Today, we're thrilled to announce Alfred Remote for iOS is now available to buy on the iTunes App Store. We've been giving you teasers for a few months, but it's now well and truly here - and it's great fun to use!

What is Alfred Remote?

Alfred Remote is our first iOS application and a much-anticipated counterpart to Alfred on Mac.

Remote is your personal command centre for Alfred 2 for Mac. Your iPhone or iPad now becomes a perfect day-long companion to your Mac, providing you with handy icons on iOS to control many Alfred 2 actions on your Mac.

Replace your hard-to-remember hotkeys and keywords, launch apps, files and websites, control your music, keep useful text snippets at hand and boost your productivity by connecting Remote to your favourite Alfred 2 workflows.

How can I use Remote?

Alfred Remote is a counterpart app for Alfred 2 on Mac, allowing you to control your Mac via pages of useful icons on your iOS device. Alfred 2.6 needs to be running on your Mac, and you'll need to pair your iPhone or iPad as a Remote via Wi-Fi.

Here's a look at some of the Remote actions you can launch from your iOS device.

Launch Applications, Files and Folders

Create pages filled with apps, files, folders, browser bookmarks or System preferences you need most often and create a handy control centre to keep at your fingertips.

Use System Commands

Stepped away from your Mac and forgot to lock your screen? No problem, do it from Remote.

Control iTunes on your Mac

With the Powerpack activated on your Mac, control iTunes. Start a random album to get your day going, and rate those great tracks you'd forgotten about!

Connect Remote to your workflows

Now this is where things get really fun! Add a "Remote Trigger" to a workflow to allow you to launch it from your Remote. A single tap can launch multiple things; For example the "Morning tasks" action launches all of my essential websites and apps to start the day at once.

Workflow creators can also bundle actions or whole pages of Remote actions with their workflows; We'll be featuring Remote-friendly workflows in the next few days. [Powerpack feature]

Create Clipboard Snippets

Many Alfred users agree that their clipboard history and snippets have become an essential part of their Mac usage. To make these clipboard snippets even easier to use, create a page of frequently used snippets so that you can simply tap them to paste them to your frontmost application. [Powerpack feature]

Tell me more!

Over the next few days, we'll be featuring brilliant workflows that already take advantage of Remote; They add so much power and flexibility to your Remote, it's worth featuring them in a separate post or two! (There is a sneak peek of a few icons from Vincent de Saboulin's Spotify Mini Player in my workflows screenshot above!)

You'll find more documentation about the Remote actions on the Alfred Support site, and can chat with fellow users on the Alfred forum.

Over the next few days, we'll also be sharing our ideal Mac setup, including the iPad and iPhone stands we use to prop our devices next to our desk everyday.

Don't forget to help us get the word out about Alfred Remote; If you're enjoying using Remote, please leave a positive review in the iTunes App Store. And of course, if you have any issues and can't resolve them with the Support Site, don't hesitate to get in touch so we can help you out. :)

Cheers,
Vero & Andrew

This is a brief post to let you know that Alfred 2.6 is now in pre-release, ahead of this afternoon's general release of Alfred 2.6 and Alfred Remote for iOS.

You can update to the Alfred 2.6 pre-release to help us test it. If you don't yet follow pre-releases, you can do so by launching Alfred's Update preferences, choosing "Pre-releases" from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the preferences.

As Remote is not yet available in the iTunes App Store, the link to the App Store in Alfred's Remote preferences won't work yet. However, you'll be able to start creating pages for your Remote and setting up your workflows to include Remote triggers.

Stay tuned for more updates as soon as Alfred Remote for iOS is available later today :)

Update: You can now find Alfred Remote on the iTunes App Store and grab Alfred 2.6 in Alfred's Update tab on your Mac.

Happy new year! I hope you've all had a relaxing Christmas and a productive start to the new year.

We just wanted to give you a brief update on Alfred Remote's hotly anticipated release. We submitted Alfred Remote to Apple for review on 15th December and are eagerly awaiting approval. iTunes Connect closes over Christmas and, undoubtedly, the reviewers have a lot of catching up to do!

Once we get the green light from Apple, we'll put Alfred 2.6 for Mac into beta for testing for a week or so, as this build not only contains the necessary server and preferences to connect to Alfred Remote, but also a number of fixes and improvements.

During this time, we'll make all the final touches to the website and support documentation, in preparation for a smooth release. In the meantime, we're stockpiling coffee to help us through the weeks that will follow the release.

If you haven't heard about Alfred Remote yet, take a look at our First Look at Alfred Remote post.

In October, we gave you a sneak preview of Alfred Remote. Since then, we've been working our socks off to polish every aspect of the app, from networking stability to user experience. Remote is lightning fast and downright awesome to use, and we can't wait to share it with you.

We're thrilled to say that Remote has now been submitted to Apple for app review. We now await Apple's approval with bated breath. Until then, we'll be taking some time to rest and relax over Christmas, getting ready to release Remote in January.

You've been wonderful this year, with more great workflows created than ever before and our fun, friendly community continuing to grow. We have great plans for 2015, and can't wait to make you more productive than ever with Alfred and Remote. :)

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas, and we'll see you in the New Year!

Cheers,
Andrew & Vero

With Christmas on its way, we're counting down the days with our very own calendar.

Until Christmas Eve, every day, a new box will open, filled with tips for using Alfred, fun links to things we love and, who knows, perhaps a deal or two on apps we love!

Today is day 2 of the calendar, and this entry is a little different. We're sharing the love with more than just you, our lovely Alfred users. We'll be donating £1000 GBP to WaterAid. Water is the source of life, and clean water is a luxury we often take for granted when we turn on the tap in the morning.

WaterAid helps provide water and sanitation to millions of people around the world, transforming the lives of these communities through access to clean water, toilets and health education.

Don't forget to bookmark the Alfred Christmas Calendar to see what's behind the door every morning until 24th December!

[Image credit: WaterAid/Layton Thompson]