

Real-time PC access on your PDA 145
Brooks P. writes "As seen in this story on The Register, Sproqit Technologies creates software that allows you to access your desktop apps in real time over the Internet. No more synchronization. This is accomplished with a Desktop Agent that runs on your (Windows for now) PC, and a 200k Companion running on the PDA. The Desktop Agent uses plug-ins to connect to the apps running on the PC, and the SDK used to develop plug-ins is free. Oh, and the whole thing uses 128-bit SSL for security and works over any connection method: 802.11, modem, cell phone, etc."
Pretty cool (Score:2)
Aw, who am I kidding. It'll just get used to run Kazzaa searches from anywhere.
Hey, I *actually* got FP! (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, got thinking about how cool a remote control Kazzaa client might be...
Think of something you want to download away from home (Linux Distro?)
Begin the download from your Palm-type device.
Have the file waiting for you when you return, presuming of course you have a broadband connection at home.
You'd be that much more of a geek, but then, what are you doing here if you *didn't* want that?
Re:Hey, I *actually* got FP! (Score:2)
mlDonkey (Score:4, Informative)
Re:mlDonkey (Score:4, Informative)
( http://www.emule-project.net/ )
but mlDonkey might be worth a shot. thanx for the link.
Re:mlDonkey (Score:1)
Re:Pretty cool (Score:2)
Sure it can. (Score:2)
j/k.
Re:Pretty cool (Score:2)
Gnutella client for Pocket PC (Score:2)
Yeah, and with the WinAMP plugin they mention... (Score:2)
It's not like I think all internet apps are used to steal software, it's just that no one pays for anything online.
Seriously...this whole concept would be pretty cool.
Re:Yeah, and with the WinAMP plugin they mention.. (Score:2)
"It's not like I think all internet apps are used to steal software"
you are absolutely right! There is music, videos, archives, images, documents. The list NEVER ends!
"it's just that no one pays for anything online"
ok, now to be serious. When people CAN get something for free, with very little risk, they will take that opportunity. Of course, i do purchase things
thin client? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:thin client? (Score:3, Informative)
Mainly, this kind of virtual computing doesn't require you to use your desktop's UI on whatever client you happen to be using, and therefore, it lets you work more efficently assumi
Re:thin client? (Score:2)
Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:1)
Personally all I would need is SSH and remote X, though...
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:5, Informative)
You get an interface designed to use with your PDA, instead of trying to cram a 1280 by 1024 image on a 240 by 320 screen. RTFA.
nonsense (Score:2)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:1)
That was my first thought too, but what it seems to do is run a screen scraping program or something like that to interface with the apps on your pc, then send the data off to the PDA to be displayed in the PDA's native GUI toolkit.
Reminds me a lot of the green screen legacy apps getting new and improved web front ends and windows GUI's
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
I have a Zaurus SL-5500. It doesn't do a lot of things that the commercial solutions have achieved- including what this article is talking about. Read it. There also isn't a decent notetaking app that anywhere near the quality or functionality of the Newton notes from the original newton released in 1993. Hell, nothing on the Z is as good as the notes app that comes with PocketPC.
The Z is cool in a lot of ways, but it is moronic to lie about such things. The Zaurus has no way to rep
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
So, people who want to use the best tool for the job- in a lot of cases, what this Sproqit app provides- are just lazy morons? C'mon, I'm sure all the bois think you're awful 1337, but get off it. Why do you need a portable Ogg player? Why not just settle for a P100 laptop? If
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
explain to me the difference between something like this and VNC, X11, ssh and the nature of OSS software.
Again, I urge you to read the article. If it still is unclear, have a look at the flash demo. This isn't a VNC clone or anything like it. What does "the nature of OSS software" have to do with it? I mean, how does it factor in to the difference between VNC or X11+ssh and this Sproqit app?
Repeat after me: "This application does not do remote display of
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
Re:Citrix/TS/X/SSH. What's new about this? (Score:2)
Reminds me of something.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Please mode the 2 above AC posts UP!!!! (Score:2)
I also use VNC on the IPaq to manage a couple of other servers, access my desktop PC and to manage a growing number of Nortel BCM PBXes.
Nothin new here folks.
Quick! Post another story! (Score:5, Funny)
seriously though, this sounds alot like vnc and the many other various remote desktop programs. In fact, i'm using vnc right now to post this...
-foxxz
Re:Quick! Post another story! (Score:1)
Re:Quick! Post another story! (Score:1)
yea considering some of the news they grab is sometimes months old. i bet their routers have cobwebs in them
-foxxz
That's great but.... (Score:2, Interesting)
2. How many people have internet access on thier PDA's. Lets work on this first as I would love to have an easy (small) device thats efficient for PDA/Mobile web use that isn't a million$$
-Rob
One word... (Score:1, Interesting)
Does everything you want, cheaply (well, somewhat cheaply). It's wild running WinConnectZ (rdesktop) on it
Re:One word... (Score:2)
Already done (Score:4, Funny)
And what happens when there's no connection? (Score:2)
I'm actually pretty impressed at how mature Synchronization has gotten (Frankly Covey excluded. shudder.)
Zaurus and VNC (Score:1)
I liked it before... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I liked it before... (Score:4, Informative)
Uhhh? (Score:1, Informative)
What is so amazing? I even have a VNC client for my Palm (but any kind of encryption would probably overwhelm its CPU)
Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:5, Interesting)
There's no need for any proprietary desktop server application to serve the data to you like the one mentioned in this Slashdot story. In fact, the Remote Desktop Protocol is superior in many ways to applications like VNC and this new geegaw because, as far as I know, it doesn't send everything as bitmaps -- it sends GDI commands and the like, so area fills and most window drawing is actually done at the client, saving incredible amounts of bandwidth in the process. It's actually decently usable over dialup, even though it obviously smokes over broadband. RDP 5.2 is the latest, complete with clipboard, audio, and drive letter redirection. (Yes, copy and paste files between machines and they're all sent encrypted over the same port connection.)
I'm typing this message on my home desktop PC even though I'm at my girlfriend's house at the moment (with a 1Mbit DSL connection), some 5km from home (with a 3Mbit DSL connection), and everything is pretty snappy. It's not quite as quick as sitting at the console, but it isn't much different. I'm quite impressed by just how well it's integrated into the host OS and how well it works.
Even better yet, you can connect to any PC using the RDP 5.2 client in the form of an ActiveX control from any web browser. I have such a beast on my own website, and it's come in really handy from time to time, such as when I'm trying to connect from my home PC from older Win95/98 machines that don't have the client software installed. Check it out here [alexburke.ca].
Okay, so what about PalmOS, you say? As far as I know, no RDP client exists for PalmOS. But this is Slashdot, people. Write one! [microsoft.com]
Okay, I'm done raving now. Thanks for listening.
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2, Interesting)
Doesn't Terminal Server (Score:1)
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2)
Hmm, I guess no X-server exists for PalmOS yet?
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2)
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2)
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2)
Considering how PDA real-time access to your desktop makes the most sense on the go, and disregarding the cost for the moment, I see many people using this over their cell phone internet links, which means slow. There have been advancements in the mobile internet access speeds, but it's still as slow or slower than dial-up for some, not to mention the horrible latency and packet loss inherent to wireless links. The so
Priorities man! (Score:1)
This is really a tough decision. Spend time with the gf with the possibility of some lovin or use her computer to access your computer to post on /. about
Terminal Services, Pocket PC, GDI and RDP. Something's really wrong with this picture.
Re:Totally superfluous! Sheesh! (Score:2)
Any browser that's IE, anyway.
Clients already available (Score:5, Interesting)
The tail end of the article mentions 18-24 month timeline for "bundled" products and a lot about the desire to license the tech. Sounds like a VC hunt to me.
Still, I hope they get it to work. The world needs competitors to Citrix/Term Server (could Citrix BE any more expensive???)
There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2)
But what about remote X sessions over ssh from Palm OS?
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2)
Because X makes such efficient use of network resources, right?
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:1)
Yes, it's a thing of beauty... ;-)
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2, Interesting)
No, because remote X allows you to open up only the particular application you want to run. This could be advantageous on a PDA, where it may have a chance of fitting on the screen, whereas, with something like VNC you get the whole desktop which may be difficult to manage on a PDA, even if the desktop is only 640x480.
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2)
This does take some getting used to but it works.
One advantage of using VNC over X is that with X if you break the connection, all your programs close, while with VNC the desktop keeps running...this is an important consideration with a mobile, battery-powered device like a Palm.
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2)
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:1)
It would be nice to have something like eXceed (?) that gives you just the X window that you're interested in rather than the whole desktop.
Re:There's VNC for the Palm, too (Score:2)
If anyone does operate a secure VNC setup on your Palm, what're you using?
I'll never understand this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'll never understand this (Score:1)
Personally, I don't own either due to the cost factor, but I can understand the advantage of both. I would love the ability to remotely access my PC's at home, from anywhere, at anytime. Once cellular Internet access becomes more affordable I will go this route. Though, yeah, maybe I wouldn't find myself using it as much as I think I would.
Re:I'll never understand this (Score:2)
vnc (Score:1)
Re:vnc (Score:2)
Re:vnc (Score:1)
Plus, this enables you to use the palmtop's UI for desktop apps. Desktop metaphors don't work as well on palmtops as they do on the system for which they were designed.
Good for them.. but.. (Score:2)
...or the free way (Score:2)
People, please (Score:4, Funny)
And this already exists for free... (Score:1, Informative)
remote control (Score:3, Interesting)
Freeware remote access tools. (Score:2, Informative)
There are already several remote access solutions for PDA users. Best of all they're freeware and cross platform.
Using the VNC graphical protocol [att.com] (servers for Linux, Solaris, Windows, Mac, Dec Alpha):
Text remote access using SSH (which may be all you need if you want access to the command line and to, for example, send/read email with something like PINE):
VNC? (Score:1)
What's more, Microsoft also offers Terminal Server Clients for Pocket PC 2002. If you get the Hand Held PC 2000 version, and copy the CAB file a Pocket PC 2000 and install it, guess what, it installs. But there are bugs, and license fees to worry about.
VNC (Score:2)
Been done already! (Score:1)
Of course... it would kinda suck having to run my PC at 160x160 resolution so I can read the icon labels, though.
again... (Score:2)
rsync azv -e ssh
seems easy to me? anyone else?
Security implications? (Score:1)
Organizations which require security usually control not only access from the internet to the internal network, but also control access from internal network to the internet, for instance by limiting the access to certain protocols only, say http(s) through a proxy, smtp through internal email server only etc. This is becau
For my distributed computing (Score:2)
it uses a protocol (Styx) for remote file access.
& File access is all you need as all services are controlled by reading, writing & executing files
how does that work I hear you wonder
something like this
% cat clone
1
% echo 'connect tcp!127.0.0.0!80' >
% echo 'GET http://127.0.0.1/ HTTP/1.0' >
% echo >
% cat
Content-Type:text/plain
here's a document
%
using bind one can transparently import remote file syst
This is not VNC/Remote Desktop/Blah (Score:5, Informative)
This is not a remote desktop solution in the traditional sense. Applications have to be Sproqit enabled and the conent is repurposed for the mobile device. It is not simply a view of your desktop PC.
In saying this they are pretty wrong when it comes to a couple of things.
1. Syncronisation: I can spend an hour a day underground (The Tube) with no network coverage and I bet it does not cahche all the data I might want to look at. You need syncronisation as our networks are a) not good enough and b) super expensive for consitently grabbing data from your PC. They would have been better to integrate their data transfer technology and perform a really good background sync (no sync company does this yet).
2. The Enterprise: They will not take this on as it means every users PC has to be on to take advantage of this. They need a server based solution that runs on back office equipment that takes away the need for indivdual PC's to be always on.
A couple of the concepts are nice but for your core PIM applications this is not the way to go.
Pebbles Project from CMU (Score:3, Informative)
The PebblesPC part of the package basically sets up a conduit between a PDA application and PC application. Because the projects goals are more research-oriented, there aren't many commercial applications (that I know of right now). But there definitely was some noise made about SlideShowCommander [cmu.edu]. SlideShowCommander allows the user to control and communicaate with PowerPoint from the PDA, which is useful while giving a presentation. It was pretty neat. You could navigate through the slides, draw on them, etc. It was picked up by Synergy Solutions and is sold through them. Google provides the link here [synsolutions.com], but it appears to be down.
In any case, the Pebbles project is a free download. Or, you can buy the SlideShowCommander from Synergy, and give *me* some (small) amount of money. <<BIG GRINS>>
Umm ... been doing this already (Score:2)
Nothing new here.
Soybo (Score:1)
RTFA: NOT VNC. (Score:3, Informative)
Each application has have a plugin for it. The plugin takes input from PDA, performs the operation on the PC, returns the DATA, where the PDA renders it in it's "native" view. No scrolling required. It makes it seem like a PDA application, but your PC is doing all the work.
VNC is totally different, you would have to scroll around to get to everything, since apps you see on VNC are designed for a desktop, not for a PDA... where the resolution is much lower. Not to mention, since it has to send all the data on the screen... it will be a lot slower.
The article mentions email. Maybe your email app on your PDA isn't as robust as the one on your PC... you have all your filters set up on your PC email app. Well, if there's a plug in for Outlook Express (which I know everyone here uses), you could just have it send "GET ME EMAILS IN INBOX"... it then returns all the emails, but it renders it to make it look like a PDA app.
Re:RTFA: NOT VNC. (Score:2)
Hahaha ROTFL
Sproqit? (Score:2)
It's called X (Score:1)
Wow, and this is news how? (Score:3, Insightful)
The only problem now is that I have broadband, so I can't dial into my PC
Re:Wow, and this is news how? (Score:2)
I still don't think it's news. After all, couldn't you just set up a WAP and get a wireless card for your Palm (as well as Palm that can take a wireless card)?
hmmm (Score:2)
This sort of thing will soon be obsolete (Score:2)
It's neat- but as a person working on a "next-generation" [1] computing environment for PDAs called Dynapad [sf.net], I see it as a symptom of poor applications and application frameworks on both the PDA and the desktop.
In Dynapad, this app is completely
It is
Real-time? (Score:2)
It _may_ be a valid idea to make a UI library... (Score:2)
And telnet (Score:2)
Also I was conserned about the bandwith needs of VNC (Sorry my PDA dosen't have broudband connection.. still using CDCP) So I elected to use telnet.
That needs a telnet client (any PDA) and a *nix desktop (Anything not by Microsoft) and TOZ I'm logged in...
WHEEEE
Scoop up afree dynamic domain and I'm free....
Thow I think VNC is MUCH better when you have the bandwith on your PDA.
My question becomes can
Re:TermServies? (Score:2)
What I don't understand is how this doesn't violate the Windows XP licence (which IIRC states that you can't run any non-Microsoft remote desktop. There was a big stink [slashdot.org] about the effect this would have on VNC). Also, w
Re:TermServies? (Score:2, Insightful)
It isn't a remote desktop in any way, shape, or form.
The reason to use this is that it gives you an interface optomised for the device that you're using instead of a desktop interface.
Re:Once Again, Linux is Following (Score:2)
Good Troll!....
This is particularly funny today...
Hey are you from the future too?
Re:Once Again, Linux is Following (Score:2)
Re:Once Again, Linux is Following (Score:1)
But seriously, how long has it been able to handle remote desktops? I honestly don't know.