Splashtop Remote for Mac and iOS: An unbeatable combo – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

I’ve tried just about every remote control application under the sun. iTeleport, LogMeIn Ignition, Mocha VNC and TeamViewer have all been on my iOS devices at one time or another. When I recently heard about Splashtop Remote, my initial thought was to delete the email about it and move on. Fortunately, my curiosity got the best of me.

Like most remote control apps, Splashtop comes in two pieces — the free Splashtop Remote Server part that runs on the target computer (either Mac or Windows), and a client app for iOS. The Mac server is still in beta, while the Windows piece has been in place for a while. The iOS apps run US$1.99 each for the iPhone and iPad versions, and there is a free time-limited (5 minutes per connect session) version for iPad that is useful for just trying out the app. That’s probably my biggest complaint right now — many of the other remote control apps are available in Universal versions that run on any iOS device.

Why am I so smitten with Splashtop Remote? Perhaps my biggest criteria for apps of this type are ease of setup, speed and a way of controlling the Mac or PC that makes the best use of the iOS touch interface. Setup is dead simple on both the desktop and mobile devices, although the Mac installation does require an installation of Soundflower. Since I already use Soundflower, I was able to skip that step. Launching the mobile app displays the computers that are running the server on the local network. A tap on the computer name launches the connection.

Gallery: Splashtop Remote for iPhone and iPad