Working out of the office is often frustrating–especially when you need to gain access to a key file on your desktop computer and that pc sits many hundreds of miles away. Fortunately, iPad owners can access several apps that enable them to remotely connect to the files and data in their laptops and personal computers, regardless of how far away from them they may be. Known as remote-access programs, these tools come in a wide variety of price points. Additionally, they target a wide variety of iPad users, from those concentrating on business to people that are interested in watching movies and playing music. Here’s a peek at three of the best remote-access apps currently available for iPad users.
GoToMyPC: Citrix, the organization behind GoToMyPC, is a veteran of the remote-access business. In reality, GoToMyPC is older than the iPad itself. This means that GoToMyPC has ironed out the bugs sometimes related to remote access. This is why the service earned a solid review recently from PC Magazine, whose editors praised the service for its simplicity of use and intuitive controls. As the name suggests, iPad users – with an application – can remotely access their desktop and laptops using this application. They are able to open Word documents, access Excel spreadsheets and comb through the contact lists stored on their remote computers. The sole negative? The price. This can be a fairly pricy service, costing, in general, $9.95 a month or $99 a year. If you’re a more casual iPad user who’s and not on the road too frequently, you might prefer one of many lower-priced remote-access apps out there.
SplashTop Remote Desktop: Among the more popular remote-access iPad apps, SplashTop Remote Desktop is incredibly powerful for its low cost of $4.99. And, as a recent review in CNET says, you can even use this app to view and stream videos and music from your PC to your iPad. This is a uncommon feature in the remote-access industry, and makes the program an attractive one.
LogMeIn Ignition: LogMeIn Ignition is yet another lower-priced alternative to popular GoToMyPC, though at $30, it is more expensive than rival SplashTop. This program was also praised by CNET for its ease of use and effectiveness, but also for two nifty features. First, you can utilize LogMeIn to remotely wake up a sleeping or shut-down PC. Secondly, you can utilize the application to remotely relocate files from a PC to your iPad.