Unified Remote

So the other day I was watching How I Met Your Mother on my laptop, and I noticed the keyboard and mouse was just a wee bit too far away. As the saying goes, lazy people are the smartest, and there I was googling “PC remote android”. Among the first results was this app, Unified Remote. Interesting. I installed the app to my Padfone S, and upon opening it, it prompted me to install the Unified Remote server on my PC. After installing, after following through with the instructions on my phone, I can control my laptop with my phone.

Above is a list of some of the more useful remotes you get with the free version. As I am too stingy to pay for the full version – which is only RM12.00 by the way – I only get several remotes which I believe will fulfill most if not all of my usage scenarios. With the full version you will get a lot more remotes, mostly for individual media applications.

So the Basic Input allows you to basically use your touchscreen as a touchpad for your phone. And in my testing, it can sometimes have some lag but most of the time it functions just fine. You can also fine tune both the pointer sensitivity and scroll sensitivity to your liking in the preference menu.

The media buttons are self-explanatory.

And the keyboard. Each key also will activate the hotkey it is linked to in the active application on your PC so it’s quite functional. However in the free version, the row of modifier keys at the top do not work. Minor drawback there.

This remote allows you to open any file on your PC. Really nice if you have a long list of files to scroll through and it’s too tedious to look for a file with basic mouse functions.

I find this app really functional, and allows me to enjoy my movies while sitting further away from the screen. But I think it would really shine if used with a HTPC.