Jaadu VNC

Jaadu VNC is an application that lets you remotely control any Mac or PC running a VNC server. In addition to having control over the keyboard and mouse, you can actually see the the remote computer's screen for total control from wherever you are. Jaadu VNC makes use of the iPhone's touch screen for a unique and extremely effective implementation of the classic VNC client.

After opening the application, Jaadu automatically detects any Mac on the local network running a VNC server using Bonjour. If your computer isn't automatically detected, you can add it manually if you know its IP address. Once you connect, you're "teleported" to your desktop where you have total control over everything, as if you were sitting at your computer.

The good: The best thing going for Jaadu is its unique way of navigating around your desktop. When you first connect with Jaadu, your entire desktop is visible. To get a closer look at things you simply pinch to zoom in on a particular area. To move around, you simply drag your finger in the direction you'd like to move. This actually moves the mouse cursor around your screen, but Jaadu uses its position to center your view on screen. It takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you'll never want to use anything else.

Jaadu also includes some neat tricks that it picked up from the Mac such as two-finger scrolling, two-finger right-clicking, and Bonjour support.

You can also view your computer in landscape mode, although there is a rotation lock in case you don't want it to automatically rotate. If you don't want to view your screen at all, screen viewing can be disabled and Jaadu can also be used as a remote trackpad and keyboard.

In addition to the traditional keyboard, Jaadu also comes with a slew of extra controls, including:

• A d-pad, which includes esc, back, tab, and space buttons which are well suited for controlling media applications

• Page up and down buttons
• F-keys 1-12
• A full number pad
• many other specialized buttons depending on your computer's platform

The bad: Jaadu's price; I had to mention it. As amazing as this app is, I never imagined that I'd ever spend $25 on a VNC app, but there's simply no better VNC app out there yet.

The other thing that really annoyed me was that auto-correct wasn't available. This means that everything you type has to be extremely precise because you WILL make typing mistakes. I'd like to think that the developer will add this feature eventually, but it may be too much to ask.

There's also no SSL for secure connections. This may bother some people, but for the most part it shouldn't be a problem.

The Bottom line: Jaadu VNC is simply the best VNC client I've seen for the iPhone. It's full of useful features and 100% designed for use on the iPhone. The lack of SSL or price are really the only two disadvantages to Jaadu and the former only affects those who really need security. If you're looking for the VNC client for your iPhone, Jaadu delivers the elegance and features you'd expect from a polished iPhone app.