Review: RemoteTap for iPhone

ReadPixel’s RemoteTap lets you control to your local Mac from the iPhone or iPod touch (if you’re on a wireless network), much like Jaadu VNC and Mocha VNC. Unlike those others, however, RemoteTap requires installation of a System Preferences panel on each Mac before it will function.

This preferences panel takes the place of the built-in OS X VNC server that the other programs rely on. Why would you use a third-party server over the Apple-provided version? RemoteTap’s server scales the Mac’s screen using the Mac’s hardware, for one—so instead of sending a full-size screen image to your iPhone, a scaled down version can be sent instead, greatly reducing bandwidth and improving redraw speed. In addition, on nearly every Mac model, this scaling is done using OpenGL hardware acceleration, reducing the hit to the Mac’s CPU.