There's one golden rule about being a "tech guy": you're never ahead on everything.
The last few years I have presenting multimedia to my classes using a "clicker" to advance forward and back through my PowerPoint or Google Presentation slides. This thing didn't just click. It had a laser pointer!
This year, in a regular spate of clumsiness, my clicker slipped out of my hand and exploded upon impact with the floor. I replaced it with a Satechi smart pointer. To my forward and back functions (and the laser pointer), I now had scroll up and scroll down functions, which let me scan a page on the screen, not just a presentation.
Also, when I was standing at the right point, at just the right angle to my computer, I could switch to mouse mode and move the cursor north, south, east, or west to my destination on the screen and click objects thereon. This worked about 20% of the time for me.
I still had to to back to my computer if I wanted to switch between programs (PowerPoint to YouTube or VLC Player). I wasn't totally free.
I knew that there must be an app out there to solve my presentation problems. I wasted a lot of time looking for desktop remotes, but I wasn't trying to access files to my smart phone or Slate 7 tablet, I just wanted a way to get through a fabulous multimedia presentation for my students.
Eureka.
Today I found Unified Remote in the Google Play store, and my search is over. It took me five minutes to set up on my tablet and school desktop, with no additional thumb drives or plugins. Within two minutes after that, I was controlling my mouse from my tablet, starting & stopping Spotify without leaving the main screen, having a blast!
It's a reminder to everyone, that you can't find answers unless you ask the right questions--and when you ask technology to solve a basic problem like managing multimedia presentations, you're pretty sure to get an answer.
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