MOBILE MOUSE – A mouse in your pocket

Although a little geeky this app is great for those of you who use your computer or laptop for more than scouring eBay for great deals or simply typing articles. They’re our stereos, DVD players and photo albums and with Air Mouse, you can control all these things using your iPhone or iPod touch as a wireless remote.

This remote does a lot more than controlling volume or tracks; it turns your iPhone screen into a mouse-pad exactly like you’d find on a laptop, allowing you to navigate on your computer screen choosing any application you want. Browsing through pictures, surfing the web and skipping through songs or DVDs is easy, with dedicated screen set hot-keys for both iTunes and your Internet browser.

All applications are accessible from Air Mouse and in fact I have written this paragraph, from across the room, using just my iPhone, and its surprisingly easy! Just like when you’re writing text messages you can type with the phone horizontal, and the text scrolls along the screen above the keypad eliminating the need to keep looking at the computer.

Then switching to my browser and flipping through some pages, the Air Mouse keeps all the features of Mac laptops such as touch sensitive click and two-finger scrolling. At times there are little skips and stuttered movement when the connection is low; the app works by the two devices being connected to the same wireless network, but for the most part navigation through applications, pages and windows is smooth and painless.

But overall an impressive concept, an ingenious use of the iPhone and iPod touch technology, and it is a fraction of what you would normally pay for a physical computer remote. Free yourself from that uncomfortable desk chair and enjoy your sofas!