iForgot Tutorial Blog

Largemouth Software is pleased to announce that we've updated iForgot to Version 1.4. In this version, we've continued to improve the software by adding the ability to chat with your mac. Rather than waiting for emails to flow back and forth, you can now chat with your Mac in real time. Search for documents, fax pages, forward emails, and do much more via commands that your Mac will recognize using plain english commands.

iForgot is now the must-have application for your iPhone and your Mac! It will make a great gift for your favorite Mac user; download a free trial version today.

When you need to search your computer for a document, but you're away from home, iForgot can help save the day. Here's how:

Once iForgot has been configured for use on your Mac, all you need to do is to ensure that Mail or iChat is left running on your Mac. When properly configured, iForgot will only respond to commands from accounts that you allow. When one of these authorized accounts send a message to your Mac, iForgot will process the message and respond to your command. Here's an example:

ifgt find the file named alien abductions

iForgot will use Spotlight to search your computer for all files with the words "alien abductions" in the title. When the files are found, iForgot will supply the top options for you to choose using a list of random numbers. To get the right document, simply reply with the corresponding random number. iForgot will then forward (or fax or email) that document as you requested. It's that simple!

Download a free trial version today.

If you are busy, then iForgot is like the ultimate insurance policy for your schedule. Why? Because just when you realize that you forgot to get something from your Mac before you leave, you'll be able to use iForgot to save the day. Sounds like a pretty grandiose claim, but this blog will explain why it's probably a fact!

iForgot is an application that looks for commands that you send to your Mac in short email messages. Because the "iForgot language" is short and abbreviated, you can quickly and easily send complex commands from your cell phone using short SMS messages. The articles in this blog will explain how to configure iForgot and your Mac to process emails, show some examples, and give you some ideas for customizing your Mac to do just about anything via a simple cell phone message or email command. Let's get started!

You can configure iForgot to respond to messages sent from your cell phone, BlackBerry, or Palm handheld. Any device capable of sending messages via SMS or email can talk to your Mac when using iForgot.

Using another computer, even a Windows computer, to control your Mac is easy with iForgot. Once you configure your Mac to respond to commands from an email account on a Windows computer, you can interact with your Mac using the same command language used on your cell phone.

iForgot works by reading emails sent to a specific address, and looks for a series of commands that match a valid command. The commands can start searches on your Mac, launch iPhoto or iTunes, run custom AppleScripts, forward documents, or take iSight snapshots using your Mac's camera. All commands will respond only to valid email accounts, but you can authorize commands to return results to other accounts specified in your iForgot command.

Here are some iForgot commands:

Spotlight Search Commands

• ifgt fi -f file name
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer for all files with the words you enter in place of "file name" in the name of the file, then replies with the list of found files.
• ifgt fi email@address -f file name
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer in the same manner as above, asks for your confirmation, then fowards the file you select to the email address in your command
• ifgt fi -c file contents
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer for all files with the words you enter in place of "file contents" in the contents of the file, then replies with the list of found files
• ifgt fi email@address -c file contents
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer in the same manner as above, asks for your confirmation, then forwards the file you select to the email address in your command

Fax Commands

• ifgt fx ####### -f file name
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer for all files with the words you enter in place of "file name" in the name of the file, asks for your confirmation, and then faxes the document to the phone number (#######) in your command
• ifgt fx ####### -c file contents
  Uses Spotlight to search your computer for all files with the words you enter in place of "file contents" in the contents of the file, asks for your confirmation, and then faxes the document to the phone number (#######) in your command

Custom Commands

• ifgt cm custom_name
  Executes the custom command that you set to "custom_name", which can be an application or your own custom AppleScript

iLife Commands

• ifgt it
  Starts iTunes to allow iTunes Sharing (if configured in your iTunes Preferences)
• ifgt ip
  Start iPhoto to allow iPhoto Sharing (if configured in your iPhoto Preferences)
• ifgt em
  Provides a summary of unread messages in all of your receiver computer's Email accounts and folders
• ifgt is
  Take a snapshot using your Mac's built-in iSight or attached DV camera and sends it to the authorized email account
• ifgt is email@address
  Take a snapshot using your Mac's built-in iSight or attached DV camera and sends it to the commanding email account with a Cc to the email address in your command

Setting up iForgot is a simple 3-step process, as explained below:

Step 1: Pick an Email address on your home computer to be the "Receiver Account"

Select an account on your home computer to which you will send iForgot commands from your mobile device or remote computer. This account should normally only be checked from your home computer, and should not be the same as your mobile device.

For example:  your_home_address@mac.com

Step 2: Add a New Mail Rule

In Mail, select "Preferences" and then "Rules". Create a new Mail Rule by clicking on the "Add Rule" button.
Make a new rule by clicking the "Add Rule" button. Set the Rule name to iForgot...
enter the Receiver Account address you selected in Step 1...
and configure the rule to run the "iForgot.scpt" AppleScript (found in the iForgot/Scripts folder) whenever a message "To" your Receiver Account is received.

Step 3: Configure iForgot's Behavior

Open the iForgot application and enter the appropriate entries in every tab. There are several account definitions you'll need to understand before proceeding:

• Receiver Account: the email account on the computer where you install iForgot, which will receive iForgot commands and send responses.
• Primary Control Account: the primary email account you will normally use to send iForgot commands. This account can be your cell phone, BlackBerry, handheld (known as a portable electronic device, or PED) or webmail account.
• Alternate Control Account: the secondary email account that will normally receive iForgot responses. This will normally be your work email address or a second PED.

To Confirm: Test iForgot

Send the following command from your portable electronic device or from one of your authorized control accounts: ifgt it
Once your Mac receives and processes this email command, your Mac should launch iTunes and send a confirmation command to the originating account.

Ever wonder what's going on at home while you're out and about? Want to see if you left the coffee maker on in your cubicle? Send a command to iForgot to take a snapshot and send it home or to your cell phone using a very simple iForgot command:

ifgt is

If you configured iForgot to allow snapshots, it will capture the scene from your Mac's iSight or FireWire DV Camera and send you the image.

You need a copy of that report you were working on, but you forgot to take a copy before you left, so you'll have to either start over, or waste the gas to drive all the way home. Luckily, you've got your cell phone and iForgot! There are two ways to search for information on your Mac remotely with iForgot: search by file name, or search by content. We'll first look at an example of searching by file name:

   ifgt fi -f Research Essay 2

iForgot sees that you want it to find ("fi") the file ("-f") with the words "Research", "Essay", and "2" in the title. iForgot uses SpotLight to search the computer's hard drive and finds several files that might be what you're looking for. iForgot sends the following message back to your cell phone to ask which file you want:

   iForgot: Query Results - text 'ifgt ###' to confirm.
   311: Research Essay 2.doc
   312: Physics Research Essay (Homework #2).doc
   313: An Essay on Excessive Homework and Research (2-5-06).pdf
   314: Homework #2 - Physics Lab Essay.pdf

Luckily, the first item in the list is what you're looking for. To prevent anyone from sending commands and getting documents from your computer, a short random number is generated for each item in the list. Since you want the first item in the list, you reply with the following command:

   ifgt 311

iForgot receives your confirmation and completes the original request by sending the file to you.

Searching by content is just as easy; simply change the command to use the content flag, which is "-c". For this example, we'll search by content, but we also want to forward the results to our gMail account since we'll want to use the report at the office:

   ifgt fi yourmail@gmail.com -c documented cases of ufo abductions

iForgot reads the message and uses SpotLight to find ("fi") the file that has the content ("-c") "documented cases of ufo abductions". Again, iForgot replies with the results of your query back to your cell phone to ask which document you really want:

iForgot: Query Results - text 'ifgt ###' to confirm.
561: What Happened That Night.doc
562: Twelve Cows Reported Missing.html
563: Amazing UFO Stories.pdf
564: Lights Spotted Above Phoenix.html

You reply with ifgt 563 to get "Amazing UFO Stories.pdf", and iForgot sends the document to your gmail account.

Remember, these commands will work the same whether sent from your cell phone or from another computer; as long as you configured iForgot to allow the commands from email accounts that you specify, iForgot will respond to your requests. Finally, if you forget the commands or make an error, iForgot will reply with a helpful reminder message.