State of the Art: A Better Way for the iPad to Talk to a Home Computer

A Better Way for the iPad to Talk to a Home Computer

90 Seconds With Pogue: Parallels Access: The Times’s David Pogue reviews at Parallels Access, an iPad app that allows a user to remotely control a desktop or laptop computer.

You don’t have to be a technophile to know a few things about compatibility. VHS tapes don’t play on a laptop, iPhone apps don’t run on your microwave and a CD won’t play in a toaster.

Most people probably assume you also can’t use Mac or Windows programs on an iPad. The iPad, the world’s most popular tablet, runs its own flavor of software.

Which is a shame, really. All kinds of programs would be useful to have on your lovely, lightweight tablet: Quicken. Photoshop. iTunes. The full-blown Word, Excel, PowerPoint. AutoCAD.

I’m pleased to report that such a thing is possible, thanks to a remarkable new app, Parallels Access. Parallels, the company, has a good deal of experience running incompatible programs on popular computers; its best-known product lets you run Windows on a Mac.

Access is not some miracle adapter that runs Mac and PC programs on the iPad itself. Instead, it’s a glorified porthole into the screen of a real Mac or PC back at your home or office. You see everything on your distant computer remotely; you can even click, type and drag in the programs there, even listen to audio and watch videos. The iPad becomes like a detached touch screen for a Mac or PC that’s thousands of miles away.

It’s not just about running desktop software, either. This setup also means you can access the far greater storage and horsepower of your computer. And you can work with files you left behind. The one catch: It requires an Internet connection. Access works over slower connections â€" like 3G cellular â€" but barely. You may encounter severe lags and blotchiness.

To make this come to pass, you set up Access on both ends. You install one app on your iPad, and another on your Mac or PC (Mac OS X 10.8 or later, Windows 7 or later). You also create a free account at Parallels.com.

From now on, whenever you want to operate your Mac or PC by remote control, you open the Access app on the iPad. You tap the picture of the computer whose brain you want to enter; there’s nothing to stop you from setting up two, or 12, or hundreds of Macs and Windows machines to listen for the iPad’s call.

When you first connect, you see a launcher: an iPad-style screen full of icons. In this case, they represent your Mac or PC programs. Tap one to open it. This launchpad starts out showing only the icons of your most frequently used Mac or Windows programs, but you can tap a “+” button to add other icons.

Parallels Access is not the first product that lets you access your Mac or PC remotely. There are many iPad apps that do that, bearing names like VNC Viewer and Real VNC. They cost $10 or $20. Corporate tech workers adore them. From wherever they happen to be, they can see, operate and troubleshoot the computer back at headquarters from the screen of a single iPad, without having to put on pants and drive to the office.

But Parallels Access is superior, for many reasons.

First, VNC apps are extremely technical to set up. Here’s an excerpt from the dozens of setup steps for Real VNC, one of the best reviewed apps: “By default, VNC Server listens on port 5900. You can listen on a new port, providing no other service or program is doing so. Note you will have to specify the new port when connecting, and you may need to reconfigure firewalls and routers.” O.K. then!

Parallels Access requires no fiddling with routers, firewalls or port numbers. You fill in your Parallels name and password, and boom: the connection is made, with 256-bit AES encryption (translation: “very securely”).

Second, VNC apps display the entire computer’s screen on the iPad. Icons, toolbars and buttons wind up about the size of subatomic particles.

Access, on the other hand, “appifies” the Mac or Windows program; the document you’re editing fills the screen. All the iPad touch-screen gestures work to operate the remote program, too â€" drag with one finger to scroll, for example. Tap to “click the mouse.” Tap with two fingers to “right-click.” Pinch or spread two fingers to zoom out or in. No matter what the Mac or PC program is, it suddenly behaves as if it is an iPad app.

Access is filled with additional touches that VNC-type programs generally lack, which further adapt mouse-and-keyboard software to a touch screen.

E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com