If, like me, you pipe all your music into your living room using your PC then you might be interested to know about Bluetooth Remote Control. This simple app transforms your Windows Mobile Smartphone into a remote controller for your PC, giving you the power to control apps such as Winamp, Windows Media Player and Powerpoint from the comfort of your sofa.

Windows: Fed up of using the Start menu to launch programs all the time? Then install Launchy on your machine and improve the way you run programs. Launchy indexes the programs in your Start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! Best of all, once Launchy is run, it hides in the background.

Mac: Want to make good use of your Mac's remote control? Remote Buddy 1.11.1 is an ideal application to work with the device. You can browse through all your videos, music, files and pictures. Remote Buddy is fully customizable and can be set any way you want it to work. You'll find it also works great with mobile devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Pocket PC: Why phone someone when you can chat with them using instant messaging? If you're hooked on IM then you may want to install Slick, a free messaging client that lets you communicate with friends via AIM, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ. Among the program's array of features are the ability to share files, view chat history and set up alerts.

Many of the new phones that come out these days are equipped with Bluetooth capabilities. So if you've bought a mobile within the last year or so chances are you have it on your device (to find out just look for the little blue icon shown here). But how many times have you actually done anything with Bluetooth? Do you even really know what you can do with Bluetooth? Well, it's high time you started exploring the capabilities of this wireless technology because you can have a lot of fun with it, as well as saving yourself time and money. Here are some of the neat things you can do using Bluetooth on your phone.

Play games

Many mobile games these days allow you to play remotely against your buddies over Bluetooth. It makes for a much faster and cheaper solution than playing over the Internet. It's particularly suitable for turn-based games such as pool (try Mobile VR Pool or Pool for UIQ); darts (3D Lawn Darts or Power Dart); or racing games like MGS Karting and V-Rally.

Chat

Obviously phones are specifically designed for chatting, but speaking into the receiver or sending an SMS is not always necessarily the best way of doing it. Applications such as BuZZone, SYMBTChat or Bluetooth Chat allow you to communicate via text messaging without paying for it!If you're interested then have a look at the post I wrote earlier this year explaining how to chat via Bluetooth.

Sharing stuff

One of the most common uses for Bluetooth this one, and you may have even tried it yourself. Bluetooth makes it dead easy to quickly share a photo, ringtone, video or any other kind of file with your pals. Most devices make this a very simply procedure and you'll normally find an option to 'send via Bluetooth' with any multimedia you have stored. If you're having difficulties, try installing a mobile file manager such as Resco Explorer to facilitate more seamless sharing.

Remote control

Another cool thing you can do with a Bluetooth-enabled phone is rig it up to your PC or Mac and use it to control your computer. For instance, Bluetooth Remote Control allows you issue commands to apps such as Winamp, Windows Media Player and Powerpoint, using your Windows Mobile device. Other apps that do something similar include Smart Remote and irRemote Control.

Avoid people

If you're anything like me then you hate bumping into people you don't like in the street and being forced to make chit-chat. Thanks to the power of Bluetooth you can detect and avoid anyone you don't want to come across. Install BlueRadar and you'll be able to track where people are on a cool, James Bond-style radar display.

There are three simple ways to check and control uTorrent remotely: two browser-based, and a little Android app that is just as easy to use as the uTorrent desktop client.

First of all, you need to open Preferences in uTorrent, click on 'Remote', then enable remote access. Give your computer a name and associated password and you're ready to go:

To connect remotely, use one of the following three methods:

Windows: If you ever need to control someone's activities on the computer, Activity Monitor is the app you need. This full featured monitoring tool will keep an eye on any remote PC, watching and recording keystrokes, active apps, opened webpages and more, while silently running in the background.

Mac: Looking to make new friends and use the camera on your Mac? Camfrog Video Chat lets you join live streaming video chat rooms and interact with other users. The video quality is generally very good, although it will depend on your connection and the quality of your webcam. Camfrog Video Chat gives you access to a wide range of chat rooms where you'll be able to make plenty of friends.

Pocket PC: If you want wireless but don’t fancy buying a wireless router, or if you’re trying to establish a connection away from home then get a load of WMWifiRouter. As the name suggests, the program transforms your Pocket PC into a mobile router for wireless Internet access. The free software utilises the UMTS or EDGE protocols to connect to other mobiles.

Need to safely access your files over a remote connection yet worried about how difficult it may be to set up? Not to worry, FarFinder offers a simple Finder interface which can be easily accessed from anywhere. The application will generate a simple URL which will give you access to your folders. The best thing about it? The special interface for the iPhone.

With a package of system utilities like SysInternals Suite you'll always have the right app for every need. This complete collection of tools enables you to have full control over your system, including running processes, DLL files, presence of malware and much more. Just unzip it into any folder and you're ready to go!

Bluetooth is great for quickly transferring files wirelessly, but one of the things that annoys me about the transfer protocol is that when you send a file or document from one device to another, the file always ends up in the same folder on the receiving device. Step forward moBlue, a free Pocket PC application that lets you set the folder to save Bluetooth-sent files.

Windows: If you use iTunes to listen to music but your keyboard doesn't have media keys, controlling the playback can be a pain - unless you use iTuner. This awesome iTunes plug-in not only lets you control the player with customizable keyboard hotkeys, but also displays a desktop notification with each new song and gives you access to ratings and lyrics.

iPhone: Want to remote control your computer from your iPhone? LogMeIn Ignition is an app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that lets you access your Windows or Mac OS X machine(s) while you're away from base. And we don't mean you can just see the files - the software actually displays your computer's interface in real time and allows you to control it as if you were sat there!

Mac: Animations made with a couple of videos, pictures and music can really look great if you take the time to prepare them. PulpMotion gives you everything you need to prepare a stunning moving slideshow. It includes a number of visual themes you can choose from to start working with. The interface itself is very easy to handle working in a similar way to iMovie.

As more of us work away from the office these days, not me I must point out, it seems increasingly important to have control of your desktop PC at all times. This can be done by employing a good secretary or having a mobile software solution such as Remote Desktop for Mobiles. With this app you can send and receive emails, surf the internet, edit Word documents and search, save and transfer files. Pretty much everything you normally do when sat at your desk.

Imagine if you could watch your TV, or the saved contents of your SkyPlus, Tivo or HD hard drive anywhere in the world and even on your phone. That's exactly what SlingPlayer offers, meaning you'll never be far away from your favourite programs. For anyone who lives abroad, or is going to be away from home this Christmas, this player is an absolute dream. Elegant, simple to use and offering superb image and sound quality, it's a giant leap forward in broadcasting.

However, you will need to make sure that you have a Slingbox. A Slingbox is basically a slim device that sells for around $130 in the US (and approximately 200 pounds in the UK) that attaches to your digital TV's hard drive. It assigns an IP address to it thus allowing anyone with an internet connection to access it at any time (as long as it is switched on of course). The user simply has to download SlingPlayer which takes you through a very simple setup process. First, you are shown a series of simultaneous video images running in parallel and you have to choose which one appears to be the best quality on your screen. This optimises the image quality for your connection. Then you simply need to enter the ID of your Slingbox plus a password. Simply click "Watch" and within seconds, depending on your connection, you'll be watching your TV as if you were in your lounge!

The program features a big chunky remote control too which allows you to control your TV hard drive as if you were at home. This includes access to your saved and recorded programs and even pay per view programming. The only downside is that only one user at a time may be connected to the Slingbox at one time and I suspect this may be due to broadcasting restrictions. Even if you don't buy one yourself, it's worth making a friend in another country who has one, and then you can share your TV with them and vice versa. Even in full screen mode though, image and sound quality are excellent with virtually no blips in reproduction or streaming.

Note that, the download featured here is for the US player but if your Slingbox is in the UK, or another country, you'll have to download the appropriate player for that Slingbox from the developer download page.

Every so often, I review an app that I think is super cool - but I can't think of a single use for it. RemoteDroid is one of them. This application for Android - and its corresponding Windows/Mac server - allows you to to use your mobile as a wireless mouse and keyboard.

Setting RemoteDroid up is very easy, especially on a home network or other straightforward wireless connection. Install the app on your phone, and the server on your computer. When you open the mobile app, it will ask you for the IP address that appears when you open the server. Type it into your Android, and you're set up. The server window also gives you a few instructions on how to use your phone as a mouse/keyboard, but it's simple and should come to you pretty naturally.

Using RemoteDroid is much more comfortable that you would think. Most users will already be used to typing on the Android, and moving from window to window and program to program is relatively simple. While browsing forums about RemoteDroid, I saw one user with a good suggestion for the app - using it to change series while watching TV that's streamed from your computer. Unfortunately, I don't have a TV, and my living room is probably too small to warrant a remote anyway. Oh well, RemoteDroid is still a cool app, and I'm confident that if I keep it on my phone for long enough, I'm sure to find a use for it one day.

Windows: Evri Toolbar brings the semantic web to your browser. What's that? Well, you get much more intelligent search results, multimedia content, related terms and much more. It's still only in beta, but it looks fantastic and makes a Google search seem very last year. It's especially good at things like bands and names of people, although it's a bit weak if you search for "table"!

iPhone: Ever wished you could tap into your iTunes library on your computer using your iPhone? Well, Remote allows you to do just that - and more! Remote gives you the power to control not only the music on your computer, but also on your Apple TV. This is all done using your iPhone or iPod Touch. The application is able to handle playlists and lets you browse your complete multimedia library.

Mac: If you're creative when it comes to icons, then try Opacity for size. Opacity covers three graphical areas for icons - applications, icons and the web. It offers the traditional pens, colors and zoom tools. You can use some of the templates to get working right away or start from scratch by selecting one of the different shapes and create your own interfaces, buttons and much more.