Turn Your iPhone into a Remote

There are many uses for you iPhone including browsing the internet, reading emails and listening to music, but did you know that there are apps available for the new iPhone that would turn it into a remote computer to access the big wide world.Other apps allow you to operate a PC thousands of kilometres away with iPhone’s equivalent of remote desktop, and use your iPhone touchscreen as a tracking mouse. If you have Apple TV or Windows Media Centre, your iPhone can double as a handy remote control. Let’s explore.

Apple’s free app, Remote, works a treat. You can command your computer to play music, and watch videos and podcasts on iTunes. Set up your computer with a decent screen and speakers and you have a powerful remotely controlled multimedia system.

Apple’s Remote doesn’t require complex configuration, just the sharing of a pass code between iTunes and the iPhone.

Logitech’s Touch Mouse also works seamlessly. Install it, and you can use the touchscreen of your iPhone as a computer mouse.

It includes a virtual keyboard. You might ask, why have this, if you’re sitting in front of your computer? Well, I have a Media Centre computer attached to a big LCD screen at home.With this app, I can sit on the lounge and operate the big-screen computer from my phone.

MochaSoft’s Mocha’s Remote Desktop app lets you remotely control a Windows PC through the standard Microsoft interface, but be warned, Windows 7 and Vista restrict remote desktop access to its high-end editions.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this for both Windows and Mac users. It’s an app called Mocha VNC. Just set up one of the freeware VNC servers on your computer, port-forward it, and you are in business. Alternatively, LogMein has an app called LogMein Ignition that allows remote access. It’s great when you’re on the go and need to fix a family member’s system. But it does cost a hefty $US29.99 ($33.65) through the App Store.

Of course, there are games, and several apps to control them. An interesting contender is iMo, which lets you control PC video games from your iPhone.

Then there’s TV. If you’ve forgotten to program your video recorder for a show you want, the web-based Remote Potato lets you browse the TV listing by phone from afar and remotely queue programs to record.