Jaadu VNC (formerly Teleport) for iPhone (review)
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.
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.
Comments
I saw the warning to quit Safari once, before 2.1 (if that matters) but never since, and I use Jaadu all the time. I most often use it as a remote mouse and keyboard when sitting on my couch.
$25 for a Mac (or PC) in your pocket AND a great media remote control that handles ANY app? It's a steal.
In fact, I now use my iPhone as a spare mouse when I don't feel like unplugging my main mouse from my laptop to use it with my desktop. Over LAN, it's instantly responsive--just like a giant trackpad. No need to look at the phone, and I can left-click and right-click and scroll just like I'm used to on my MacBook Air.
This is one of those great apps that's so useful you can't help making a wish list. So here goes.
Feature requests:
* Option to hide the toolbar, but toggle it when tapping the iPhone title bar (or maybe with some 3-finger gesture)
* Option to hide even the iPhone title bar for full use of the screen
* Ability NOT to save passwords, for security
* Volume controls added to the remote screen (for when you're in the same room as your machine)
* Put the remote on its own icon at the top, separate from the other keyboards
* Give the other keyboards a row of icons instead of arrows to cycle.
* Make ALL the keyboards/remote show through to the screen above, like the alpha keyboard does.
* Don't darken the WHOLE screen above the keyboard, just a stripe wide enough to see your typing.
* Make ALL the keyboards/remote allow mousing when you drag in that view, like the alpha keyboard does
* Make all the (non-Apple) keyboards allow mousing over the whole screen--as long as you drag rather than tap. (Drag across the numpad and you get mouse movement; tap it and you get keypresses.)
* Add a view on/off button to the remote, to save having to go to Settings (I toggle that often)
* Option to automatically attempt re-connection when you get cut off (which happens when you log in to a Mac account, for instance)
* Make it notice when you change screen resolution, and re-connect (currently you must re-connect manually when the res changes, or else the mouse movement is wrong)
* Ability to pinch-zoom SMALLER than the current minimum--make the new minimum be to show the entire screen at once. (But I like the two 3-finger tap states just as they are: fit-height and 1-to-1.)
* Audio? (Maybe not possible with VNC.)
* Mode to drag exactly where your finger is--imprecise most of the time, but would be nice occasionally for drawing.
* Mode to send raw mouse delta--movement that never hits an "edge"--for certain games/apps where absolute coords don't work. (Maybe not possible with VNC.)
* Sometimes the mouse stops like it has hit an edge, and you have to lift your finger. That could be improved.
* Options for mouse speed/acceleration.
* Option to hold a key down and have it understood as held down if possible (good for certain games).
* Option to have left-right 2-finger swipe be either arrow keys (current mode) or horiz scrollwheel
* Add a play/pause icon on "Space" on the remote. And maybe some more color distinction (some black keys, not just white) on the other keyboards.
* Allow custom keypads--a feature which I seem to recall is planned, and it sounds great.
Some of these (like game stuff) may sound silly--except that this app is great when you're in the same room as your Mac, so you're using Jaadu for input only.
Oh yeah, and the name stinks too. What was wrong with "Teleport"? Before they appended "VNC", it was simply called "Jaadu" for awhile, and if they'd left it at that, I think no one would have ever bought it again. But still. I would have honestly been pissed off if I'd paid $25 for an iPhone app called "Teleport" and had the name change to "Jaadu" when installing one of the updates.
...
It's like charging $5 for a trial version. The whole thing stinks of sneakiness and greed, so I doubt I'll ever be giving this guy any money.
...
Oh yeah, and the name stinks too. What was wrong with "Teleport"?
This "trial" version as you say is what we're all using and loving right NOW. Keep it forever and don't upgrade, or if you like the new features that come out, buy them. Your choice. That said, I'm not sure how this upgrade thing would work on the app store. I can see it not actually happening as planned, and you'd end up with free updates AND you'd have paid 1/5 of what I was happy to pay! I agree it's an odd and confusing system, but as you say, the developer makes it clear--nobody is being deceived.
I really don't see how this is bad for users. You get it for $5, or you get it for the same $25 as the rest of us. In neither case do you pay more, or get less, than the product delivers to anyone else.
As for the name, "Teleport" was taken by a somewhat related Mac product as I understand it. So the name was changed. Makes sense to me.
This guy did a lot of work and came up with the best mobile VNC solution that has existed to date. You don't have to buy if you personally prefer some other solution, but he certainly is providing value.
Worst writteen review *ever*. Are you 12?
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