TouchPad

Developer: Edovia Inc.
Category: Utilities
Version: 1.0
Release Date: August 12, 2009
Size: 1.2 MB
Price: $3.99
Rating 9/10

Touchpad is a very cool utility. It turns the screen of the iPhone into a touch pad like the one on your PowerBook or MacBook. Not only that but it allows you to use the iPhone as a keyboard also. It makes you feel like you have an experimental desktop model. Touch Pad can be best summed up as a mini remote mouse and keyboard for your computer.

I fired up TouchPad and went through the very simple set up process in about a minute. I set it up for use on both my MacBook and my iMac. It will store information for use with multiple computers. Just go to the Sharing Preferences and set up Screen Sharing. The app uses the wifi connection to control screen actions, not bluetooth.

It took a little getting used to, but pretty soon I was snickering at being able to pinch, scroll, select and type all with my iPhone, feet up on my desk and kicked back. I sat across the room from my MacBook and flipped around iTunes with no problems, plus since TouchPad gives you keyboard, I was able to do searches for tracks. Then I opened up Safari on my iMac and easily entered text, scrolled pages up and down, minimized and maximized, and applied the actions of a touch pad to iMac use. You can even select, copy, cut and paste. It felt really weird to be using the hand gestures that for the past 10 years I have used on my laptops to maneuver on my desktop.

As a teaching tool it's great, because the mouse or trackpad on the machine being controlled stays functional. Giving someone lessons on Ps or instructing your children does not require handing over the mouse to switch users. Simply kick back and jump in with the iPhone when you need to take over.

Touch Pad has modifier keys, tab and escape keys, 1 finger, 2 finger and 3 finger gestures, vertical and horizontal scrolling, backward and forward swipe, and a full keyboard. A great use for this app is on a MacMini, it eliminates the need for an external keyboard and mouse. It works in both vertical and landscape modes.

This app is really original and creative, and it's impressive how flawlessly it performs. It makes me think that Apple should be offering little external track pads to go with our desktop models. Hmmmmmmm..... But until they do that, go ahead and score TouchPad and see what it's like to have a remote mini touchpad and keyboard for your machines. This is an intuitive app that is a must have for all you Utility geeks out there.