VMware view client App for iPad–next leap from RDP / VNC Citrix and Wyse apps in market

 

One of the primary arguments that many people have against owning an iPad or even better the latest iPad 2 is that this 10 inch piece will never grow up in capacity to handle what their desktop / laptop can handle in terms of work. I must say that either these people are unaware of the business apps that are available in market or haven’t worked out how to use them to perfection. Yes I am talking about the VNC / RDP apps that are abundant in iTunes apps market. VMware has joined the bandwagon (in league with Citrix and Wyse) now making it bigger and better with their VMware view app for iPad.

 

RDP / VNC apps for iPad / iPhone / iPod

As this post is not a review on the RDP and VNC (Virtual Network Computing) apps that are available in the market, I am not presenting an exhaustive list here. The two apps I have given below are arguably the best in this category in the market

1. iTap RDP (Remote Desktop for Windows) By HLW – Paid App ($11.99) – Use this app to take RDP of your machine when you are connected to the local network. Or if you can get a public IP from your internet provider, you can set your laptop/desktop with a static IP and you can then access your machine from anywhere in the world from your ipad. Once connected you will actually be working on you laptop/desktop with its hardware resources!

2. Desktop Connect By Antecea Inc. – Paid App ($14.99) – This has the choice of either connecting through VNC or through RDP. The same idea of public IP holds good here too to make your machine available from anywhere in the world. One good feature about this app is that you can turn off the touchscreen option and then your whole ipad becomes the giant touch pad and can be used to control mouse pointer movements (if you have difficulty in point touching)

TeamViewer By TeamViewer – free App. I know that this app cannot be even mentioned in the same breath with the RDP / VNC apps but if you are not too freaky about security (when you accept team viewer policy it means you allow your session visibility to team viewer), this one will just suit the bill for accessing your machine over the internet. But the only drawback I can think of is that, you cannot log your machine off and team viewer must be left running all the time. So don’t go sharing the Partner id and password!

What does VMware view do?

The VMware view client for iPad that has been launched on Wednesday (9th March 2011) and will now enable enterprise users access their workstations from iPad (I can’t start imagining how happy my husband’s going to be about this). Simply put, if the virtual machines are available in the cloud in a data center, you can access them from your iPad using the FREE APP from VMware (VMware View for iPad By SpringSource). VMware likes to call this a ‘finely tuned solution’ with PCoIP protocol for a faster and smoother user experience – even over 3G!! This app is compatible with external bluetooth keyboard and external display.  With the latest iPad 2 boasting HDMi, the display can be over a wide screen LED TV.

Special features of VMware View App

Once you have the app installed in your iPad, just click on the VMware view icon (middle icon in the bottom row) to connect to a virtual machine by entering its IP, followed by the username and password in the next screen.

The desktops that are provisioned to your user accounts will show up. Click on the one that you want to connect to and the desktop comes up on the ipad

The interesting feature that enhances the usability of this app is the drop down menu that appears on the top. From the drop down menu, you can choose the following options:

1. Keyboard: Opens up the keyboard for typing within applications such as Microsoft word from within the machine

2. Trackpad: Using this trackpad is similar to using the touchpad in any laptop. Controls the mouse pointer

3. Control Pads: This opens up the control keys, function keys, alt keys and other usability buttons like page up and page down that is most commonly used in a windows machine. Interesting yeah!

4. Gesture Help: A Help on what gestures on iPad means what to the Virtual machine.

5. Options: From here you can choose the touchpad sensitivity and enable / disable tool tips.

6. Disconnect: Disconnect from the virtual machine using this button from drop down menu on top. You can reconnect to the virtual machine and start from where you left off from you ipad or from your workstation.

 

UPDATE: Check out VMware official blog on the VMware view app for iPad at VMware website – link here

 

I think this app comes as a boon to most of the business and enterprise users who have the maximum inclination to buying an iPad. Do you? Are you already using of RDP / VNC apps - What do you think of this app?

Top 11 cricket apps for iPhones for the World cup season

Cricket fever is on and here goes the top 11 cool cricket apps for iPhone users that will keep you updated every single moment! Within one weeks time since the love season, starts another exciting season for the cricket lovers around the world. The time of world cup.. the time we were awaiting for 4 years. As is the case in all the previous seasons, every country is trying to say why their team is the best since their past victories (if there was one) and why they are the favorites to lift the trophy this time. And as usual, we the fans are going to try to keep ourselves abreast with the latest news and scores wherever we are. The savior for our cricket thirst comes in the form of these iPhone Apps which is just the answer to stay on the top of the happening cricket news! What’s better, all these apps are FREE APPS!!!

Here goes the list of my favorite top 11 apps for this cricket world cup season:

1. Live Cricket Score By Islet Systems: This is by far the best cricket app for iPhone for this cricket world cup season and many more cricket seasons to follow. What I love the most about this app is the player stats that come up in the detailed score card view. Apart from the other features present in all the other apps here below, this also has the distinguishing score projections feature. You can receive alerts for 4’s, 6’s, 50’s, 100’s and out. The overall visual appeal of the app is also a eye grabber!

2. Xplore Cricket WC2011 By HCL America Inc.: This was more of a schedule and informational app when it was initially launched. A must have for foreign fans who have travelled to India / Sri lanka or Bangladesh just for the passion of the game. The app has exhaustive details on the match venues like details about the maps and directions, Food and Restaurants with Tourist Places and hotels. The directions includes the details of route from the nearest airport using bing maps. Their latest version (Version 2.0) includes live score card and latest news too.

3. iCricket - most popular Cricket app By Kuchbi Inc: I am not suggesting that - they are! ‘the most popular cricket app’, that’s what the kuchbi guys have named themselves. Heights!! But they are arguably the best after the one by Islet systems. They also boast player statistics of over 1500 players. They also have the ball by ball commentary feature and live cricket videos from internet.

4. Cricbuzz - Cricket Scores and News By Cricbuzz.com: This app sends alerts (as push notifications) for every 5 overs for the subscribed matches, has comprehensive player profile and the distinguishing feature is the availability of radio commentary and access to the executive editorials of cricbuzz.

5. ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – Official By STATS LLC: This is an exclusive app for ICC Cricket World cup 2011 and has ball by ball score updates, commentary, teams and players stats features. It also has links to related photos on internet. This app can only be evaluated more once the matches actually start

6. ESPNcricinfo By ESPN: This is for all the ESPN lovers. Features include Live game coverage , Commentary, scorecard, match graphics, photographs, reports and player profiles, Push notifications for wickets, batsman milestones and score updates during live matches, Video/Audio podcasts, selection of the best features from ESPNcricinfo Magazine, News, Results, Fixtures, Records and Rankings.

7. NDTV Cricket By NDTV Convergence: This one is again another official app. Live match coverage - scorecard, photos and reports, Videos from web are the features of this app.

8. Yahoo! Cricket By Yahoo!: Yahoo!’s very own app for the cricket season. Features are live scorecard, batting line up details, match stats and Yahoo! news articles. This app is only available in India!!!

9. CricketWC2011 By Divum: It has a Live Scores ticker running on the top. But otherwise, I’ll use this app just for the schedules and fixtures.

10. ICC Cricket 2011 By Fafadia Tech: Another app basically for scheduling. Just add matches to your calendar and receive reminders (not that we are going to forget the dates anyway :P )

11. WorldCupInfo By AppInternals: Another informational app. But here goes the disclaimer of the app “All the information provide in this app is best effort. The Application Owner does not guaranty the accuracy or any change in schedule and team information” So use your better judgement :)

 

If you were wondering why this odd number 11… that’s the playing team size :)

 

Have you downloaded these apps already and love them? Do you have other better apps to suggest?? Please do drop a line in the comments section.

 

Android vs iPhone - A fair, unbiased comparison of iPhone and Android

Many comparisons have been made between iPhone and Android phones, most of them biased towards one or the other. I have tried to bring out an unbiased comparison and truly enough not going to take any side and say either iPhone beats Android or Android beats iPhone. The purpose of this post is just to bring out a brief fair comparison which can be based to make a decision depending on what feature you want the most in your smart phone.

Android	iPhone	Advantage
Battery: Removable and Replaceable Battery replacements easily available in the market and if you are always on the move, you might as well have an additional charged up battery which can help your phone stay alive without waiting to charge	No replacement battery. In fact you cannot even see the battery in this cased smart phone. Any battery issue, you’ll have to send it to Apple and hope that Steve sends it back to you in one piece	Android
Apps: This seems to be the major hit among all smart phone users. Android has about 70,000 apps currently	iPhone boasts over 230,000 apps and is growing..	iPhone
Jailbreak: Many Android OS comes with an option to Jailbreak it from its service provider – which is a bliss to foreigners in US. The can take the phone to their home country and switch to a different SP without the hassles of jail breaking on their own	iPhone does not have this feature when you buy it. Jail breaking needs to be done at our own risk and I have heard of many cases where the OS simply didn’t wake up after jailbreak. So its pretty scary business	Android
Notifications: System wide notification (non-modal) and other application notifications (like a new mail / new tweet /  new SMS) in cascade windows which can be pulled down to see details.	Push notifications and Individual notifications on updates	Android
Internal Memory: Limited internal memory. This is a big headache because apart from photos and media content, the default memory is the already limited internal memory. Lots of apps in the internal memory will eventually make your phone less ‘smart’	Good internal memory and you have choice of different internal memory sizes	iPhone
External Memory: Yes. External SD card can be inserted to store photos, media, etc. But from what I have gathered, there has been many reports of corrupted SD card and loss of data / photo / media	No external expandable memory. But no complaints here because the internal memory by itself is huge and good enough. I have not had a single occasion of data / photo loss.	iPhone
Dictionary: Google Voice integration and user editable dictionary. Which means more flexibility and ease of use	Artificial Intelligence type dictionary. iPhone learns as you type. So if you have the habit of typing a wrong spelling often, iPhone will learn that word and it is ‘almost’ reset of dictionary to make iPhone forget it. My common mistake is ‘habe’ instead of have and it kills to see that iPhone accepts that!	Android
Mail App: Separate Apps for Gmail and other mail. Other mail app is definitely given the second-class treatment. There is limited options with mail editing and other regular stuff with the client mail application. No complaints with respect to Gmail app	Single e-mail app and I must say an efficient one.	iPhone
Aesthetics: Visually crippled non-Google apps. The icons seem to be poorly drawn / designed. Its looking unprofessional in many cases (3rd party apps)	Every single application – the $99 app or the free one developed by a small co, all of them looks aesthetically rich and has appealing icons and appearance . For some one like me that first appearance plays 90% role in deciding if I want that app or not	iPhone
File Transfer / Sync: Android has the ‘plug and transfer’ feature by which you can transfer files between Android phone and your laptop just as if it were an external storage device	iTunes sync model – just like iPods. This means having a separate sync folder in your laptop and transferring media content to that folder before starting up the sync.	Android
Hardware Design / Buttons: If you have an android mobile and have been using it for sometime, you probably have experienced this. The menu and back buttons doesn’t always do the same thing. Their functionalities vary for different apps. Also there is that useless trackball  which does mostly nothing as of now	One button – clear function. Menu and back always mean what they imply :)	iPhone
Text Editing: Inconsistent text editing options again varying based on the app	Text editing operations (cut,copy and paste) act the same irrespective of the app. I agree Apple has a lot of scope for improvement here.. but still	iPhone
Charger: Micro USB charger which is something that is readily available in the market. Any Micro USB wire will do :)	Apple charger – though it is available in the market in abundance, I hate to be dependent only on Stevie for charging the phone	Android
OS Upgrade: Non-upgradable OS	iPhone can support at least one major OS Update before Apple launches a non-compatible or higher configuration OS.	iPhone

 

Apart from these, there are some common features that work good in both iPhone and Android. They are:

1. Auto suggestion by Google for search – complete as you type option

2. Back ground Apps and Multitasking

3. Google Calendar sync -

For iPhone, configure Google Exchange server in mail

For Androids, login to your Google account to sync

4. Bookmarking Sync -

iPhone  - Safari bookmark sync option over MobileMe

Android – Google chrome bookmark sync

These are the facts that I have gathered. Do you think I have missed mentioning any feature of importance or I’m wrong anywhere or if any of the feature has now been made available in iPhone or android. Please drop me a note in comments. I’ll be happy to learn and correct mistakes if any.

7 Romantic iPhone Apps for Valentines Day

Love is in the air with Valentines day around the corner. That makes Romantic iPhone apps as my first ever review of iPhone Apps. Well that makes me doubly happy because I am going to write about romance with respect to a gadget I love the most!

There are both free apps and paid apps in this category that caught my attention and am going to write about both here.

1. Poems: For those smitten lovers who want to compose a ballad or romantic letter for his/her love but is not a Shakespeare,

Love Poems - By BeamItDown Software (Free App) – huge collection of romantic poems

Love Letters For Her By Christopher Zorich (Paid app – $0.99) – Love letter collection

2. SMS: For the best one liners and SMS that can melt your loved one’s heart away, try these apps

Flirt SMS 500 By Michael Quach (Free App) – Met someone new and want to tell them your feelings – This app has ideas just for that.

Romantext - Romantic Text Messages By Joseph Nardone (Free App) – Cute romantic messages

Love & Romance Quotes By NOOCON (Free App) – Quotes that can be sent in SMS

3. E-cards and Virtual Gifts: Want to impress your valentine with the cutest and romantic greeting card in iPhone? Check these out:

Postage ~ Romance By RogueSheep (Paid App $0.99) – the best thing about this app is that you can create a custom valentine post card from the photos in your iPhone – That personal touch is worth the cost of the App

Valentine eCards Free - By SID On (Free App) – Make beautiful e-cards from among the number of images in the app and love messages.

English Rose (Free) - 3D Valentine’s Day Virtual GiftBy Kisky Netmedia (Free App) – Finding it difficult to get a gift in the high prize market, try this Virtual gift app that sends your lady a Rose for free!

4. Say ‘I Love You’: Tongue tied in expressing your love. Here are some apps that can help you say ‘I Love You’ in a way that sweeps your lover of his/her feet. Well since this is the most important part of your relationship, there are no free apps in this category.

100 ways to say i love you By topiphoneapp (Paid App $0.99) – 100 ways to say your love

Best Ways To Say I Love You By allmobileapp (Paid App $0.99) – Best ways to express your feelings to your loved one

What Man want to hear By topiphoneapp (Paid App $0.99) – Exclusively for girls!!

Horrible Pick Up Lines By IntroWizard LLC (Paid App $0.99) – Make sure you see this too before you blurt something out!

5. Tips to make the day special: A Variety of ideas and hints that will make this a day to remember!

Hints for LoverBy spitwebsolution (Free App) – Hints to make your Valentines day beautiful

Creative Romance IdeasBy Joviant Technologies (Paid App $0.99) – Cute ideas to impress her/him

Valentine Love TipsBy Webdunia.com (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Paid App $0.99) – Love tips for you

Creative Romantic IdeasBy In Business Solutions LLC (Paid App $0.99) – Creative ideas to spice up the lovely day

6. Valentine DJ: A collection of romantic hits that you can both play as music as well as download as ringtones.

Valentine's Day DJ By iPlayTones, LLC (Paid App $1.99)

7. Marriage Proposals: Planning to make the day more memorable by getting down on one knee and proposing to her? Here are some apps that has unique and best marriage proposals that will surely make this your excellent engagement day as well!

Marriage Proposal Ideas By imobileyazilim (Paid App $0.99) – This has loads of ideas on proposing based on where you are spending your valentines day

Marry Me? Marriage Proposal Guide By RogueGames (Paid App $0.99) – This app is even more versatile. Gives tips of where to buy the Jewelry, Top 10 places to propose and best proposal ideas

 

Happy Valentines Day !!!!