Twitter at your Intelligence Services

It has been a bit over two years since I started working with Apple products. It all began with my lovely Elena's desktop IMac G3 that surprised me by its performance -acceptable with some memory enhancing - despite its age. Today I have a love affair with my Mac book pro.
The mac world is different. Intuitive, straight forward, open and most of all, it is safe if compared to PC's. The cost of licenses and updates of virus protection software makes up the for the price difference, on the long run, in a Windows X Mac machine choice, both of the same level.

It is not my intent here to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each OS. But to discuss the set of services available for Mac that increases astonishingly.

My job obliges me to concentrate full-time on Windows based servers, stations, products and gadgets.
My personal life induces me to be in contact with, to follow and to seek what is new on mac world. Now and then I come accros some superb stuff. Yesterday was one of this days, when you find out a new trick, that sets you wandering. For mac users, intelligence freaks, and part-time or pro spies, here it goes: The once only windows service capable of remotely control your PC is now available to Mac. Via Twitter!

TweetMyPC, a free utility that lets you control your PC from anywhere has just been ported to Mac. The new app is called TweetMyMac and, like its elder Windows cousin, you can use TweetMyMac to send commands to your Macbook over the web from any other computer or even a mobile phone (via a text message).

How it works?

It is a matter of installing the app on your Mac and associate it with a Twitter account*. Then send a regular tweet with the command wrapped in (for example, shutdown or sleep). The app on the Mac, checking for your tweets at a given interval will perform the required action on the remote Mac computer as it acknowledges the twitter stream.

*A separated Twitter id (with “protected” updates) for sending remote commands to your Mac.

Into Practice

Using TweetMyMac you can perform all sorts of tasks on your Mac, remotely:

1. Shutdown (to shutdown your Mac immediately without saving any files) or Sleep (for putting your Mac in sleep mode).

2.Screenshot - If you want to know what applications are open on your Mac desktop, send the “screenshot” command - the picture of your desktop will again be uploaded to twitpic.

3. iSight - This is great if you want to know what’s happening in the surroundings. Send the iSight command and the app will take a picture with the built-in iSight web camera and will upload it to Twitpic.

It is important to notice tha this app is in beta and obviously it should always be running on your Mac computer for receiving commands. Due the early stage of services expect some bugs.

Applications

It is the possible evolution of this service that amazed me, specially with the camera:

Shut down or put your Mac to sleep may be very handy if for some reason you have visit at home and you are not there, for example.

But real business lies ahead, with the possibility of using custom shell commands, it is possible to work around some solutions to obtain not only pictures, but video streaming. Just a glimpse of what may become possible very shortly:

Security:Set up a group of cameras relayed to your mac to build own home security system and control it from work, at the club or while on vacation (but leave your Mac home!).

Surveillance: You place your mac strategically to: check your office when you are away, keep an eye on the babysitter at home or what your teens are up to when you are not there.

Spying: Imagine the following scenario; Very important decisions are being made in a closed door meeting in a large corporation. All the board is present to discuss the strategic plan for the next three years. Inside the room, an inoffensive Macbook sits quietly on the very next table..................