Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
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.
Gallery: First Look: Mocha VNC Lite
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
robertlam1818 said 9:21AM on 7-21-2008
Mocha VNC Lite - Setup - ViewCam - Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoXAJhz53BI
www.thechinastory.org
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Dave said 9:24AM on 7-21-2008
"However, the lite version will give most users everything they need for casual VNC management. " is not true if you're a windows user, as only the paid version includes the on-screen "delete" key! A must have for logging-in to a windows box...
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LD said 9:24AM on 7-21-2008
I could never get it to connect to a Windows machine running UltracVNC. And no Bonjour, so not as cool as it could be for my OS X machines.
But a decent start. Would like to see some competition.
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Christian A. Stroemmen said 9:34AM on 7-21-2008
Any time I try to use this to connect to my Leopard Server I just get "Host has closed the session".
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Pete said 10:24AM on 7-21-2008
It will do that if you only have ARD or Screen Sharing enabled. If you go into the options and allow for connecting from a VNC client (and set a password) then that should take care of it.
Christian A. Stroemmen said 11:00AM on 7-21-2008
Ah, thank you! That did the trick! :)
fini said 2:35PM on 7-21-2008
same thing here, I have everything setup correctly, I know for a fact my VNC server works jut fine, I use Apple Remote Desktop frequently, so I don't understand why I am getting host has ended session error. I am using it on an iPod Touch.
fini said 2:35PM on 7-21-2008
same thing here, I have everything setup correctly, I know for a fact my VNC server works jut fine, I use Apple Remote Desktop frequently, so I don't understand why I am getting host has ended session error. I am using it on an iPod Touch.
fini said 2:51PM on 7-21-2008
sorry for the double posting.
I have vnc server on and im still getting the host ended error.
Joshua Ochs said 9:53AM on 7-21-2008
"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."
Yeah, except the "kludgy" Palm one (micro-VNC) a) works, b) is free for all features, and c) supports tunneling through SSH. Also supports tight compression and server-side-scaling to save bandwidth and speed things up.
Wake me when any iPhone client catches up... Especially on the security - VNC is all plaintext, all the time.
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stainboy said 10:27AM on 7-21-2008
i gave this a try and it works pretty well for a free VNC app. not sure where i'll have much use for this, although since my workplace is well covered for wi-fi it may come in handy if i have a process running to have a peek at my screen without having to walk back to my office.
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Scott said 10:27AM on 7-21-2008
How does it compare to Touchpad Pro with screen view on a jailbroken 1st gen? I've been using that for all my VNC needs and in some ways, it's better than VNC viewer on a desktop. It's by far the most impressive app I've seen from Installer and since I've already paid for it, I'm hesitant to try another when I do finally upgrade to firmware 2.0.
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Jc said 5:12PM on 7-21-2008
touchpadpro is much better. can't wait for it to get updated...
Will said 10:44AM on 7-21-2008
Needs SSH connection. Otherwise is worthless unless you want to be unsecured on the home/work PC.
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robotplague said 10:57AM on 7-21-2008
I have no previous VNC experience. But this seems like it'll be as good as it's going to get for a phone. The only problem is the terribly long refresh rate. If that, somehow, was fixed this would be extremely handy. As of now I can only picture using this to "check up" on things (say if I were downloading something, or something was batching). Besides that it'll take quite sometime to get anything done.
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Jonathan Wise said 11:24AM on 7-21-2008
Its decent, but needing to pay to get important features is annoying. I loved VNSea, and hope it comes to the AppStore soon...
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Big John said 11:37AM on 7-21-2008
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.
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Alex said 1:39PM on 7-21-2008
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
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bob said 4:22PM on 7-21-2008
anyone else getting a red screen when sharing with tiger?
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Spin2Win said 3:31PM on 7-21-2008
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.
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