International Mac Podcast

This is a companion review for the NosillaCast podcast for RemotePad, an iPhone and iPod touch remote control app.

So, you’ve been buying equipment, enduring the harsh and sometimes often untruthful sales pitches from Best Buy associates, and you’re now setting it up. Your home theater system is starting to look really good, but how to control the Mac mini at the center of it all? RemotePad does that, and it does it well.

So, what is it? RemotePad is a free and Open Source app which allows you to control a computer running Windows, Linux/UNIX/BSD, or Mac OS X from your iPhone or iPod touch. While not as fancy as, say, Keymote, it gets the job done quite well. So, with no more than 3 seconds of ado, let’s get to the review!

When you start the app, you’re presented with a screen that looks much like this:

The RemotePad Opening Screen

As you can see, it allows you to select a Bonjour/zeroconf server from the list, or type in the IP address or hostname.

Once connected, you are greeted with a descriptive yet simple “Connected!” popup.

Connected!

Then, you get a basic but functional trackpad.

The Trackpad

You can change lots of settings, which is always a plus for me.

Settings Screen #1

Settings Screen #2

Settings Screen #3

Settings Screen #4

As you can see, there are lots of cool settings, my favorite of which is “Pseudo high pass filter”. What it means is that if you hold down your finger while waving it around, the cursor follows. Very cool! Now, the rest of the features are as to be expected, a very functional trackpad, a keyboard, etc. One slight annoyance is that the keyboard doesn’t have ?, ?, ?, etc. Keys.

The Keyboard

So, all in all, RemotePad is very worth a spot on your SpringBoard. You can get it on the App Store, and you can download the server software at the site.