Keyspan Express Remote review

Physically identical to the Keyspan Digital Media Remote, the Express Remote has one major new characteristic: it doesn't need to be connected to your Mac.

As the name suggests, it will happily connect to the USB port of an Airport Express base station and allow you to remotely control iTunes from there.

Before connecting, it is essential to update the base station firmware to version 6.1 or above through Software Update, as this includes all the necessary drivers. Once you have, though, there is no indication that anything has changed: no lights on the front of the sensor start blinking unless you're pressing a button, and there's no churning of your drive. After starting iTunes on either a Mac or PC, however, the act of sending the audio stream through your Airport Express-connected speakers associates the remote with your Mac - in exactly the same way as it would if it were connected directly to one of its own USB ports.

We were impressed by the simplicity of this all-in-one solution. The track transport controls behave exactly as you'd expect, and even the iTunes volume slider reacts to presses of the up and down volume controls on the remote.

Unfortunately many of the control's 17 buttons are unused in iTunes, as the remote has been built to work with a range of Mac applications, including PowerPoint. By default it is sensitive to iTunes' presence and gives it its full attention - whether it's in the foreground or not - so you shouldn't have PowerPoint and iTunes fighting for use of the control.

The controller itself is sleek and good-looking: physically identical to its predecessor, with two slim watch batteries in the back to keep down the bulk. Fortunately the grey-brown finish has now been jettisoned in favour of a more authentic Apple-esque ice white, which looks very fitting when the sensor is connected to your Airport Express.

In short, there is little we dislike about the Keyspan Express Remote. There is - literally - nothing to do when setting it up apart from plugging it in and starting up your Mac. The only thing that stops it getting full marks is the price, which at £44.99 is almost half the price of a base station, and a good £15 more than we'd be happy to pay.