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Mocha VNC Lite: Way to read e-books on your iPhone or Touch, including maybe even Mobipocket titles?
November 16, 2008 | 8:47 am
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By David Rothman
What if your iPod or Touch screen could display the same view as on your PC or Mac?
Including even programs such as Mobipocket that will work on a PC but not the Apple gizmos?
I can’t promise that the free Mocha VNC Lite app for the iPhone and iPod will allow such miracles. But maybe some kind soul can at least try—and share the results with us.
Lite does not just provide the desktop view, it also offers at least right mouse-button support.
Thwarted by clash with Vista
So why haven’t I tested Mocha VNC Lite on my HP machine?
Because, alas, VNC Lite needs a VNC server on the desktop, and the free versions of the required software don’t get along well with Vista. Could this be my punishment for the Faustian deal I made when I bought a Vista-OS desktop?
VNC server info
For the desktop end of the WiFi link, compatible software comes with the Mac’s OS X Software and free versions apparently exist for Windows and Linux.
By the way, a 3G connection will also work. So if my hunch is correct, you just might be able to access your desktop e-library from anywhere with your iPhone.
And speaking of Mobi…
As for Mobipocket running on iPhone or Touch itself, does anyone have an update?
Is an iPhone/Touch version of Mobipocket for the iPhone still due by the end of the year, as was suggested at the IDPF conference last spring? Mobi has wonderful features. But its delayed appearance on the iPhone reminds us of one more negative of DRMed proprietary formats. The Stanza iPhone app can read Mobi, imperfectly, but not the “protected” variety.
Related: Gizmodo’s 20 essential iPhone Apps, through which I discovered VNC Lite.
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Comments:
I tried it on my iPhone 3G with my Macbook and it is so slow, even under WiFi, that it is unusable – unless I did something wrong.
Also, only a tiny part of the screen is shown on the iPhone and you have to scroll around in order to see the rest of the screen. You couldn’t read a book this way. You would have to scroll left and right – a lot – as well as up and down, just to read one page.
In re Mobipocket, I actually phoned the president of Mobipocket in France a couple of months ago. (I was going to write it up as a story for TeleRead, but fate intervened in the form of a broken leg shortly afterward.) Reading between the lines, he seemed to indicate that they were working on something, but he would absolutely not say anything about it. He wouldn’t even confirm whether he had indeed said what the poster had heard earlier this year at that conference.
As for Mocha VNC, I do use it (along with TightVNC on my winbox) to peer at my computer’s desktop from afar sometimes, but I wouldn’t think of using it for something like e-book reading. The interface would be just too slow and clunky. There are better ways to read Mobipocket books (even encrypted ones, albeit not so legally) on the iPhone.
Paul and Chris:
P: Many thanks for the try! I’ll be curious if others get the same results.
Chris: Appreciated that phone call to Mobi! Sorry of course about the accident and hope you can follow through when you’re able to!
Thanks, again, both of you.
David
Re: Mobipocket
Mobipocket decision to not release a iPhone version, or even make a clear statement as to what they are going to do, has been a pain to people like me who have alarge Mobipocket Library.
I originally went with that format primarly, for their support on so many platforms, But their slowness in this regard has been surprising.
I wonder if Parent Company Amazon has not been keen on providing a service that could compete with its own product, the Kindle? After all that’s one of the major selling points they have besides the eInk, the wireless purchase capability.
Any way, This has botten me to buy a couple of new books in eReader format, has Fictionwise have been very proactive in getting the app out and updating it.