Sproqit: Remote Control on Steroids

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30322.html' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30322.html</a><br /><br /></div>If you've ever tried Terminal Services Client on the Pocket PC, you know how useful it can be, but one of its big problems is the fact that accessing the desktop through a tiny PDA screen is cumbersome. There's now a company who aims to change that.<br /><br />"Sproqit's architecture, called Spider Silk, cleverly separates application logic from display code. That's not new - Citrix's WinFrame software uses a similar approach - but it's arguably the first to do so in a personal desktop context. Essentially, applications continue to run on the desktop, via Sproqit Desktop Agent, and all that's transmitted across the Internet to the PDA telling it what to display. The handheld runs Sproqit Companion, a 200KB app that presents the data to the user using the hardware's native UI - so it looks like an embedded app. And by only transmitting display-related data, the systems bandwidth needs can be satisfied by slow networks like GSM."<br /><br />They're aiming this solution to solve a variety of problems. According to this <a href="http://www.computerwire.info/brnews/F1EE92B971CAC50B80256D0A0056EE3D">other article</a>, the first release will be this summer and will support Pocket PCs, Smartphones, and Palms, and will compete against a number of other wireless solutions, including but not limited to the RIM platform. I'm not sure how well it'll work just yet, but it certainly sounds promising.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

As a regular user of the ICA client for Metaframe XP, I only have 1 word: COOL! 8O

Actually, the ICA client wouldn't be so bad if you could rotate the screen. The scrolling by tapping a screen map in the upper right corner is very annoying.

[Jafar]

Looks promising, but it does holdback on a lot of features available in todays RDP software. Terminal Service, Remote Desktop and Citrix Metaframe let you pretty much control your entire desktop, and I've used the ICA client of Metaframe on a 9600 connection and in all honesty, it wasn't bad at all. I guess Sproqit are trying a different approach.

Jafar

[freitasm]

This is one thing that IT hates most: applications without control. That's why most people on big companies don't have Admin rights on their own machines.

It's a potential security risk to let people to have this kind of app running on desktops. And we have enough security risks without this.

Collaboration servers (Sahrepoint), MIS, OWA and other stuff easily supported by internal IT should be the standard and should be quickly developed.

People do need the information but this thing can get out of control. Of course, smaller companies have other vision of the problem.

What if your bank account manager tells you "I'm really mobile now". I've installed some app on my desktop and I can access the bank from my PPC or laptop"? Would you trust the security of your information with this bank?

[bbarker]

The company's name is Sproqit. It took me several minutes to figure out that you probably pronounce it "sprocket." Why do some companies try so hard to be cute with their names and end up with something so obscure? I'm guessing they decided to call it "sprocket" and then figured out a cute spelling. Of course, starting from that direction it was obvious to them how you say the word.