Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Virtual Computer on Your iPad

Sometimes, not even the snazziest iPad app does what you need, and you may find yourself wishing for the resources of a conventional computer—complete with multiple windows, Flash support (shudder!), and system-wide storage. If you don’t have a laptop with you but you do have a high-speed Internet connection, you can use a VNC client such as iTeleport for iPad (iTeleport, $19.99) or iSSH (Zinger-Soft, $9.99) to connect to your own computer at home or the office (using Mac OS X’s screen sharing capability or any VNC client). Another option is LogMeIn Ignition (LogMeIn, $29.99), which accomplishes much the same thing but uses proprietary desktop software that makes it easier to connect when the host computer is behind a NAT router or has a dynamic IP address. Then your iPad becomes a virtual display and controller for the other computer, and (with some limitations), you can use any of the host computer’s capabilities. (Refer to Take Control of iPad Networking & Security for help with iTeleport and LogMeIn Ignition.)

But what if you don’t have a computer you can connect to in this manner—or if that computer is turned off, asleep, behind a firewall, or otherwise inaccessible? A unique app called AlwaysOnPC may be the solution (Xform Computing, $24.99). Like the other apps mentioned here, it uses VNC to create a connection to another computer that you can then control remotely. The difference is that the “computer” on the other end is entirely virtual—it’s your own private Linux desktop, complete with preinstalled software such as a word processor and Web browser— running on the company’s servers. In this environment, you can create and save files, run nearly any Linux application, and yes, view Flash content (albeit without sound).

However, be aware that all of these solutions require a significant amount of Internet bandwidth. If your connection is spotty (or if Wi-Fi or 3G is unavailable), you’ll experience poor performance at best, and a complete lack of function at worst.

Source of Information : TidBITS-Take Control of Working with Your iPad 2011

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