I’ve been using Splashtop since last Summer, and most especially since LogMeIn dropped their free service but was surprised that I never got round to speaking of it. This is (to date) the best Remote Control app available, and is completely multiplatform, so that Macs and PCs (and Ubuntu Linux Machines, which is a pity as I use Debian) can be connected to over the network (Wired or WiFi) for free.
I did spend £2.99 on their Access Anywhere Pack which means that I can connect to machines over the Internet, but this is a good low (annual) cost, I reckon and nothing like the £20 a month that LogMeIn wanted to charge for (frankly) less.
Once you have the Streamer Client on your Mac/PC, it shows up on the list and you can control it remotely from another PC or from a tablet/phone. You can then do whatever you want to as if you were at that machine. In most circumstances, that means dropping a file off the sever onto dropbox so you can pick it up at a meeting. This has been my main use of it, either that or fixing my Mother’s computer remotely.
On a tablet, there are a number of display modes which make use easier – you can tap around it like a little mouse, or use like I do usually and go into “trackpad” mode, which has a couple of soft mouse buttons overlaid as you can see above. You can easily call up an android keyboard for text input and even swap the screen you are viewing – this is the laptop screen, but you can just swap it to the “projector” screen and see what is there, which is excellent to use as a wireless remote monitor when I am celebrating at the altar and want to see what is behind me…
There is a very small timelag, but I don’t really find this a problem. For most display purposes, even over 3g,, this is fine. They claim you can stream movies to your tablet with it, and I certainly have done with little lag or problem; I have also streamed audio files from the machine downstairs to my tablet upstairs very effectively.
I tried to illustrate this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AevCEHismOQ
This is their promo video:
Have a go – the personal version is free, or a small cost for the Access Anywhere pack greatly helps when you are anywhere where you need remote access.
I like and use Splashtop, but I also recommend Jump Desktop, which ties to a gmail account and works remotely and locally. It also supports Windows 8.1’s RDP protocol, which uses Windows 8.1’s own touch integration and keyboard. When I run Jump on my tablet it is like having a Windows 8 tablet in my hand! It handles portrait resolutions too which I like. I also use it on my laptop when I working from the church office, so I can switch between local and home PC. This means I can cheerfully download and compress a video ‘At Home’ on my faster i5 and media drive whilst sitting in the Church Office working on a presentation. Speaking of media, I am completely in love with Plex – I can rip a DVD at home then it will Stream it anywhere at all!