Remote Desktop Apps?

[Steveindajeep]

Any remote desktop apps available? On my second day of Motorola Driod ownership here. Still trying to get past this horrible qwerty keyboard.

[M1dnite]

I use remote rdp demo.

[dannydoes]

I thought it was bad at first too, but I got used to it pretty quick. Keep using it, you may be surprised. I have big thumbs, but I just aim for the center and press lightly without rolling.

[dannydoes]

can you explain, in more detail than the description for the app does, what rdp demo does? Thanks.

[Russell]

PhoneMyPC v1.0.11 Application for Android | Tools

[SoftwareForMe.com]

I can't stand to see a good question go unanswered, Danny.

I can't speak specifically for RDP Demo, but I can tell you about the RDP apps in general.

RDP stands for Remote Desktop Protocol. It's a protocol developed by Microsoft to support their Remote Assistance technology and Remote Desktop features. All Pro versions of Windows come with the software pre-installed.

The protocol is designed to "remote" the user interface as efficiently as possible. To do this, it sends vector graphics (commands that draw stuff, rather than the pixels the stuff is made up of) to the client, where it is rendered much like it would have been on the PC.

So, RDP implementations in general provide a full-featured PC remote control experience, letting you see the PC screen on the remote device, and giving full control over the mouse and keyboard.

RDP is not available in Home versions of windows. It is available as a 3rd party application for some Linux distro's.

VNC is a very similar program, but since it is not built into the operating system, you have to install an app on the PC. VNC differs from RDP in that it sends actual pixel data from the screen, so it's generally not as efficient.

RDP has the potential to provide the fastest user experience because of how it sends graphics. However, it also often suffers from quality issues because it may decrease color depth and remove some graphics in order to improve performance.

RDP and VNC both have one drawback in common: they are "point to point" protocols, so they're best for network-savy users. To make them work, you must configure the phone with the host name or IP address of the PC so that the phone can connect to the PC. This is often not possible in corporate environments because of firewalls, and even at home it can be a nuisance because your ISP is likely to change your IP address from time to time.

Our product, PhoneMyPC, is very similar to GoToMyPC or LogMeIn, in that it is a hosted service and "just works" without any special configuration. It also works perfectly in corporate environments.

PhoneMyPC uses a technology most similar to VNC, in that we send actual graphics data, so there are cases where RDP would provide better performance. However, we chose the technology we did because bandwidth availability is steadily increasing, and we wanted to provide the best visual experience possible. What you see on the phone is exactly what you would see on the PC; no compromises.

PhoneMyPC is also the only remote application (in fact, the only Android application, that we know of) to support multi-touch zooming since Android 1.0.

Cheers!
The PhoneMyPC Team
SoftwareForMe.com

[tpdroid]

www.xtralogic.com/rdpclient.shtml - gets great reviews but the app costs $18. Not bad if you really need it for emergency back-office IT work and monitoring, etc.

On the Android us the Market app and browse for "communications / Top Paid". There doesn't appear to be a "try before you buy" version that I can find...

[tpdroid]

Also, Remote RDP/VNC apps have demo and Lite versions. The developer answered my questions really quickly (on a Saturday to boot) so it appears to be a supported app by an interested developer.

www.toremote.com

The paid RDP app looks to be a couple bucks cheaper than the one from Xtralogic but since Xtralogic doesn't have a demo version and I'm not gonna risk $18 for an app I can't try out first I can't give anyone a comparison of performance and capabilities.

[SoftwareForMe.com]

Try them all!

For those who don't know, the Android Market gives you a 24 hour trial period for ALL applications (this period will soon change to 48 hours).

Simply download an app and use it. If you don't like it, return to the app page in the Android Market within 24 hours and select the option to Return the app. Your payment instrument will never be charged.

Note: you can only return each application once. The second time you download a particular app you will be charged (this keeps people from downloading a program for 23 hours, over and over).

Also, an unrelated--but very important--bit of information: once you've paid for an app, you may uninstall and reinstall it any number of times, forever, with no additional charge. You may download and install it on a new phone when you upgrade, again with no additional charge (providing you use the same Google Checkout account). And, updates are always free.

Cheers!
SoftwareForMe.com
Makers of PhoneMyPC

[WooYing]

RemoteDroid works pretty nicely and I love the price tag, FREE