We’ve covered a lot of apps which let you control your Mac from afar. Well how about being able to ‘see’ your Mac from anywhere in the world, using only your tiny iPhone! VNC is something that has scared me for a while now, but I thought I’d have to take the plunge and have a look at one of these apps at some point of time.

The first name that pops up when you ask about VNC on the iPhone, is Jaadu VNC. But at $25, it’s a little too expensive. Looking around, I was pleased to find a much cheaper app, RemoteTap. Looking through the specs, it seems to be a very capable app, with a pleasant UI.

Installation

Considering that I had already set up my router and Mac to have a permanent IP address, the setup was super simple. At first, I couldn’t get the connection to work, but then ReadPixel’s prompt support told me to just change the port number, and things were fine after that. RemoteTap 2.0 (yet to be released) is supposed to have auto router configuration, so you won’t need to do a thing.

On the iPhone end, you can add multiple computers for VNC. Means you can control multiple Macs (yes, it’s Mac only) with just one copy of RemoteTap, as the server software is a free download. To set up your iPhone, all you need is the IP address, and the password if you have assigned one in the RemoteTap preference pane. 

Seeing your Mac from afar

Once set up, getting into your Mac desktop is just a tap away, always. I’ve tried this on multiple internet connections, and it has always worked. The output quality is astounding, especially when you go to 1:1 pixel mode. The refresh rate caught up fairly quick on my 256k (64k up) connection, so I’m guessing it will be super fast on a real broadband connection. I haven’t used it on EDGE yet.

Day to day use

To move around, you simply drag your finger across. Pinch to zoom in, and double tap to go 1:1 or zoom out. If you want to click something, tap on the mouse icon and you can click and drag stuff. Fairly simple to use and navigate around. I would still prefer to use Air Mouse for direct mouse movements, but otherwise the mouse is fairly functional. 

The keyboard is also feature rich, including all the modifier keys like Cmd, Opt, as well as arrow keys. RemoteTap also features a slim keyboard, as well as a presentation keyboard with a laser pointer!

New in 1.6, RemoteTap has an application control view. Tap the app control, and it overlays a list of all your apps. You can then launch, hide, or quit them with a single tap. Very useful and very efficient.

Coming in 2.0

• Autofocus: A way by which the zoom automatically changes according to the window size of the current active window. Should be interesting.
• Magnifying Glass: Tap and hold to get a magnification loupe, which you can then use to make precise mouse clicks.
• A much better icon (what were they thinking!)

More for info and screenshots of 2.0, visit the app homepage.

My Recommendation

If remote management is your need of the hour, RemoteTap will not disappoint. At $7 at the App Store, it is very affordable for what it can do (there are a lot more features than I’ve mentioned here). The support team is very helpful, and they have a lot of guides prepared for setting up your router. I haven’t used Jaadu VNC so I can’t say whether it is better than RemoteTap, so if you have an opinion about that, please share. 

Get RemoteTap from the App Store, or visit the RemoteTap homepage for more info.

Want to make your iPhone browsing experience even more awesome? Bring it closer to some of the functions of your desktop browser? Similar to Pastebud’s solution, iPuhelin has introduced a bunch of bookmarklets that allow your mobile Safari to do a lot more things that it could, without any jailbreak. 

The biggest feature in my opinion is the Find function. You can search for a word, and it tells you how many matches along with highlight all those words in your web page. They also have bookmarklets for ‘scroll to bottom’, ‘find similar sites’, ‘display all images’ and a bunch of translation options. I’ve tried most of these bookmarlets and they work just as advertised. Highly recommended for all iPhone or iPod Touch users. 

To add them all you need to do is visit Safari+, bookmark the pages, and then remove some text as specified by the instructions. I’d highly suggest you do this on the desktop and then let MobileMe sync them over, as it will be much quicker that way.

8 hours behind schedule, the iPhone Dev-Team has finally announced the sources for the iPhone 3G unlock. 10 days after the unlock was demoed on Qik, millions of iPhone 3G users around the globe thronged to the team’s blog, waiting for an announcement. To their dismay, it was announced (albeit in a cryptic message), that the unlock would only work on the 02.28.x baseband version, something which the team had originally advised not to update to.

If you’ve been waiting for the gods of unlock to shower some love on your iPhone, here’s what you’ll need.

» An iPhone 3G with 02.28 baseband version (Goto the Settings app » General » About ; then scroll to the very bottom). If it’s not, update your phone to the latest software using iTunes. 
» Your phone should be jailbroken. You can either use Pwnage Tool or QuickPwn for this.
» Launch Cydia or Installer.app and add the following sources:

Cydia source: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
Installer repo: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/

» Download and install yellowsn0w, return to Cydia and reboot.

As always, the team maintains that this is a beta release, so proceed at your own risk. They are updating the original blog post with new information as they receive it from users who’re trying the unlock. If you’re the over cautious nerd, we’d advice to wait a couple more days before they iron out the tweaks. Of course, we want to hear your story, so irrespective of success or failure, let us know how it goes!

[More details on the Dev-Team’s Blog]

Continuing onward from our last week’s look at Puzzle Games on the App Store, we’re going to take a look at Word Puzzles on the App Store.  Word Puzzles have long been popular, making appearances in newspapers, children’s fun books, magazines and now they’ve paved their way onto the App Store.

WordsWorth

WordsWorth comes from a team of Indian creative minds called 99Games Online. Based out of Mangalore, India, [Milind: hey! That’s my native land!] 99Games has a bunch of puzzle games available in the App Store, WordsWorth being their latest offering. But, what exactly is WordsWorth?

WordsWorth is a fun, interactive word puzzle game wherein the objective of the game is to find words from a collection of letters scrambled in the form of a honeycomb looking grid. Although this sounds simple, it is quite difficult to find out and trace the words from the grid. You may either tap each alphabet to form a chain forming the word, or you can trace out the word chain by dragging the path. You are awarded points based on the length of the word and the alphabets chosen. The top of the game tells you how much a word formation will reward you before the submitting. Continue Reading »

Mac mini rumours and mockups aside, we’re seeing an increase in iPhone nano rumours. First we see the report on TUAW, where a chinese case manufacturer is seen offering a case for an iPhone nano. 

Now a source that has accurately leaked information about the iPhone 3G and 4G iPod nano has jumped into the fray. XSKN began selling iPhone 3G cases in mid-May of 2008, almost 2 months prior to the release of the 3G. In early September, XSKN was showing off new 4th Generation iPod nano cases. - Steven Sande for TUAW. 

Next, we have macrumours with an anonymously submitted press shot of the iPhone with it’s smaller brother, the iPhone nano. I do have the strange feeling that it’s a fake though. It’s not too difficult to attain that kind of an image. Besides the strange feeling there are so many areas where you can tell that the pictured nano is just a shrunken iPhone 3G.

Macrumors wants to think of this as a concept design for the sake of discussion and debate. I think, it’s something nice to look at this holiday season. 

That said, I think an iPhone nano would do great. Apple could decrease the screen size to 2.5” while keeping the same resolution, and have the same features across both models. Or, they could reduce the screen size even further, along with the resolution, while excluding the App Store from the equation. I can see how the keyboard will be a tad bit difficult to tap on, but one of those dual-key intelligent keyboards could be implemented. The iPhone nano is definitely possible.

Of course, I’m sure you know that I’m just speaking out of my head, which is so far yet to accurately predict anything out of Apple. So considering I’ve spoken about this (and the fact that Apple won’t make an iPhone nano), the probability of the iPhone nano seeing the light of day is next to zero. Your thoughts?

The creater of FlickrExport for iPhoto and Aperture, the first one out with a Flickr app for the iPhone, and the one who made the news with the first rejected app on the App Store “Podcaster”, has decided to give Exposure a new name. Say hello to Darkslide!

Well actually, there’s a little more to it than just a change in name (read all about that on Speirs’ blog). The new feature in Darkslide 1.5 is the ability to upload photos to Flickr! Imagine that! Another major change is the apparent price drop to $3.99 (which the developer claims is a limited time offer). The free app of course will do all that the paid version does, except for the ads strewn about the limited 320x480 pixels of your iPhone’s screen. 

For those who have no idea about what Exposure was all about, it’s the best flickr app on the App Store. You can see your photos, your contacts photos, check out the featured section, places, groups, comments, sets, tags, favourites (should I go on?), and use the location features to see all pictures clicked near you. 

I tried the upload feature, and it works really well. You can directly snap a new picture or select one from your library, add the title, description, tags as well as attach your current location. 

Overall, Darkslide is a terrific flickr app for the iPhone. The UI is well thought out, and the features are endless. Try out the free version if you just want to test out the waters. At $3.99 [iTunes link] it is well worth it.

Did you know that the App Store got more than 20 new farting applications in 1 week? See for yourself [iTunes link]. I remember when everyone was complaining about how Apple was being ‘selective’ about App Store approvals, and that were making a decision based on ‘taste’ rather than on the technical quality of the apps. Well this is it folks.

The problem is, that not only are these apps coming in droves, they are also making it to the top 10 lists! Number 3 and 4 are occupied by two such apps. Cheap as they are, The problem is that Apple is powerless in this regard. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t kind of scenario.

The only solution as I see it is Apple introducing something like an App Store Elite. Apple could be very choosy about this store, and only approve what they feel are good apps without allowing duplicates to enter. That way no one can complain about Apple being choosy, nor can they complain about it being more of a CrapStore. Of course, this will mean Apple admitting that their App Store is full of craps, and adding a whole lot of confusion in the process, which is why I’m not the CEO in the first place. 

Personally I’ve had the displeasure of using the iFartz Mobile [iTunes link], which I must say it is extremely disgusting and repulsive. I particularly like the ‘security fart’ feature, which makes a noise the moment someone touches your iPhone. All of my friends found this very amusing, which also made me realise the quality of my friends. If it’s a disgusting, repulsive, obscene and feature rich fart application that you’re looking for, you can’t go wrong with iFartz Mobile. If it’s not, I understand how you feel.

This week’s App Store reviews are all about games. We it had to be, considering that it is the most popular category in the App Store. For this roundup we have puzzle based games, namely Crossbones and Deep Green Chess. 

Crossbones

A newly set up software development company, New Insect Overlords get their first game out in the App Store. One of the developers, Steve Sprang, previously worked solo on the App Store developing the drawing app “Brushes” [iTunes link] all by himself. Well actually, for a person like Steve, Brushes should be a piece of cake. After all, he did work at Apple for 7 years developing the iWork office suite. An original member of the Keynote team, he left Apple to start off his iPhone development dreams (I guess he stayed in the family).

Enough about Steve and more about Crossbones.

Crossbones is a challenging and addictive pirate-themed puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Match cards as fast as you can to collect pirate loot. Play solo or against computer opponents in single player mode. Challenge your friends over the internet using either Edge or Wifi or play on a local network.

Like that made any sense. I fired up the game and briefly looked through the tutorial. For the first five minutes I didn’t know what I was doing. But once you get to know the concept, the game is really interesting, and challenging. I would say Crossbones is a very intelligent form of tetris. You need to be quick at looking colours, objects and well, a few other things to be able to put them together to form groups. I won’t try and explain the concept, as the only way to understand the game is to play it. Continue Reading »

I have serious issues with the Remote.app that Apple makes for the iPhone. I had written about it, but it was shot down in the back end by the team members, so I guess that story will never reveal itself. Recently my iMac’s remote battery died out, and instead of putting in a new one, I thought why not try and see whether I can do with just one device, my iPhone. 

My first lookout was finding an exact copy of the Apple plastic Remote. A search later, I was checking out jfControl Remote, which besides its odd name, seemed to be very functional. So I decided to take it for a spin.  Setup was super easy with the Bonjour networking, and within minutes I had the app up and running. One of my main complaints of the Remote.app is its lack of Front Row support. jfControl doesn’t have the best of UIs, most of which feels very XP-like, but it is fully functional. I could control iTunes, Front Row, DVDs, Keynote, and although it boasts of being able to control Finder, I couldn’t see myself using that. 

Like I said, the UI is something that needs a lot of work. It has rounded bright buttons that seem to have come out of some cheap stock icon pack. It also has extra buttons (for instance, play and pause instead of play/pause) and the placement of everything keeps changing. I won’t base my judgement just yet, seeing as the app is fully functional and is super easy to set up. For $2.99, it is well worth it if you can get past the cheezy icons. My next move, AirMote. 

It is funny when you see jfControl as the top “Customers also bought” app in AirMote, and the other way round in jfControl’s iTunes page. Seems like people aren’t happy with either of them? Let’s see about that.

AirMote installation is not so simple. First of all I had to jump through links to find the guide on how to set up the Mac to accept connections, and then go inside system preferences and check mark some scary settings. Not difficult, but not as easy as a dedicated server app.

Once things are set up everything works fine, and you can then easily set up a new Mac instead of having to download a server app. I was pleased to find AirMote featuring the exact same Apple Remote, and is very easy to operate. Unfortunately, the UI looks fugly and well, late 90s Linux-like. AirMote also features a second layout with a bunch of more buttons. You can focus the dock, menubar, switch windows and basically use the remote as your mouse. However, I didn’t find it intuitive at all and couldn’t control much with the second layout. 

AirMote can be used to control Plex, your DVD player, and a bunch of other things once you get the hang of it. And besides the clunky UI, the installation procedure, AirMote is a pleasant remote app that works just fine.

Looking at both, I can say that they are both functional and viable alternatives to the Apple Remote, but the off hand UIs kind of put me off. For myself who needs only the Front Row functionality, I’d choose AirMote($4.99) [iTunes link]. However, if I wanted to control more than Front Row, I’d choose jfControl ($2.99) [iTunes link] as it’s alternative UIs are better than AirMote’s. And as with all App Store apps, things are always changing. Devs are always willing to listen to customers fill in all the shortcomings. AirMote will be getting a lot of new layouts as well as some UI tweaks. I haven’t talked to the jfControl dev yet, but I’m sure there’s something cooking there as well. 

If you are looking for a ‘control everything’ solution, check out AirMouse ($4.99) or wait a while as I continue to look through other remote solutions.

Like any other week, there is always some App Store madness to report on. The first bit came when Air-O-Matic’s Pull My Finger [iTunes link], the fart application finally made its way into the App Store. Yes, the same one that got rejected a couple of months ago. So why now Apple? According to what an Apple rep told the developer, Apple is introducing a whole new genre of what can only be called ‘Stupid & Useless’ apps into the App Store. 

“The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn’t want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this ‘genre’ of apps were going to be handled,” he added. “She told me they’d be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed.”

While I’m glad that the whole ordeal of everyone suddenly wanting – no, needing – a farting application, but I seriously  wonder what the implications of this new development are. Soon there will be hundreds of these apps with seemingly no use, but Apple will have no control over whether or not they are allowed. They will inadvertently make their way into the top 10 lists, and the good apps that have utility will be lost in the thousands. We hope Apple uses some discretion in approving these apps. 

The second bit of news, is the surprising rejection of a contacts app “Peeps” that uses Cover Flow to display contacts. First of all, why are rejections always made a big thing out of? Actually, it appears that an apps ticket to fame is it getting rejected. I can only imaging a dev’s disappointment when an app goes through without a hitch. Now I believe John Gruber was the first one to report on this, and when he does, the entire Apple community goes berserk.

Apple rejected the app because of the use of a non-public API, namely Cover Flow. According to Gruber,

The problem? According to developer Landon Fuller, they didn’t use any private APIs — they created their own Cover Flow implementation using the public APIs.

This is a situation where you cannot exactly point fingers. There’s the apparent use of the word Cover Flow throughout the the description of the application. “Rotate your phone to view only that group’s photos in Cover Flow!” says part of the description. How is an Apple employee supposed to know that it’s their own implementation! I don’t suppose an Apple employee goes through bits of code seeing whether someone has in fact made their own version of Cover Flow.

The developer has since resubmitted the application and I hope the description is clear this time. Cover Flow technology is under the Apache license, and so I don’t think Apple should have a problem with approving it to to the store. Personally, I’m more worried about being able to find my contacts using Cover Flow…

[Update: We’ve been told that the devs infact made it a clear mention to Apple that this was their own API while submitting it in. Moreover, there are apps that do in fact use the Cover Flow API that have been accepted into the App Store. The whole situation is classic App Store nonsense, and Apple is definitely the bad guy here - Milind]

[Pull My Finger approved - Ars Technica]
[iPhone peeps rejected - Landon Fuller]