A free iPhone “laser pointer” app is here to take over your Mac’s cursor. Simply point it at your screen, and the cursor will land right where you aim, like a Wii remote. Tap to click, hold to drag.
Or lay the iPhone on a desk and it becomes a trackpad for the Mac.
The iPhone Wii remote setup works over Bluetooth
Turning your iPhone into a trackpad gives you a convenient way to control your Mac without carrying an additional accessory. Your phone is already in your pocket, so you can use it to move the cursor, click, drag and scroll whenever you need to.
A developer who goes by the name Coolerwave shared about his project on X and posted the code on GitHub. They say the project — called AimMac — was written by Claude in about 10 minutes.
It has two parts: a Mac menu bar app that receives the signals and an iPhone app that sends them. The iPhone talks directly to the Mac using Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi or servers required.
Aiming works just like a laser pointer or a Wii remote. The cursor goes right where the top edge of your iPhone points thanks to the handset’s accelerometer and gyroscope.
You also get a full set of controls. Tap to click, double-tap to double-click and hold to drag. There’s a right-click button and a scroll strip as well. The iPhone also gets a trackpad mode. Simply lay it on a flat surface and slide a finger across your iPhone to move the cursor.
The Mac app smooths out motion and updates the cursor 240 times a second, with the phone reading its motion sensors 100 times a second.
How to try the iPhone Wii remote app
AimMac is not on the App Store. The GitHub page lists no ready-made download either, meaning you will have to build both apps yourself. The code is available for free under the MIT license, though.
To use it, you’ll need a Mac running macOS 14 or later and an iPhone with iOS 17 or newer. Xcode 15 is also required.
A free Apple ID will be enough to sign the apps, but apps installed that way stop opening after a week. That means you’ll have to run them again from Xcode.
An Apple Watch version is available in the repo as well, with the README saying it was tested on the Apple Watch Ultra running watchOS 26.6. It does say the watch app is new, so don’t expect it to work flawlessly.
The developer says they were inspired by an earlier project called WatchPointer, but AimMac was written from scratch.
Two small games — Orbit Pop and Duck Shoot — help you practice your aim before you try it on real work. Duck Shoot even has a dog that laughs when a duck gets away.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
