The whole thing feels like having iTunes in the palm of your hand. Once you authenticate your remote by entering a four-digit code—the iPhone or iPod touch needs to be in the same wireless network—it's all a matter of opening the application and starting to surf your iTunes library.

There are five sections on the remote:

Playlists
Here you have access to your personal playlists, just like in iTunes. This includes the smart playlists as well. All changes in iTunes are reflected in real time on the remote, just as you would expect.

Artists
This is a browser view by artist, which looks identical to the one on the iPod.

Albums
Same as Artists. Here you can see the artwork, streamed directly from iTunes.

Search
The search engine is a little bit weird but works great. It's live, so when you start writing, the results start to appear on the screen. However, you can't click directly on the list. When you are done writing whatever you're searching for, you click on the result list and it activates. Then you can scroll through it, with all your results neatly organized by Albums, Artists and Songs.

More
Here you will find access to the rest of the media in iTunes, from audiobooks to music videos and, of course, movies.

You can associate several libraries to the remote. There is a Settings button on the top left corner. When you click on it, you can Add Library and also turn on the Stay Connected option, which is listed under Performance. I don't know if this is related to Wi-Fi power consumption or just to the fact that, while being always connected, you won't need to reconnect after your iPhone wakes up.

There are no delays in the operation so far. Everything works fast and smoothly. Now, the only thing I want is having playback on the iPhone. Not just control iTunes remotely, but actually accessing the media from the iPhone or iPod touch, via Wi-Fi or 3G network. That would be the key to avoid having too little space: get an unlimited data plan and just access everything on your computer remotely. We can only hope that this is what Steve & Co. have in mind for the next version.

The App Store works great on the iPhone 2.0. Fast. Beautiful interface. Simple. It's localized, so you will require an account from the iTunes country you are accessing from (my Spanish iTunes account didn't allow me to download things from the App Store in the UK).

I'm installing the AIM client now. Doing video. Keep checking back.

6:28EST

The installation was flawless. The icon appears on your iPhone screen instantly and you can see a progress mini-bar showing how much is left. Over wireless, AIM for iPhone installed in a few seconds. Another video coming up now.

6:38EST
The navigation is very easy. The whole mechanism is more straightforward than Installer.app. You just use the store to buy things and the updates are presented on a dedicated screen. At the beginning I looked for a place to uninstall applications but nothing was there. The answer is simple: just go into the iPhone home screen, hold an icon for a few seconds and the X to delete the application will appear, just like when you add a web page to the homescreen.

6:47EST
Apparently some readers are reporting that some applications are not available in certain countries in the iTunes App store. I've yet to find this problem in the iPhone App Store, though. If you want me to try any apps, let me know.

7:04EST
I'm downloading applications left, right and center, including the new iTunes Remote application.

7:16EST

The search engine does it by keywords, apparently. New video on all the sections coming in a few minutes.

7:35EST
Here's how you uninstall any application on the iPhone. It couldn't be more simple.

7:39EST
Going to buy an app now. Probably Monkey Ball, but ping me with tips in AIM if you think something is better.

7:50EST
Second part of the walkthrough.

8:13EST
I've downloaded Monkey Ball but it's not working on my iPhone classic. Going to back it up to iTunes. Video of this coming up now.

The backup process started automatically as soon as I connected it, but it's taking a long time to complete.

8:52EST
Sorry for the delay, but I've been playing with the iPhone remote control and other apps. This is just too much fun. Feels like Xmas money. The quality of some of these applications is just amazing. A post on the purchasing process, which works exactly as the free stuff, one-click and install, is coming up in few minutes.

9:29EST
Here's a brief clip on the purchase of Monkey Ball. Very simple as I said, one click. It took ages to install because apparently it is really big.

Stay tuned for the Remote hand-on.

10:39EST
The remote hands-on is live here.