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Air Mouse Pro review

Michael Mahon

Check out our five-star review of Air Mouse Pro, a trackpad and remote control app for the iPhone and iPod touch

Published on Mar 11, 2010

There's no lack of mouse and touchpad apps available throughout the App Store. In fact, we've already matched up two of them. So how can one truly distinguish itself from another? Downloading Air Mouse Pro will give you a great idea.

Touting itself as not only a trackpad and an air mouse, but also a remote, Air Mouse Pro is about as feature-rich as one app can get. Similar to its competitors, you have to download and install the server software (which is available for Mac and Windows, but I only tested it on a Mac) onto your computer.

I did receive a minor error message immediately after both installing and opening the Mac app, but after clicking through what's likely just a bug, the program and app worked in perfect synergy.

Air Mouse Pro's main interface is the glue that beautifully brings all its features together. The portrait screen is split down the middle horizontally; the top half being reserved for the remarkably smooth trackpad while all the magic happens underneath.

There are a myriad of controls on the bottom, starting with the keyboard, which is similar to the standard iPhone keyboard but also includes qualifier keys (alt, option and command), a number pad and function keys.

Typing on it is incredibly easy, of course. Much to my delight, the letters appear in the trackpad portion as you type as opposed to just above each key as you tap along. Oddly, however, the letters on the screen don't correlate to the case being typed; they always display as uppercase characters, regardless of actual case.

Air Mouse Pro 1

The function key pane not only contains all F keys, arrow keys and everything else you'd find on the right side of a keyboard, but there are four programmable buttons as well.

This feature really piqued my interest, as you can program them (via the server software) based on keystrokes or Apple Script. Ultimately, however, I was somewhat let down. I tried out a few relatively simple options -- Command+W, Alt+Tab and Command+Q -- but none seemed to work properly.

In Firefox, with numerous tabs open, Command+W closed the entire browser window rather than just closing a tab. Alt+Tab fared somewhere in the middle, doing absolutely nothing when pressed, while Command-Q took the cake.

Instead of simply closing a program, it actually tried to shut down my computer. Fortunately, the programmable keys seemed to be the only major hiccup I ran into while using Air Mouse Pro.

When closing the keyboard pane, you are presented with icons of each of the docked applications on your Mac. Even while scrolling along each program, the dock magnified just as if it were native to OS X. This isn't just an incredibly eye-catching feature -- having your core applications easily accessible is incredibly convenient... Especially when Alt+Tab isn't working.

Air Mouse Pro 2

The other options for the bottom part of the screen are controls for iTunes and a Web browser (in my case, Firefox). The commands within iTunes pane work expertly.

Beyond just being able to control playback, Air Mouse Pro works more like a sophisticated Apple Remote. You can access your library, Genius playlists, the visualizer and even the App Store, as well as a ton of other things. Everything worked flawlessly with iTunes.

Most of the same can be said about Air Mouse Pro's Web browser compatibility, save for one minor flaw in Firefox. There are not only navigational keys, but also buttons to add a new tab, open a new window and go right to the address bar.

Amongst the navigation keys, the 'Home' button didn't work properly in Firefox, but did work in Safari. The error likely occurs because there isn't a keyboard shortcut for Home in Firefox, so advanced users might appreciate an option to be able to change that on the back end of Air Mouse Pro.

The last feature in the app is its namesake. By clicking a button in the top right corner of the screen, the app evolves into an "air mouse", able to control a computer via movements performed in the air.

While everything technically worked properly, air mice can sometimes be a difficult adjustment. I imagine it would be useful for presentations, but even in that scenario, the regular trackpad is so fluid and easy to operate, I would probably still prefer it.

Even with some minor bugs and small shortcomings that I found throughout using it, Air Mouse Pro is truly sensational. While some might question the overall convenience of a regular trackpad app, it does its part to silence those critics by bringing so much more to the table. The app is full-featured and as intelligently designed as it gets. While there's a free (and tremendously less featured) version available, Air Mouse Pro is worth every cent of its $1.99 price tag.