Much of what I use computers, smart phones, and other internet appliances for involves my needing to integrate them into a network. I have carefully chosen some apps which further this means of connection of my tools such as EverNote, DropBox, and a few online tools (such as my Picasa web album for photos…). I have tried out some PC remote tools, which purport to give me the means to directly access and control my PC via either my iPad or iPhone. I have been using the Splashtop Remote apps and PC server software for about a week now and I am really impressed!
There are apps out there which could cost you well over $20.00 (just for the iOS app!), the Splashtop Remote PC software is free, and the iPad app was only a couple bucks… there was no need for any configuration of any of my gear, I just turned it on, and it worked. This app allows me to access my PC from my iPad while in the same WiFi network, I can actually type into this NetBook’s Microsoft Word app from the iPad, I can open up my Firefox install and actually watch flash videos…
About the only shortcoming in this as a system tool is that my NetBook has a less than gusto CPU (a real need for streaming in this manner), so I can see that streaming movies is a bit problematic. To be honest, this is not a make or break tool, I see it as a means to allow me to be pretty lazy on occasion (i.e. to pass on having to head back to the PC to access some information or to check on something…).
Another aspect of this app is that I can become a bit more iPad centric in how I conduct my work at home, and considering the fact that I have these three pieces of hardware staring at me, this makes the division of labor (across these tools) just a bit easier.
While I would imagine that in the business world the high priced apps would already rule this niche, I can see that this might be of some real value if you were a college student with your PC online in the dorms and with your iPad (in the same college network) you could take care of a lot of those potential undergraduate ‘faux pas’ situations (such as forgetting important documents for a class…)
