GETTING STARTED

So you have successfully installed XHub Media Center. So far all you have seen is a preference pane. The preference pane lets you launch and quit XHub, set various options and customize XHub to your liking. It also lets you copy remote plug-ins to the Desktop, if you prefer to control XHub with some other device than the Apple Remote. XHub can be controlled with virtually any remote, or even your cell phone or PDA. You will learn more about all of this later.

Now lets get started. First, launch XHub by clicking the Launch button. The status text will change from red to green. You only need to do this once. The next time you log in to your system, XHub will launch automatically (unless you choose to disable this option in the preference pane).

It is now time to press the MENU button on your remote. This will present the XHub full screen menu. You can now use your remote to navigate the menu by doing the following:

• Press the PLAY/PAUSE button to select a menu item.
• Press the DOWN ARROW button to scroll down in the menu.
• Press the UP ARROW button to scroll up in the menu.
• Press the LEFT ARROW button to scroll down ten items.
• Press the RIGHT ARROW button to scroll up ten items.
• Hold down any of the ARROW buttons for continuous scroll.
• Give the PLAY/PAUSE button a long press to put your system to sleep.
• Give the MENU button a long press to show and hide the VIRTUAL KEYBOARD.

To exit the hub and return to the desktop, you select the Exit menu item.

The VIRTUAL KEYBOARD is a convenient way to quickly find the menu item of your choice. It can come in handy when browsing long lists, such as the songs in your music library. When the keyboard is displayed, you can use your remote to perform searches by doing the following:

• Press the PLAY/PAUSE button to add a character to the search string.
• Press or hold any ARROW button to move the cursor.
• Press the MENU button to dismiss the keyboard and cancel search.
• Give the MENU button a long press to dismiss the keyboard and perform search.

The virtual keyboard is the SPECIAL ACTION in all browse menus. Special actions are always triggered by giving the MENU button a long press. It will trigger different actions depending on when you press the button. You will learn more about these actions later.

If you happen to have the keyboard at your fingertips, you can also perform searches simply by typing on it.

From the keyboard you can also take screenshots at any time, by pressing Command+S. Screenshots are saved in your pictures folder.

Of course, you can also control XHub from the keyboard. Use the arrow keys to navigate, space to select, escape to return to a previous menu and the return key to trigger special actions.

To enter or exit the hub you press Command+Option+Return.

Since XHub runs as a faceless background process (without an icon in the Dock), it cannot be force quit with Command+Option+Escape like other applications. Should XHub ever stall, use Command+Option+Q instead. XHub will then be force quit by XHub Helper (another daemon process). Command+Q exits hub normally.