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If Apple's Front row application leaves you wanting more, [Remote Buddy][1] offers a compelling alternative. Remote Buddy recently released RC 2 and offers a sixty day trial period for testing purposes.
Actually, saying that Remote Buddy is an alternative to Front Row is somewhat akin to saying a '68 Shelby Cobra is an alternative to Matchbox cars.
Let's face it Front Row is primitive and limited. If you want to do anything beyond listen to music or play a movie, you're pretty much out of luck.
Remote Buddy on the other hand can enable your Apple remote to do pretty much anything your mouse can do, and, since nearly all aspects of the program are customizable, you can set everything up just the way you want it.
Browse the web, thumb through Lightroom photos, check your news feeds in NetNewsWire, watch Joost, even check out Google Earth.
Rather than try to capture every possible thing you can do with Remote Buddy, which would lead to massive post, check out the rather long [demo movie][1] on the site which shows off the basics.
Remote Buddy works by creating specialized plug-ins known as behaviors. Remote buddy [ships with behaviors][3] for iTunes, iPhoto, Keynote 3, PowerPoint, Photo Booth, QuickTime Player, EyeTV 2, DVD Player, VLC Media Player, Real Player, Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro, CoverFlow, Quinn, GarageBand, NetNewsWire, MPlayer OSX, Safari, Firefox, Camino and many more.
And because the behaviors are plug-ins, it isn't hard to add your own. You will however need to crack open XCode and use the provided Remote Buddy SDK. There's another demo video on the site if you'd like to [see how it's done][2]. The less ambitious can always write an Applescript which Remote Buddy will happily execute.
I've been planning to wired a Mac Mini into an HDTV and use that as a centralized media server for my home. My original thought was to pick up a bluetooth mouse for controlling the mini, but Remote Buddy has proved more than capable of handling the job.
What's more remote Buddy supports a number of third party remotes which offer more buttons and control options than Apple's supplied remote. There's even limited support for a number of mobile phones.
Remote Buddy isn't free, but they are offer a limited time discount price of 10 Euro. Regular price is 20 Euro.
[1]: http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj_type=infogroup&obj_id=24&sid=3584343G9cee967beb96dbed&o_infogroup_objcode=infogroup-23 "Remote Buddy"
[2]: http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj_type=html&obj_id=123&sid=3584343G9cee967beb96dbed&sid=3584343G9cee967beb96dbed#video "Building Remote Buddy plug-ins"
[3]: http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj_type=infogroup&obj_id=23&o_infogroup_objcode=html-109&sid=3584343G9cee967beb96dbed "Behavior Options"
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