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Controlling Your Computer Remotely from Your iPad

By Scott Bassett posted 01-29-2015 14:00

  

Lawyers love their iPads. Soon after the first iPad was introduced in 2010, its potential became apparent. With the subsequent development of great legal-specific apps and general purpose apps that functioned well in the legal environment, the iPad quickly became the lawyer's tablet of choice. Microsoft's more capable Surface Pro 3 is making inroads, but it has not yet reached anything approaching the iPad's popularity in the legal community. As the iPad's popularity soared, so did the desire to use the iPad as a remote access platform.

From early in the iPad's history, there were remote control/access apps. They allowed an iPad user to "remote" into his or her office computer and control it from home or on the road, usually to access files or applications not on the iPad. The best of these remote access apps is probably Parallels Access. The iPad/iPhone app is free, but the service requires a $20 annual subscription per host computer (Windows or Mac)—a bargain for what it does.

However, if anything beyond "free" is not your idea of a bargain, Google just released an iOS version of its Chrome Remote Desktop app. Chrome Remote Desktop is a fast and secure way to remote into any computer running Google's Chrome web browser (with the Chrome Remote Desktop app enabled). I have used it from my portable Windows, Android, and Chrome OS devices to remotely access my main Windows PC while traveling. It works very well and costs nothing.

If you are not sure remote access functionality will be useful to you, give Chrome Remote Desktop a try. You may find it indispensable—or you may decide to upgrade to what I think is the better user experience of Parallels Access for a small $20 annual subscription fee.

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