remote

If you've found a new travel companion in your iPad, you are no doubt charmed by its various entertainment features, from its prowess at playing movies, music, and games to its roles as e-reader, photo viewer, and news gatherer. The iPad, however, can be more than an entertainment device. There are a number of remote desktop apps, for instance, that let you use the iPad to tunnel into your PC or laptop. So, in addition to Angry Birds Rio HD, use can use your iPad to gain control of your Mac at home or your PC at work. In this tutorial, I will walk you through using LogMeIn Ignition.

You may have used LogMeIn before to access a remote PC from another PC via a Web browser; Ignition is the company's iOS app that lets you use an iPhone or iPad. Priced at $29.99, LogMeIn Ignition is one of the more expensive apps you'll find in the app store. Considering its many features and the fact that it doesn't necessarily saddle you with a monthly subscription cost, the $30 charge begins to look reasonable. For this tutorial, I used an iPad 2 and the latest version of Ignition (2.1.299).… Read more

GetGlue is a Foursquare-style social networking game that lets you "check in" to the movies and shows you're watching, books you're reading, games you're playing, and more. It then takes your check-in data, along with your Likes, Favorites, and other Ratings, and recommends other forms of entertainment it thinks you'll enjoy. The more you interact with the app, the better its recommendations get. Plus, if you perform certain actions, you can unlock stickers for your profile. Unlock at least 20, and you can actually request that physical stickers be sent to you, free of … Read more

Just tap the green icon and hold your Android device up to your television. IntoNow "listens" to the show you're watching, identifies it, and pulls up a host of information about it, including episode title, genre, and stars. It also provides you with an IMDb link for if you want to go a little deeper.

While a SoundHound for television may seem useless, IntoNow actually gives you a unique way to engage with your favorite TV shows and share them with your friends. Each time you use the app to identify a show you're watching, it … Read more

Peel attempts to revolutionize the channel-surfing experience by serving up television recommendations based on the shows you already watch and don't watch. To get it started, just input a few tidbits of basic information--such as genres you prefer, sports you like--and watch as it delivers its first batch of recommendations. As you vote on these recommendations, much as you would on Pandora, Peel gets a better understanding of your particular tastes, and thus can deliver more targeted suggestions. At least, that's what it's supposed to do.

Peel is one of the more visually stunning apps available to … Read more

The more you use your iPad for work, the more important it becomes to safeguard the data and applications stored on the device. These tips let you apply password protection to specific iPad apps, replace the four-digit passcode with a password, track your iPad's location and lock or wipe it remotely, and erase the machine's contents after a set number of unsuccessful passcode entries.

Assign passcodes on an app-by-app basis Passcodes are the primary method of securing an iPad, but they can be overkill when you merely want to browse or access e-mail and other services that are … Read more

The average Web-based application is hit by a cyberattack once every two minutes, says a report out today by security firm Imperva.

Detailing its findings in its "Web Application Attack Report" (PDF) for July, Imperva found that Web applications are attacked around 27 times per hour. Monitoring the Internet from December 2010 through May 2011, the security firm uncovered and categorized more than 10 million individual attacks targeting both business and government sites.

Automated cyberattacks accounted for a huge number of attempted breaches. The report discovered that attack traffic was characterized by quick spikes of high volumes followed … Read more

Your iPhone already controls your life, so it might as well control your television, too.

Plenty of apps let you use your iPhone as a remote control, but when an app alone isn't substantial enough for you, you can turn to the new VooMoteOne. This consists of a clip-on external device in combination with an app. The whole kit and caboodle costs $99.

Your hundred bucks makes you a god among your household appliances. Follow the straightforward setup wizard and then lord the VooMoteOne over your electronics. Turn them on and off at will. Make them sing louder.

The app allows for profiles so you can set up specific bundles of electronics for each room. The app contains a large database of devices, but it can also learn a new device if you point the old remote control at the LED transmitter on the bottom of the VooMoteOne.… Read more

Bluetooth can enable you to communicate on a cell phone without looking like Zach Morris. But what if you could use Bluetooth to drive a remote-controlled car? Even Morris' "Saved by the Bell" crush Kelly Kapowski would be impressed.

Stephen Mark hopes to commercialize the idea with BlueDrone, a Bluetooth-controlled 1:20-scale Nissan GT-R RC vehicle.

Compatible with any Android phone or tablet (running 2.1+), BlueDrone is that toy we don't need, but would probably buy if it was at the front of Brookstone. The car is controlled by an Android app that offers touch-screen and/or accelerometer controls to the driver--both most certainly a wow factor. Battery life clocks in at three hours (via three AA batteries), while the maximum range is 30 feet due to Bluetooth's technical limitations.

Mark's vision, one he calls a "personal dream for many years," offers "responsive steering and a powerful motor." The promo video below most certainly affirms that claim, but we're left to wonder if BlueDrone can inspire enough people to pledge $200,000 on Kickstarter and help the product hit the highway. … Read more

For people who manage remote servers, the use of the secure shell (ssh) Terminal command is quite common, and is very often the only command people use when opening a Terminal window. While you can enter each of your ssh connections (usernames, server, and arguments) for every new Terminal session, this can be a burden if you need to connect to many servers. While Apple's Terminal application has a connection manager option where you can store the addresses of the servers you access, even this can be a bit cumbersome to continually access. One option instead is to implement … Read more