Windows 8 Users
PhoneMyPC works properly on Windows 8; however, it must be installed manually because Microsoft does not provide the.NET framework 3.5 by default. This annoyance will be remedied as soon as possible. Please visit this Technet blog post for instructions on how to install.NET 3.5 on your computer:Â Technet.What can I do with PhoneMyPC?
Work from the beach or the doctor’s office with your PC as a remote monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Monitor an eye on your kids when they’re on the pc. An attached camera may be used to monitor an eye on your property, and an associated microphone can be used to listen in. While you’re out of the room, take your smartphone with you to continue viewing your online movie. All with just one simple setup–and that’s only the beginning!
See Quick Start to get PhoneMyPC working now.
See the links at the left for details about each feature.
Limited Time Beta Program
PhoneMyPC was published as a very early (and fundamental) Beta to get input from the community before finishing the application. We planned to be finished by now, but the information has been so overwhelming and helpful that we haven’t yet. Our Beta program means essentially four things:
- Some features are not finished (well polished, bug-free)
- We need your feedback about how to improve it
- You pay less now and get the complete product as an update when it’s done
- Improvements and updates are yet to come
Supported Devices
PhoneMyPC is compatible with all Android handsets and the Blackberry Playbook. More platforms are on the way.
We used to buy every new device the day it was released. Because of the popularity of portable gadgets, this is no longer practical. Therefore, we instead purchase at least some of each ‘kind’ device. (a mobile phone, a medium telephone, a big phone, a small tablet, a large tablet, a television box, a Playbook, and so on.).
For example, we’ve incorporated numerous upgrades tailored to bigger tablets this time.
How it Works (connectivity, security)
PhoneMyPC is a cloud-based service. The PC application creates a link with our servers and tells them of your presence and account when you install it on your computer. The Client app provides our network and asks for your PC list when you run it.
When you start using features on a specific PC, the Client and PC programs negotiate the optimum network connection for you: direct, through a LAN, directly across the internet, or hosted through our servers.
**Â All communications are secured with industry-standard SSL.
This strategy brings the best of both worlds together:
1 – You needn’t understand networking to make it work; install and go
2 – If you would like direct connections (not hosted), you can configure your firewall to allow it
3 – You never need to configure IP addresses; PhoneMyPC does this automatically Check our Optimization page if you want to try setting for direct connections. Also, one of the many fantastic features coming in PhoneMyPC 3.0 is the ability for PhoneMyPC to direct connect without user interaction.
Application Permissions
Each application lists the permissions that it requires on the device. Many of us have downloaded applications that required permissions that made no sense, such as a Timer app wanting to access Phone calls. We believe developers should be completely transparent about what permissions we require and exactly why. Here is the list of permissions required by PhoneMyPC and how the data is used:
Full Internet Access
This is required to connect to our servers and your PC.
Phone Calls
This is used for licensing–a feature that is not yet implemented. We do not read any call data but only your phone number and device ID. We then hash them irreversibly into a unique ID we can use for licensing purposes in the future. Thus, none of your data (phone number, serial number, etc.) leaves your device in a reversible form.
Storage
This is necessary to save screen snapshots from the View features (such as Interact Live and Webcam) on the SDCard.
Beta News
PhoneMyPC’s Beta program allows the Android community to participate in the final development of Android’s most full-featured PC Remote app. Purchasers receive a discount throughout the campaign, and the PhoneMyPC staff appreciates their feedback, recommendations, and comments.
All owners of the Beta product will receive all future versions at no additional charge.
Status: Sunday, March 4, 2012
Work continues on a significant update, but we had a few minor things we’d put off releasing in the meantime. However, when a long-time user spoke to us about how he was using Bluestacks to get temporary PC to PC access, we experimented with it. We discovered that it performed admirably but that the application could not establish direct links to the controlled computer.
- We took a few minutes to look into it, found and fixed the problem, and then decided to make an interim release with a handful of fixes, including:
- The Direct-connect logic is improved and will work in more circumstances.
- The .apk has been updated so that it will show in the Market on Google TV devices
- The PC list is now sorted alphabetically (no more randomized order!)
- One more cause of “Authentication Errors” has been fixed
- ICS has been more thoroughly tested
- Subtle changes to the toolbar (one new button which shows the other toolbars) to support Honeycomb and later Uis.
Known Issues
- The program sometimes fails to connect or “vanishes” when first run.
- We’re working on this. As a workaround, press Home and try again. We’ve worked hard to ensure the software is reliable when you’re away from the PC, but sometimes the Phone app fails, and we are working hard to find out why.
- Sometimes WIFI will not connect on the first try. This seems to be an Android issue. You can notice this when you expect to receive a WIFI direct-connect session, yet the Quality defaults to “medium” (whereas WIFI direct connections will default to Highest).
- As a workaround, close and re-run the application.
- Program persistently reports “No Hosts Found.”
- This is almost always caused by credentials being mistyped on either the PC or the phone. Re-enter both and try again. Whether this does not resolve the issue, try to see if your PC’s firewall is blocking outbound port 49200.; if so, open it for outgoing traffic. Note: this port number will return to 443 in a future release.
Features in the near-term queue
- Windows Service for the PC client.
- Ability to log in to the PC via PhoneMyPC (and unlock workstations).
- Sound support
- Better user documentation, including samples and a forum.
Another optimization to the rendering is that “high quality” bitmap filtering is only used when necessary (particularly when you are zoomed out).
One cause for a recently used PC “disappearing” from the PC list was found and fixed; this affects Honeycomb and later devices
Version 2.0.3.4 (build 35) is an Android-only update and works best with the current 2.0.3.2 PC version.
