Controlling Your Laptop via the iPad

After reading a post by Tim Tyson in which he showed how he controls his laptop from his ipad I went out in search of an alternative method. His method was a bit cost prohibitive for me. I had shared his post to a listserv that I belong to, and someone else wrote back in to mention three other options. The first two did allow me to control the laptop from the ipad, but it was blind controlling. The ipad was a black slate. I wanted to be able to SEE my laptop on the ipad.

Enter Splashtop Remote, a $4.99 app from the iTunes store. In no time at all I was seeing and controlling my laptop from my ipad. It did require two other downloads, a server app for the laptop (Mac or Windows) and another quick download, but it was very painless.

Basically you set up the desktop app with your ip address and a password. The software helped with that process.

Next, you open the app on the ipad and tap the laptop icon to start the connection.

Of course, you're accessing it via a wireless connection, so you will need that. When it connects you're presented with some helpful tips for how to control the screen.

Tap Continue and you're in. Easy as that.

If you've got an ipad at school and you're interested in using it to allow the students to control the laptop applications, this is the best $5.00 investment I can imagine.

Have fun!

P.S.
I'm STILL not at all convinced that the ipad is ready for prime time in schools, but if you've got one you may as well use it. :)