X
Tech

iTeleport, king of the iPhone VNC apps

[update: I changed the headline to reflect the product's name change from Jaadu to iTeleport]I got tired of having to find my Bluetooth keyboard every time I wanted to change the volume on my Mac mini media center setup in my living room so I went on a mission to find the perfect remote control app for the iPhone. I settled on what is probably the best iPhone VNC client anywhere – iTeleport (iTunes, $25).
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor
Jaadu, the premiere iPhone VNC app

[update: I changed the headline to reflect the product's name change from Jaadu to iTeleport]

I got tired of having to find my Bluetooth keyboard every time I wanted to change the volume on my Mac mini media center setup in my living room so I went on a mission to find the perfect remote control app for the iPhone. I settled on what is probably the best iPhone VNC client anywhere – iTeleport (iTunes, $25).

iTeleport instantly turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a complete remote control interface to your Mac – and it's killer with a Mac media center. Jaadu gives you full control of your Mac's mouse and keyboard via the screen of your iPhone. Remote and Modifier keys are just a tap away as are arrow, function and special keys and several convenient shortcuts.

A VNC client allows you to use remote desktop to monitor remote servers, watch flash video or even manage your media library on a far away computer, all from your iPhone. One caveat is that VNC is currently unencrypted so I don't recommend running it on a machine containing any sensitive data. Jaadu tells me that SSH-based encryption is in the pipeline and should be ready within a month.

Jaadu VNC has the highest video resolution support of any remote desktop app for the iPhone. Some customers have used it with dual 30" Apple Cinema displays (5120 x 1600 resolution) which would kill the other remote desktop apps which start getting squirrely at around 1680 x 1050.

According to the author, Jaadu VNC's touchpad interface was heavily inspired by a jailbreak app called Touchpad Pro, which was open source and based on the VNSea code base. Jaadu VNC was re-written from scratch with a number of iPhone-specific optimizations for improved usability, as well as ultra-high resolution support.

Got Windows? No problem. Jaadu Remote Desktop (iTunes, $25) is an iPhone RDP client which supports audio streaming and encryption. Got a Mac but don't want to pony up $25 for a VNC app? Touchpad Elite (iTunes, $5) is an input-only version of Jaadu VNC that's a fifth of the price.

Videos of all the features are available. This one's a keeper folks.

Update: Just to clarify, Jaadu VNC works with both Windows and Mac while Jaadu Remote Desktop is only for Windows.

Editorial standards