Jaadu VNC (formerly Teleport) ($24.99,
App Store link), by Jugaari, may seem to have a steep price point - but it is a well deserved premium.
Preamble
VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a way to see or control the screen of a device other than the one you're using, allowing you to use a computer while not standing right in front of it. To be more specific, VNC sends the mouse and keyboard events to a target computer, and it sends the graphical screen updates right back to you - which may save you a lot of to-and-froing in the cumbersome physical world.
On Mac OS X, VNC can be enabled by going the System Preferences' "Sharing" pane, and checking the box for Screen Sharing. This also allows you to access your desktop from other Macs on your LAN, and use features like MobileMe's "Back to My Mac".
There are currently two VNC clients available for the iPhone: Mocha VNC and Jaadu VNC (formerly Teleport). Yesterday we reviewed Mocha VNC, and today we're having a look at Jaadu VNC.
Connection
Connection with Jaadu VNC is very simple, as any local VNC servers will appear on a list automatically. Jaadu also offers a tunnelling application on its website, which allows you to use VNC over 3G/Edge/WiFi without being connected locally, meaning you could control your computer from conceivably anywhere.
As you connect, you are treated to a bit of eye candy as a spiralling portal "teleports" you to your target computer. While not necessary, this bit of polish did certainly didn't harm the reviewer's perception of Jaadu.
Screen
Jaadu VNC's screen is crisp and cleanly designed, with a row of tabbed control buttons neatly lining the top portion of the screen. All the iPhone control conventions are here, with pinching, spreading and dragging. What a user may notice at first is that the screen drags in the opposite direction they expect - while awkward at first, it soon becomes clear that controlling the mouse any other way would be a bit confusing.
Turning the screen to landscape makes Jaadu VNC a more pleasurable experience, putting the screen in the more familiar orientation.
Mouse
The mouse of Jaadu VNC is moved by dragging the screen with your finger, and moves across the screen accurately. It can be dragged into screen edges and corners, allowing you to use things like OS X's Dock. The mouse also stays at a constant size on your screen, keeping it highly visible and usable. Better put, this mouse is not functionally stripped down in any way, shape, or form.
Perhaps best of all, is that Jaadu VNC uses many common touch gestures, with gestures for dragging, scrolling, right clicking, powerpoint navigation, all detailed on the Jaadu VNC
website.
Keyboard
The keyboard in Jaadu is well so well thought out that I typed this portion of the review with it. It seems so well integrated with the iPhone that I was surprised when auto corrections and other useful shortcuts did not appear. Like Mocha, Jaadu uses the native iPhone keyboard - but also darkens the screen a little and shows you what you're typing just above the keyboard, which proves to be very useful.
Jaadu VNC also has all the command keys - Shift, Ctrl, Cmd, and Alt. In addition to this, it has nearly every conceivable key on a keyboard available in a controls tab, which even features a full Numpad, and shortcuts for cut, copy and paste.
Extras
Jaadu VNC has some nice preferences available to it, such as the ability to lock the rotation of the screen, turning Controls on and off, turning "Cursor momentum" on and off, and also an option to not display the screen at all, which might be useful if you're using Jaadu to control a media centre PC and don't want screen updates to waste your batteries.
Problems
Jaadu VNC has one big problem: it is very resource intensive. It needs so much processing power that it may ask you to force quit Mail, Safari, or any other applications that remain running in the background. You might be controlling a computer when you are interrupted, only to be told you need to quit another application. Sometimes this happens a lot, sometimes it barely happens at all. Sometimes it happens whether you have freed up all the resources or not.
It also has a smaller problem: the absolutely hideous name. Before, it was called Teleport, which was a catchy title and a succinct metaphor for VNC. Now it is called Jaadu VNC, which makes absolutely zero sense and sounds cheap and tacky - betraying the application's actual quality.
Conclusion
The price may seem to be prohibitive - but for $24.99, you are truly getting everything from a VNC iPhone application you would want, all in a very stylish package. If money is not a problem for you, this is really the only choice.
Topics: iPhone apps, iPhone
