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Remote Mac Control, iPhone Style

TMO Quick Tip - Remote Mac Control, iPhone Style

by , 7:30 AM EDT, July 16th, 2007

Remotely accessing and controlling computers isn't something new, but doing it from an iPhone is. The gang over at Google has been hard at work trying to make that happen for the Mac with a slick collection of Web apps called telekinesis.

telekinesis includes what you need to stream music and videos from your Mac, browse files, take pictures with the built-in iSight camera, perform Spotlight searches, run AppleScripts, perform mouse clicks, and even enter text -- all from your iPhone. Here's how it works:

  • Download iPhone Remote from the Google Code Web site. It's my favorite price: Free.
  • Launch iPhone Remote, and create a login and password. You'll need these to connect to your Mac from your iPhone.
  • Find the IP address for your Mac. You can find it by choosing Apple menu > System Preferences, selecting Network, and then picking your network connection from the Show pop-up menu. N ow click the TCP/IP tab.

  • The Network Preference Pane shows your IP address.
  • Now hop over to your iPhone and launch Safari and enter https://<your Mac's IP address>:5010. Since my MacBook Pro's IP address is 192.168.10.16, I would enter https://192.168.10.16:5010
  • Enter the user name and password you created in iPhone Remote.

iPhone Remote shows you a set of icons that give you access to the various remote control functions it can perform with your Mac. Just tap one to make it active.


The iPhone Remote interface.

If you want to control your Mac when your iPhone isn't connected to your local network, you'll have to set up your Internet router to pass traffic from the outside world to your computer, and you'll need to know the external IP address your Internet connection is using. If you do, be sure to quit iPhone Remote when you aren't planning on using it so you don't have to worry about other people trying to control your Mac without your knowledge.

Despite the ultra-coolness telekinesis and iPhone Remote represent, this is still an alpha-level project. That means you should expect the unexpected, like things not working when you want, and occasional application crashes. As the project matures, those potential stability issues ought to fade away.


Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.

  

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Biff Posts: 1479 Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Subject:

Wow cool. Finally a good web app for iPhone! And naturally it took a professional software company to make it. Time to play!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Predicted

Didn't one of your more, intelligent, insightful, and eloquent writers predict this very thing? I think it was Vern Seward...yeah, that's the guy.

I think this is the article here: http://www.macobserver.com/columns/justathought/2007/06/15.1.shtml

That Vern, he's funny and has an uncanny knack of making technology seem real and accessible, ya know? Vern is my favorite writer and this proves why.

annonymous
(Not Vern)

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Remote Buddy

I really like Remote Buddy's implementation. Sure it's not free, but it embraces the two-way "high speed wireless" nature of the iPhone's Airport connection to your LAN.

And you gotta hand it to the developers-- they did an iPhone add-on without having access to an actual iPhone (since Remote Buddy's developers live in Germany!)

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Alright!

What a great application! It made me laugh with excitement! I hope this application evolves and becomes even more sophisticated!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: It's not Google

As far as I can tell this is not a Google project. It is simply a project that happens to be on the Google Code website (any dev can post a project on there). It looks like one of the starters of this project is the guy behind Quicksilver (founder of BlackTree). I figured that by looking at the first project owner.

Jeremy Olson
Founder of http://www.iphonecream.com
Blogger for http://wutworks.blogspot.com

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Great. I hope they get Keynote and Powerpoint on that list of controllable apps.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Can't get it to work...

I get a "Safari could not open the page becaue the server stoped responding" error. Anyone know why?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Anything for 10.3.9?

Is there any way to access my mac 10.3.9 via my iPod touch?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: PC2ME

free version of iphone remote desktop web app that won't give you the the issues that you mentioned. I used it before upgrading to it's paid service files2phones. i would check this app out first. www.pc2me.net

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