Microsoft releases Remote Desktop 8.0 for iOS and Mac
As mentioned in Mary Jo Foley's report earlier in the month, these new versions of Remote Desktop client are delivered alongside Windows Server 2012 R2.
Once these new Remote Desktop apps, which include an overhauled version of the two-year-old Mac Remote Desktop client, are available, Microsoft will be providing access to virtual desktops on everything from Windows and Windows RT, to iOS, OS X and Android. Users will be able to connect from devices running these operating systems to Windows and Windows Servers to work with applications and files stored there.
The iOS version for iPhone and iPad can be found here in the Apple App Store.
Features
•Access to remote resources through the Remote Desktop Gateway •Rich multi-touch experience with remote desktop protocol (RDP) and RemoteFX supporting Windows gestures
•Secure connection to your data and applications with breakthrough Network Layer Authentication (NLA) technology
•Simple management of all remote connections from the connection center
•High quality video and sound streaming with improved compression and bandwidth usage
•Easy connection to external monitors or projectors for presentations
The Mac version adds printing to Mac-configured printers, and support for multiple monitors or projectors for presentations.
Reviews on the Mac App Store were mostly positive, although some users reported crashes, and issues with its non-Mac-style user interface.
For example, Macboy1975 wrote that the client was good but missing "a few things." He also noted that it takes longer to establish a RDP connection with Remote Desktop 8.0 than with than other clients he uses.
The single biggest problem is that there is no "unity" view where you have a list of servers on one side of the RDP window. This is my favorite feature of CoRD [CoRD: Simple RDP Remote Desktop] because it allows you to have dozens of open RDP connections all managed through a single window with a list of servers on the side. When your RDP connections are open in separate windows, it becomes difficult to manage them and — worse yet — it becomes much more likely that you'll click into the wrong window and do something that you intended to do on another machine. It's a real risk that's far less likely with a CoRD-like approach.