A couple weeks ago I took the plunge and picked up an iPad for use in my travels. My current laptop is smaller than my previous laptop which was smaller than my previous laptop which was a whole lot more convenient to pack around to meetings than my old desktop - but the iPad is a whole lot easier and the battery life is even better for long plane rides.
But what to do about the documents I might need when I'm on the road that I have at home? Well, a friend turned me on to Drop Box, an online backup program that allows you to dump files you might need from one machine to the other so you have access to them on the road or at home. A cloud computing kind of thing I guess.
Great app and works like a champ but to use it effectively I needed another program that would allow me to access and modify Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents - and I couldn't find a free app that would do that. (I like FREE).
So yesterday another buddy turned me onto an app called TeamViewer. I hadn't found that anywhere in my app searches and I don't know why - it appears to be a winner and the home use version is FREE. It's kinda like GoToMyPC except it's easier and FREE. Download TeamViewer to your iPad, then download it to your PC or laptop, cross-ref the machine codes it assigns and BANG! you're off to the races. Just that easy.
If you haven't used it, what it does is allow you to remotely access your home computer from wherever you are. Log in and your home desktop appears on your iPad screen and you can tap into any program, photo, music, email, PDF or game you have on the home system. You don't have to drag programs to a Drop Box, you don't have to email files to yourself,you don't have to worry about compatibility issues with any existing programs (that I've found so far) - you just access a program like you're sitting in front of your home PC and do what you need to.
(A screen shot of you reading my iPad reading this blog post)
This is terrific for making client presentations without loading bulky files onto your system. Modify a document and it's automatically modified without having to drag it back and forth or make the same mod when you get back to your home system. And while I'm using it with an iPad, you could also use it from a laptop to desk top or a home system to an office system or whatever you need.
So if you're like me and searching for a good app that allows easy remote access while you're traveling, check out TeamViewer. I haven't found a downside yet and it's FREE. I'm looking forward to my travels later this month to put the system through it's paces.
Now if any of you know of a great compact bluetooth keyboard available for FREE, let me know.
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