Android

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In the past, I’ve written about different remote desktop products/solutions, including NoMachine for remoting into traditional desktop machines, but also a few alternatives for accessing and controlling Android devices from a computer. Today I’d like to mention TeamViewer, a product free for non-commercial use that supports computer to computer, Android to computer, and computer to Android connections.

The following screenshots were taken on a macOS Sierra machine remotely logged onto a rooted Samsung Galaxy S4 Android tablet.

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Marble is a Virtual Globe app that started as part of the KDE desktop environment that is now currently available for Linux (all flavors), Mac OS X, Windows, and Android. It has tons of features and definitely worth checking out for map and geography lovers out there!

Below we view the globe using a historical map from 1689 centered around North America. Interestly, California is depicted as an island, and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada, as well as Alaska and eastern Russia, is a big void in the map (not depicted).
Marble Virtual Globe Screenshot - Historical North America Map 1689

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A while back I wrote a blog post about Mobizen — an app to access your Android device over USB or via a local or remote network connection. Another app that deserves attention in this space is Vysor, which has a similar feature set with a focus on screen mirroring/remote screen.

After (re-)trying it out a few weeks ago, AirDroid is now my current favorite app in this space as I believe it has the widest variety of features as well as highest-quality mirroring options. Like Mobizen, Airdroid has an app for Windows and OS X and a “Chrome App” can be created for use on Linux, or simply https://web.airdroid.com.

AirDroid screenshot - notifications

AirDroid screenshot - AirMirror using OSX app

Enjoy!

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There are a number of solutions available for accessing an Android device remotely from a computer. Mobizen is available for Android through Google Play. In particular,

  • it does not require root
  • it does not require a wired connection
  • it does not require to be on the same network as the device accessing it
  • it is free
  • it supports not only remote screen access, but also many other features, including transferring files between your Android and the remote computer

Some notable disadvantages are:

  • it appears to no longer support USB connections
  • depending on the quality of the network, performance and quality will vary greatly
  • sound cannot be played remotely
  • reliability, responsiveness and frequency of disconnection