Any number of tablet rivals to Apple’s iPad will be launched, running Windows or Android operating systems or even both, at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin next week.
We’ll be there to give you the details, but if you can’t wait for a tablet running Windows, then a new app from DeviceVM turns the iPad itself into a Flash-playing Windows machine.
It’s something of an optical illusion. The desktop you see on the iPad’s screen is actually that of your remote PC, which you have left switched on, connected to the internet, with a DeviceVM program transmitting the PC screen with its contents to the iPad.
This also lets you control the desktop and work on Word documents remotely and play music, video and Flash-based games with no noticeable lag, according to DeviceVM.
This is an advance on the Logmein-type remote access services for the PC, although it doesn’t appear files such as Word docs can be transferred to the iPad other than by emailing them from a PC desktop program.
“The concept is very similar to Logmein-type services,” Sergei Krupenin, senior director of marketing, told me.
“But all of the others use protocols that were designed by Microsoft in the era where networks were a lot slower, which is fine for remote support.
“The difference with Splashtop Remote is we are optimising the experience and supporting full video and audio streaming.”
A nice side-effect of the app is that Windows becomes touch-enabled – your finger replacing the mouse on the desktop and the iPad’s virtual keyboard coming into play when needed.
DeviceVM is best known for its Splashtop quick-boot operating system and desktop that it sells to laptop manufacturers wanting a near-instant boot alternative to Windows.
The trend it says it is following here is computing moving to non-PC devices and the experience becoming more fragmented. Splashtop Remote helps to pull it back together for consumers and is likely to appear in different versions for other devices.
The Remote app is the company’s first direct-to-consumer offering and is being priced at $20, although it will be available for an introductory period in the App Store at $7.
