INTRODUCTION

    Remote desktop control from your internet
enabled Pocket PC is one of those "How did I ever live without
it" applications. The possibilities are really quite endless. Imagine
being able to perform serious number crunching or compiling software
on your Pocket PC. Forgot your proposal back at the house? No problem.
Need a fully featured web browser with Java and multiple tabs? Easy.
I’m InTouch software, from Ontario based 01 Communique allows you all
the functionality of a host desktop computer through your internet enabled
Pocket PC. Of course it also allows you limited connectivity via a web
enabled smartphone, and full connectivity through any internet connected
computer.

    This all sounds good on paper, but how easy is it to really control
your desktop from a Pocket PC? And why use I’m InTouch instead of other
similar utilities such as Terminal Services? Let’s find out.

WHAT’S HOT

    I’m InTouch Desktop Edition v5.0, is the
latest offering from 01 Communique. The major new features added with
this release include support for Pocket PCs, and also allows local printing
of documents that are on the host computer. This feature enables you
to print documents locally without needing a locally installed version
of say, Visio, AutoCAD etc.

SETUP

    Setup is straightforward. First,
you download a small installer application. After running it, it asks
some basic configuration questions, and then downloads the rest of the
program from 01 Communique. During installation, you select the mail
application that I’m InTouch will monitor (Outlook, or Outlook Express).
Then you give your computer a unique name, login, and password that
you will use each time you wish to connect.

    After you set up this
basic information, you are prompted for a second "Desktop Viewer
Authentication" password. I’m InTouch recommends that this be
different from your login password for added security. At the end of this
process, I’m InTouch automatically loads the configuration window, and
allows you to make any necessary configuration changes.

    I ran into one well
documented issue during installation. I’m InTouch installs a file named
rdesktop.exe. This file apparently has matching heuristics with some
trojan or back-door viruses, and thus triggers a virus alert. Now depending
on your anti-virus software, the file may be moved to quarantine, which
aborted my installation half way through. My only option to successfully
install the application was to completely disable my anti-virus software
during installation, and then re-enable it afterwards.

    The I’m InTouch web
site has instructions on how to ignore the rdesktop.exe file for most
major anti-virus vendors, however, my particular software does not allow
me to ignore an obvious "threat," and as a result I receive
notification about once a day that I have a virus.

PROGRAM FEATURES

    I’m InTouch provides these major features:

• PC Desktop
  Control via any web enabled computer, or Pocket PC
• Computer
  access from web-enabled smart phones
• File
  transfer / file browsing
• Email
  access and management (Outlook and Outlook Express only)
• Contact
  and calendar management (Outlook and Outlook Express only)
• Wireless
  email notification
• Streaming
  video from a connected webcam
• Remote
  printing
• Guest
  access
• Half
  the price of it’s major competitors

    I’ll take a look at
each one of these, as it pertains to the Pocket PC, but be aware that
all of this functionality is available from any internet connected computer,
often with more feature rich interfaces and without the limitations
of the Pocket PC’s small screen.

    Let’s look at some
of the more general architecture.

    I’m InTouch installs
a task bar client and runs two instances of apache.exe, which I’m assuming
is the Apache Web Server, on your host computer. Together, these services
weighed in at a hefty 27MB of RAM. The task bar client serves as access
to the configuration of the application, and also maintains "Registration"
with the central I’m in Touch servers. In this way, I’m in Touch allows
you to connect with your computer, even over a dynamic IP address.

    Also important to
note, is that no passwords are stored on the I’m InTouch servers. They
are all stored locally on your host machine, which provides you with
complete privacy from I’m InTouch, and all communication takes place
over a 128 bit secured connection.

Remote Desktop Control

    This is really the key feature for I’m InTouch software. It provides you with full control of your host computer’s
desktop through your Pocket PC, almost as if you were sitting in front
of your computer. This opens up a whole new realm of uses for your Pocket
PC. For instance, you can use any IM client, start and stop servers,
visit Flash or AJAX heavy web sites, access your network files at work,
and even play turn based games like Civilization. Clearly, applications
that require sound are not currently supported, and applications that
have frequent, full screen updates (full motion video, and some games)
become a little painful over a slower data connection.

    So how does this all
work? First you need to log in to the I’m InTouch server by either
visiting http://locator.01com.com/ (the extra "com" is not a typo) in your Pocket PC’s browser, or selecting the I’m InTouch icon. After
typing in your unique computer name, you’re prompted to login in to
either a remote desktop session, or access some of the other functionality.
For now, we’ll control my desktop.

     

    After your initial
login, you’re prompted to download a 40KB client file. It would be nice
if you only had to do this once per device, however downloading this file
generally takes 10 seconds or less, depending on your connection.

    

    Next, the desktop
viewer is loaded, and you’re prompted for the remote desktop viewing
password you established during setup. After an authentication period,
I’m InTouch loads your desktop. Of course, my desktop is usually locked,
so I need to login again to my desktop.

    It seems like this
is a lot to go through each time you want to view your desktop. My very
non-scientific experiment showed that it took me 3 minutes from initial
button press to full desktop viewing. Of course, your connection speed
has a large impact on this time, and with the roll-out of EVDO and other
high speed wireless technologies, this would be a negligible process.
However, I felt that 3 minutes was a small price to pay for full desktop
access. Note that this longer login process is only necessary for the
full desktop control. Other features are available after the first login
screen.

    One of my major concerns
with I’m InTouch, was how easy it would be to control my desktop via
my small Pocket PC screen. The verdict? Plenty easy. I’m InTouch provides
two features to assist with this. First, I’m InTouch downloads your full
desktop screen into memory, so that scrolling around on your desktop was
plenty fast. Second, I’m InTouch provides 5 levels of zoom to enable
the level of control you need.

    

    These two images show
the Fit to Screen view, and the 75% Zoom view. I found I was most efficient
at the 75% Zoom level, which had a nice balance between legibility and
screen real estate. You’ll notice on each of these images, there is
a little gray button at the top. This provides access to the I’m in
Touch menu, visible here:

    This menu provides
for all of the options you need while using your remote desktop. You
can pin this menu, zoom the desktop 5 different levels from Fit to Screen
to 100%, switch between landscape and portrait mode, use an on screen
keyboard, and send Ctrl-Alt-Del etc.

    Performance depends
greatly on the speed of your connection, and to a lesser extent, on
power of your Pocket PC. With my cell phone provider, I found that I
needed to issue a command, and then wait a few seconds for the screen
to refresh. By doing this, I avoided queuing up several commands that
ended up tapping buttons that no longer existed etc.

Computer
access from web-enabled Smartphones

    While the remote desktop
control is certainly the most powerful feature of I’m InTouch, the
software also provides a number of text based features that work for
most smartphones with a web browser. These include checking email, calendar,
and contacts, in addition to file transfer and browsing. You can either
select a specific function at your initial login, or you can navigate
to the following home page which provides access to all of the functions.

File
Management

    The file transfer
and browsing feature enables you to view all drives attached to your
computer, including network drives, CD-ROMs and even virtual drives.
Because it’s text based, the performance while browsing is good, however
in large directories, navigating through "page 25 of 73" can
become tedious. Fortunately, I’m InTouch provides you with a find feature
that searches the local directory and makes this process a lot easier.

    You can either download
files to your device, or you can attach the file to an email and send
it to a more easily accessible location. Note that all file transfers
must first go from your host PC to 01 Communique’s servers, and then
from 01 Communique to your local device. So while grabbing that spreadsheet
you forgot is easy, transferring your 500MB backup file is not. The
major limitation of the file transfer feature is that you can only transfer
one file at a time, and you cannot transfer folders. Although in a pinch,
you can browse back to the desktop, zip up the files you need, and then
transfer the zip file.

Email
access and management

    I’m InTouch provides
access to your Outlook or Outlook Express email, but it doesn’t currently
support other email clients. Of course you can use any client you want
while remote controlling your desktop. However while using this text
based interface your options are more limited. This feature provides
all the email functionality you would expect: Reply, Forward, Attachments
(from host computer), Delete etc.

Contact
and Calendar Management

    With the contact and
calendar management you can create, view, and edit existing contacts
and calendar appointments, although in most cases I’d assume this information
would already be on your Pocket PC in a more user friendly format. However
if you were keeping your work and personal contacts separate, or hadn’t
recently synced your devices, this would definitely be useful.

    Here we can see the
calendar in it’s full text based glory. This would work in a pinch,
but again, if you had this on your PDA, or could view your remote desktop,
it would be a lot more efficient. Note that on an internet connected
computer, this feature is much more usable as well.

    Notice that the month
based calendar makes use of the horizontal scroll bar, and extends out
for other days of the week. It also conveniently bolds dates on which
you have an appointment.

Wireless
Email Notification

    I’m
InTouch’s wireless email notification allows you to monitor one or
more Outlook or Outlook Express based email accounts, and send a notification
to an email address of your choice, (e.g. your mobile phone’s email
address) when you receive a message.

Streaming
Video
    If you have a web cam
attached to your host computer, you can actually watch streaming video
on your Pocket PC using this feature. I wasn’t able to test this feature
out because I didn’t have access to a webcam, but it would certainly
be interesting to see how it would perform over a mobile phone based
data connection. This ability could be quite useful to check on the
kids at home, or monitor security cameras back at work etc.

Remote
Printing and Guest Access
    Both
of these features pertain more to internet connected desktops than a
Pocket PC, but they certainly merit discussion.

    Remote
printing enables you to print a document from your host computer, on
the local computer, without having any particular software installed.
Thus you can print proprietary reports, blueprints, or even music scores
without having those large (and expensive) software packages installed
locally. Now here’s the catch. You must have the appropriate printer
driver installed on the host computer to do this. This makes it slightly
less practical to do this unless you consistently print work documents
at home, or vice versa. However with enough time, you could remotely
install the needed drivers on the host computer via remote desktop control.

    The
guest access feature allows up to 10 other people to view your desktop,
which enables you to host your own web conferences. These guest accounts
can each have different access levels, and would need to be disabled
after a conference.

Why Don’t You Just Use the
Pocket PC Terminal Services Client?
    Now you might be asking yourself how this compares
to Terminal Services. The answer, is that while Terminal Services
and I’m InTouch both allow you to control the desktop, I’m InTouch
provides many distinct advantages.

    Most importantly,
viewing and controlling your desktop via I’m InTouch is much easier.
The I’m InTouch zoom controls enable you to see more of the screen
when you need to, and achieve a level of balance not possible with
Terminal Services. I’m InTouch also presents your entire desktop,
at its current resolution, whereas Terminal Services resizes your
desktop, possibly reconfiguring your icons, changing window sizes,
and generally making life more difficult. In addition, the Terminal
Services client redraws your screen as you scroll around, while I’m
InTouch loads the entire screen at once. Finally, the quality of
the graphics on the remote display are much higher with I’m InTouch.

    Other significant
differences include:

• I’m InTouch supports file transfer
  from the host computer to your device, whereas Terminal Services only
  allows you to view the host computer screen
• I’m InTouch manages Dynamic IP connections
  if you have one. With Terminal Services you would have to use an additional
  service or software to ensure that you could connect to your computer
  on a Dynamic IP connection
• Terminal Services is client based,
  only providing access on systems with the client installed. I’m InTouch works on any system that has a web browser that supports Java
• I’m InTouch allows you to connect
  to your host via a text based interface with smart phones and other
  devices

    Now with all of that
said, Terminal Services has two advantages. First, it’s already installed
on your Pocket PC, and it would work in a pinch (assuming you knew your
IP address, and had Remote Desktop enabled on your host). Second, the
technology used to transfer your desktop to the remote device is fundamentally
different than I’m InTouch, and it’s a little faster over a slow mobile
connection.

Continue
On: Bugs and Wishes / Pros and Cons / Conclusion . . .

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HELP SUPPORT

is
available via email and phone along with FAQs and other documentation
on their Tech
Support page. Email technical support responded within 24 hours
and was knowledgeable and helpful.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    size=2>Because the remote desktop
viewer runs in a browser instance and automatically downloads a tiny
wrapper application, I’m InTouch doesn’t really require any storage
on your Pocket PC.

    However
the host computer has more significant requirements, including Microsoft
Windows 98 or higher, a pentium 233 or higher with 32 megs of free RAM,
and 30 MB of disk space. More requirements information can be found
here.

BUGS AND WISHES

   
I’m
InTouch is a solid product with a good feature set, however I’d like
to see a few changes. I’d like to see a lighter weight host computer
client, or at least one that scales dynamically with use. A 30MB client
always running in RAM is significant, even in the age of 512MB and 1
GB+ computers. As I look at my task manager right now, the three I’m
InTouch services are using 38 MB of RAM, which puts it above my currently
running instances of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or Outlook. It is possible
to disable I’m InTouch while you’re working on your machine, but forgetting
to re-enable it when you’re done would defeat the entire purpose of
having it installed in the first place.

   
I’d
also like to see a shorter login time to my remote desktop from my Pocket
PC. A 3 minute login process discourages me from fully using the remote
desktop as much as I’d like to. I realize that there is often a compromise
between security and convenience, and I’m InTouch made the right choice
by opting for higher security. However it would be great to be able
to install a security token or public/private key authentication method
on my Pocket PC so I’d only have to log in once per session, and I wouldn’t
have to download 40KB client each time.

   
And
of course, it sure would be nice if I could download multiple files
at once via the file transfer feature.

   
My
use of I’m InTouch has been largely bug free. My host installation
became corrupted somehow, but a 5 minute reinstall fixed that issue.
I also ran into an issue with my specific Pocket PC model. If I switch
out tasks (e.g. to answer the phone) while I’m in the middle of a remote
desktop session, I can’t get the remote desktop session back to full
screen. This is problematic because my Windows Mobile start bar obscures
the I’m InTouch menu at the top of my screen, and thus the only way
to quit the program is to kill the process via the memory control panel.
01 Communique has assured me that this is fixed in their next release.

PURCHASING

   
I’m
InTouch is available as a subscription from the I’m
InTouch web site. Currently it’s available for $99.95/year or $9.95/month.
It’s worth noting that this price is almost 50% less than its other
major competitors (e.g. GoToMyPC) and as such, provides a great value. Other purchase
options are available as well. 01 Communique also provides a free, fully
functional, 30 day trial
version as well.

PROS

• 
  

  Fully featured remote desktop
  control on your web-capable mobile device

• File transfer and management
• 
  

  Very competitive pricing

CONS

• 
  

  Heavy host client

• 
  

  Tedious remote login procedure

• 
  

  Only able to download one
  file at a time

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    Remote desktop control is certainly nothing
new, but remote desktop control from a Pocket PC is a relatively recent
development. It’s a technology that has the potential to significantly
alter how we use our mobile devices. 01 Communique’s I’m InTouch software
provides a fully featured remote control suite for half the price of
its major competitors. 01 Communique makes remote control via your small
Pocket PC screen easy through the use of multiple zoom levels, and by
downloading the entire desktop to memory. I’m InTouch also provides
a "lite" remote control version by presenting a text based
version of your file system and Outlook functionality which is compatible
with most web enabled smartphones. I’m InTouch is an application that
is quickly creating a spot for itself in my permanent tool chest.