and emoji.

The menu bar icon has options too. I use a regular click to toggle play/pause and a right-click to send a click to Apple TV, which is great for skipping ads.

Mousing over the Now Playing bar shows start and end times of day, like on Apple TV. The six main buttons and four directional buttons also have optional trackpad haptics.

Pretty, pretty good.

For now, I mostly just want people to benefit from Better Remote like I have. If anything doesn't work, let me know. Iterating on it on nights and weekends in June, July, and August has been super rewarding.

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The lost little astronaut from my 404 page keeps finding new jobs. It wandered onto the homepage footer, became the site favicon, and now it can tag along inside Codex.

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Deployed a fun, new 404 page.

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Over the weekend, I had a Mega Man Legends playthrough running in the background while I worked. It did two things at once: reminded me that Servbots are a surprisingly good metaphor for AI agents, and clarified that Mega Man Legends on the original PlayStation is my one and only reference point for Mega Man.

My Mega Man memory is of a 3D, open-world-ish adventure with small robots scurrying around, not the 2D side-scrolling series I'm learning most people must picture first. I also learned about Legends 2 this weekend, and I'm now belatedly disappointed that Legends 3 never happened.

Passively watching gameplay has been a useful multitasking trick. Final Fantasy VIII might be next on my watch list. It wouldn't be responsible for me to spend time actually playing a game from my childhood right now, maybe someday, but I'm still delighted by the resurfaced memories from the previous century while I do other tasks.

That train of thought led to two custom Codex pets: Mega Man and a Servbot. The Servbot especially feels right for an AI agent mascot right now.

Pets were also a gateway into Codex in general for me. I tried them because they were a neat toy. From there, I started to feel comfortable inside Codex, discovering what it could unlock on my Mac. I don't always display a pet, though I'm extra fond of them for that reason.

The real Codex pets are the personal projects you hatch along the way.

Anyway, both pets are available on my Codex Pets page, along with direct downloads and manual installation steps.

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