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Real-time PC access on your PDA
Brooks P. writes "As seen in this story on The Register, Sproqit Technologies creates software that allows you to access your desktop apps in real time over the Internet. No more synchronization. This is accomplished with a Desktop Agent that runs on your (Windows for now) PC, and a 200k Companion running on the PDA. The Desktop Agent uses plug-ins to connect to the apps running on the PC, and the SDK used to develop plug-ins is free. Oh, and the whole thing uses 128-bit SSL for security and works over any connection method: 802.11, modem, cell phone, etc."
Sure sounds like a non-portable version of VNC over SSH.
What is so amazing? I even have a VNC client for my Palm (but any kind of encryption would probably overwhelm its CPU)
As referenced above, there's VNC clients (and servers) for a wide variety of platforms. Here's one for the Palm OS.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
And it's been available for the PalmOS for sometime from here.
My journal has hot
The Sharp Zaurus has been capable of running VNC for awhile. Info is out there... I don't know if other PDAs can run it as well, but I'd much rather have a Zaurus than any Windows CE device.
There are already several remote access solutions for PDA users. Best of all they're freeware and cross platform.
Using the VNC graphical protocol (servers for Linux, Solaris, Windows, Mac, Dec Alpha):
Text remote access using SSH (which may be all you need if you want access to the command line and to, for example, send/read email with something like PINE):
You should know this before buying an expensive commercial solution that may not be what you really want. The only advantage the article's commercial solution is that I think VNC doesn't include encryption by default (although I bet it wouldn't be difficult to add).
"And this is different from Citrix or Terminal Services or a remote X session or good ole SSH how? "
You get an interface designed to use with your PDA, instead of trying to cram a 1280 by 1024 image on a 240 by 320 screen. RTFA.
"Derp de derp."
Example (while I'm on a rant): Mine came with Pocket Streets, a really cool app. But none of the freely downloadable maps will work with it. I needed to upgrade. OK, fine. So I bought Streets & Trips, not because I wanted it, but because Microsoft told me it was the only way to get the newer Pocket Streets that reads the new maps. After I bought it I learned (MS sure didn't tell me, either on their web site or on the box) that the new Pocket Streets only works with Pocket PC 2002.
In short, Terminal Services Client will not work with the majority of PDAs in use today.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Did anyone who actually commented that this was 'just like VNC, et' actually look at the website?
/b
This is not a remote desktop solution in the traditional sense. Applications have to be Sproqit enabled and the conent is repurposed for the mobile device. It is not simply a view of your desktop PC.
In saying this they are pretty wrong when it comes to a couple of things.
1. Syncronisation: I can spend an hour a day underground (The Tube) with no network coverage and I bet it does not cahche all the data I might want to look at. You need syncronisation as our networks are a) not good enough and b) super expensive for consitently grabbing data from your PC. They would have been better to integrate their data transfer technology and perform a really good background sync (no sync company does this yet).
2. The Enterprise: They will not take this on as it means every users PC has to be on to take advantage of this. They need a server based solution that runs on back office equipment that takes away the need for indivdual PC's to be always on.
A couple of the concepts are nice but for your core PIM applications this is not the way to go.
[Please type your sig here.]
Actually, if you set-up a Linux workstation/firewall running mlDonkey, you can use the web interface to search and initiate the download. Find your ISO's, MP3's, almost anything. It lets you connect to a variety of P2P protocols too.
Not quite. If this works anything like Adam Tow's Soybo (www.soybo.com) (which came out a month ago), then it enables apps to have different interfaces depending on what you are using. From a cell phone, it would display simple text. From a PDA, there might be some graphics, but the UI would be set up for pen-based computing.
Mainly, this kind of virtual computing doesn't require you to use your desktop's UI on whatever client you happen to be using, and therefore, it lets you work more efficently assuming that the client UI is well designed.
There is nothing new about this particular incarnation of this technology. As I said above, Adam Tow released it a while ago.
The PebblesPC part of the package basically sets up a conduit between a PDA application and PC application. Because the projects goals are more research-oriented, there aren't many commercial applications (that I know of right now). But there definitely was some noise made about SlideShowCommander. SlideShowCommander allows the user to control and communicaate with PowerPoint from the PDA, which is useful while giving a presentation. It was pretty neat. You could navigate through the slides, draw on them, etc. It was picked up by Synergy Solutions and is sold through them. Google provides the link here, but it appears to be down.
In any case, the Pebbles project is a free download. Or, you can buy the SlideShowCommander from Synergy, and give *me* some (small) amount of money. <<BIG GRINS>>
Do it. This is not VNC. Not the same idea at all. Yes, VNC is good, this is not VNC... VNC sends each pixel over one way, and the input the other, this sends much less information.
Each application has have a plugin for it. The plugin takes input from PDA, performs the operation on the PC, returns the DATA, where the PDA renders it in it's "native" view. No scrolling required. It makes it seem like a PDA application, but your PC is doing all the work.
VNC is totally different, you would have to scroll around to get to everything, since apps you see on VNC are designed for a desktop, not for a PDA... where the resolution is much lower. Not to mention, since it has to send all the data on the screen... it will be a lot slower.
The article mentions email. Maybe your email app on your PDA isn't as robust as the one on your PC... you have all your filters set up on your PC email app. Well, if there's a plug in for Outlook Express (which I know everyone here uses), you could just have it send "GET ME EMAILS IN INBOX"... it then returns all the emails, but it renders it to make it look like a PDA app.