First Look: Mocha VNC Lite

Mocha VNC Lite allows your iPhone or iPod touch to connect to your Mac or PC via VNC. For those of you who don't know, VNC is a protocol that allows you to screenshare/control other computers via a VNC client (which is what Mocha VNC Lite is). It is amazing to see this working right on my iPhone. I remember back when I used a Palm device to do this sort of thing and it was very kludgy, but this seems to work rather smoothly.

When you are connected to the computer via VNC, you are able to control pretty much everything on the screen, with the exception of special keys (i.e. command, option, F keys, etc.). You can, however, "pinch" the iPhone's screen to zoom in or out the viewing area.

Now for the gripes. Mocha VNC Lite uses left-clicks on the screen (which can be quite annoying after a few minutes use). You are also unable to change the refresh rate (however, if you click the "+" button, you're given a "refresh option.")

Mocha VNC also offers a paid version which gives you more useful features like extra PC keys, cursor keys, text macros, and a right mouse key. However, the lite version will give most users everything they need for casual VNC management.

You can download Mocha VNC Lite from the App Store for free. At the time of this writing the paid version has not yet been placed on the App Store. Feel free to look at our gallery of screenshots before you download.

First Look: Mocha VNC Lite

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Source: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa…

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Mocha VNC Lite allows your iPhone or iPod touch to connect to your Mac or PC via VNC. For those of you who don't know, VNC is a protocol...

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chris

If Pete or anyone else can elaborate on the "Host ended secession" solution I would really appreciate it. I do not know what ARD stands for and cannot find the screen sharing enabled on the VNC options. Thanks in advance.

August 28 2008 at 7:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ThePete

Can't get it to work--Keeps timing out. I have screen sharing set up in sys prefs and I'm running the latest OSX running. How do I try different ports on the Mac side? (It's obvious how to change them on the iPhone.)

July 21 2008 at 6:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Camperton

This is odd. I have a dual monitor setup and it will only show me the left hand monitor. The HDD and all the files and the dock are on the right.

July 21 2008 at 6:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hobbes

Awesome app!! Besides waiting for the full app to show up in the AppStore, I would like to see it support screen resolutions at least up to 1900x1200. Right now it cuts the screen at 1600x1200.

Work fine all the time for me. Awesome job!!!

July 21 2008 at 5:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Aubeck

After problems, on Vista I changed the port on both the installed app and on the iPod to 5901 and it actually worked. Hope it doesn't blow up now.

July 21 2008 at 4:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Spin2Win

This doesn't have the double finger scroll that TPPro has. Plus TPPro has the built in remote and all of the function keys. This app does seem faster on my first gen iphone. If you've been using TPPro this will seem like it's lacking many of the features your used to. Don't upgrade and expect an equivalent just yet.

July 21 2008 at 3:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bob

anyone else getting a red screen when sharing with tiger?

July 21 2008 at 2:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex

Seriously, I know that not everyone jailbreaks their iPhones and that the app store is the 'official' app store for the iPhone/iPod touch but these applications have been done, better (i.e. command and option keys) and for free for a while now

July 21 2008 at 1:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Big John

Pretty useless for a Mac user if I have to pay for the command and control keys. I'll keep using Back to My Mac on my Air.

July 21 2008 at 11:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jon Wise

Its decent, but needing to pay to get important features is annoying. I loved VNSea, and hope it comes to the AppStore soon...

July 21 2008 at 11:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply