Need to quickly view your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch while it’s in another room? Luckily there’s an app for that.  Meet Veency, developed by the same guy who brought us Cydia.

Initial Setup

Veency is not a very complicated app. In fact there is really only one thing you need to do after downloading and installing it: Add a password.  You can do this by going to Settings ->Veency:

As the above screenshot shows, you can also enable/disable Veency from within Settings.

Once you’ve setup a password, you’re good to go – no more mucking around on your device.  Unfortunately, you’re not quite done, as Windows has no built-in VNC support – you need to download an app for that.

While there are multiple different programs you can use for VNC capabilities, I recommend using TightVNC. Aside from downloading and installing TightVNC you don’t need to do anything until you are ready to actually connect to your device.

Getting Connected

Before you go any further, make sure your iDevice and the computer you want to control it with are connected to the same WiFi. Next, on your device go to Settings ->Wi-Fi and click on the blue arrow. Go to the DHCP tab and find the IP Address of your device:

Now run TightVNC and enter in the IP address of your device (the one you just found)…

…and click Connect. TightVNC will prompt you to enter a password…

…and once you enter in the password you setup in Veency earlier, you’re connected to your device:

After you are connected via TightVNC, you can use your device like normal running apps, playing games, etc. with your mouse simulating your touch.

Demonstration

Here’s a video of me playing around with VNC – using Calculator, opening Notes, etc:

You’ll notice that at the beginning of the video, I woke up my iPod.  Waking up your device can be done multiple different ways:

• Right click (with your mouse) to simulate the home button;
• Middle click (with your mouse) to simulate the lock button;
• Left click (with your mouse) to simulate a tap on the screen.

Conclusion

To conclude, remotely controling your device has useful capabilities such as being a great way to type up lengthy things on your iDevice (much cheaper than buying a bluetooth keyboard). However, who cares what it can be used for. Remoting into your device is just plan cool. Those ‘droids have nothing on us!

Veency

Version reviewed: 0.9.3345-1

Note: Requires root

You can download Veency from Cydia on your device.

TightVNC

Version reviewed: 2.0.2

Supported OS: Windows 2000 and higher for v2.0.2 and Windows 95/98/ME and Linux for v1.3.10

Download size: <1MB

TightVNC homepage [direct download – v2.02]