pearPad is a two-part application that lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a wireless trackpad or keyboard for your Mac. There is a program you run on the Mac – available for Tiger or Leopard – and a program from the iTunes App Store which is run on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
It supports configurable swipe-gestures (quick strokes across the iPhone/iPod Touch screen, for example convenient to quickly switch photos in iPhoto or Aperture), mouse cursor positioning (like a trackpad), scrolling with two fingers, text-entry using the default virtual keyboard, or key-combinations (like Command, Shift, Control) provided by a special onscreen-pad, for example for sending keyboard-shortcuts.
From the screenshots available on the pearPad website, the trackpad mode takes up the full screen so once set up it could be used without needing to look at the screen of the device.
I have been wanting a wireless external trackpad for years… just a pity that I would never get one funded that’s so expensive!
- Ricky Buchanan
This is awesome! We use a mini mac connected to our TV for freeview, DVDs and music which for the most part works really well, but the annoying thing has always been the tiny and pretty useless mac remote control. This sound like it could be the answer to our problems and an excuse to get an iphone! Thanks for the heads up!
There’s also “Snatch” which works quite well. I bought it for those situations where my usual right-clicking methods are blocked or less convenient. It’s also great for those situations (like with full-screen games) where you’re required to reach for your physical keyboard to do something (like hitting the escape key for the main menu). If it’s a pain to do so then something like this would solve that problem.
There’s a free light version called “Snatch Test”. The website is http://hoofien.com/Snatch/Home.html.
@Paul: Thanks for more useful information, as always!
Thank you Ricky for your blog. As an owner of an iPhone I am looking always for interesting applications for my iPhone and pearPad seams to be an useful enhancement. Thanks for sharing it with us.
There are now many other apps that do this too. A good free one is the Logitech TouchMouse – it that allows mouse and keyboard access on a Mac or PC.
Ok guys. I have installed Leopard on my pc (im new in mac os) and at the installer the ps/2 mouse and keyboard worked fine, but when trying to load mac up, it says i have no keyboard. I’ve found an old usb mouse and that works (wondering if the buttons work) cuz i cant test them. (in xp works), so how can i install this app from other os on the partition or sth?? wondering if i cant use Ubuntu 10.04 cuz it can explore mac partition (tested a few minutes ago) plssssssssss help!
@Alex: Installing most apps is just a matter of copying them to /Applications, I think the problem would be getting the program to start when you boot up OS X. Will the Mac boot without a keyboard, or does it hang? If it does boot then you could probably just use your app to double-click on the app to start it up! Good luck.