The VLC Remote comes in two flavours–regular and free. Both version can connect to any computer running VLC on your network to play/pause/skip tracks and videos and control the volume; the $US1 (for a limited time) version adds control of playlists, and a cool feature that lets you browse your hard drive for any media files and play them. To pair your computer with the remote, you need to download a quick setup assistant here.

If only VLC had better music library management (with iPod/iPhone) and seamlessly streamed to my Airport Express (you can do it with a $US25 add-on, but not natively), I could almost consider giving up iTunes all together. But for now, it remains the trustiest video player on any platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). Check out our friends at Lifehacker for more hands-on info. [VLC Remote Free (iTunes), VLC Remote (iTunes), Lifehacker]