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.
I think you have tried Mocha VNC Lite. Wont the basic functionality be similar? How does it compare?
I havent as I still have to use WiFi on my iPod.
I bought this app after reading this post, installed the remotetap preference pane, and it freezes everytime i click on the remotetap preference pane, deeming the app unsable. Just wasted 7 bucks on this.
Have you contacted the support team about this? I tried the pref pane on two Macs and it worked both times. There are two preference panes for download, the 1.6 and 2.0. Try both and see.
You can also ask iTunes for a refund if the app doesn’t work as advertised.
I’ve contacted the support, they sent me instructions to go about the problem, the app works now, but my preference pane still freezes with beach ball.
Have you tried the usual troubleshooting techniques? (Disk Utility, Run under different user account, clearing preferences, etc)??
No I didn’t went that far, bought the app immediately after seeing this post and thought that it will work easily as it was advertised. Now, although I can connect to my mac but the preference pane still freezes on both my iMac and my late 2008 MBP. Think I’ll just not touch the RemoteTap preference pane for now.
But hey, great post nevertheless! RemoteTap is still a great app.
Ben, you seem to have jinxed my preference pane as well! Now even I’m getting the spinning beachball. However, I noticed it does come out of it after like 3-4 minutes.
And glad you liked it.
Milind, Ben,
if you have issues with the preferences pane, please download the latest version v2.0.1 from our web site. This should fix the problem.
Regards,
Dirk
ReadPixel Support
The latest version for the pref pane works now. Doesn’t hang anymore. Great app now that it works, i’m just one of the tiny minority with this problem.
Nice app. Worked the first time. Luckily I started off with the updated pref pane so I didn’t have any issues. Works nice on edge as well (once you change the output quality.) Definitely worth $7.
It works great only I can’t wake a sleeping Mac which defeats the purpore. Help anyone.
Hi Danny,
Is your Mac connected via Ethernet cable? Note that there is no way to wake up a Mac connected via wifi. Did you enable remote wake up in os x system prefs?
Cheers
Dirk
Dirk thank you for the help. I can’t see a remote wake up in preferences.
@Danny: Here’s a screenshot http://www.quicksnapper.com/goobimama/image/wake-for-network
Good App, but if you have A 2WIRE GATEWAY modem IT WON´T IT WORK on remote acces, this mean you will ONLY be able to use it at your LOCAL NETWORK.