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Splashtop Remote Desktop

Control your computer from your Fondleslab or phone

iOS App of the Week I’ve tried a number of ‘remote desktop’ apps that allow you to control a Mac or a PC from an iPhone or iPad, but their performance over a wireless network has always been too sluggish for them to be of much practical use.

Splashtop

Set-up is effectively automatic on the iDevice

Not surprisingly, then, I was quite sceptical when the recently updated Splashtop was claimed to be fast enough to even stream watchable Flash video to iOS devices. And to other devices - Splashtop Remote Desktop is available on Android too.

Splashtop

Taking control, remotely

However, the inability to watch films in Flash format on my iPad using my LoveFilm account is a never-ending annoyance, so I decided it couldn’t hurt to check out the demo version of Splashtop.

Splashtop

Flash video running in a browser on a Mac on an iPad...

The demo version only allows you to connect to your Mac or PC for five minutes at a time, but that was long enough to convince me to cough up £1.79 for the full iPad version. The iPhone version only costs £1.19.

Splashtop

...even full screen

Like most remote access apps, Splashtop consists of both an iOS app and a server program that you install on your computer. Setting everything up is very easy, as the iOS app can automatically scan your wireless network to detect computers that are running the server. All you need to do then is to create a security password and just let Splashtop take control.

Needless to say, Lovefilm was my first port of call and my gob was genuinely smacked to discover that I really could stream films to the iPad at perfectly watchable speeds.

Splashtop

Splashtop is not just for entertainment apps

After that, firing up Word on my Mac and finishing off this review on the iPad was a piece of cake.

Splashtop does have some rough edges: some of the multi-finger commands used to mimic mouse or keyboard controls on the iPad’s screen are a bit clumsy, and it needs an easier option for showing and hiding the Dock on a Mac desktop.

Splashtop

The mouse-mimicking gestures can be tricky to master

RH Recommended Medal

However, I can’t fault the speed and responsiveness of the app itself, and definitely recommend it as the most impressive of the remote control apps currently available. ®

We make our selection of the best iOS smartphone and tablet downloads every Thursday. It you think there's an app we should be considering, please let us know.

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Splashtop

Splashtop Remote Desktop

Run your computer's apps remotely using this own on your iDevice.
Price: £1.79 (iPad) £1.19 (iPhone) Free (demo app) RRP

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