Unlike VNC, Splashtop doesn't turn video into a slideshow. Splashtop's performance advantage became a lot more noticeable when I tested it with video. When I hit the 'connect' button, it prompted me for a password and then showed me the desktop. It automatically detected my PC on the home network and displayed it in the list of available computers. It has a native Cocoa user interface, but is adorned with classic Aqua-style blue pinstripes that give it a tacky retro look. The client software is simple and relatively easy to use. I installed the Splashtop client on my Mac Pro from the Mac App Store. When you close the status and configuration window, the server software leaves a little icon running in the system tray.

You can also optionally set the port number and a few other options. The Streamer was easy to install and required very little configuration-I simply had to provide the password that I wanted to use for remote login. I started by setting up the Streamer under Windows 7 on my desktop PC, which has 16GB of RAM and a six-core Intel i7 980X CPU. Connecting to a Windows environment from a Mac over a home network, I tried out a few games, watched a bit of video, surfed the Web, and did some software development. Splashtop says its software performs well enough to handle high-definition video and 3D computer games, so we decided to see for ourselves by putting it to work with some real-world testing. It also has some advanced features that you don't get with VNC, such as the ability to relay audio from the remote computer to the client. The key advantage of Splashtop's implementation is performance, using a proprietary protocol to reduce latency and provide a more responsive user experience.

The underlying concept is obviously not new-existing VNC and RDP applications have offered similar functionality for years. The remote desktop can be displayed in a window or run in fullscreen. The client software allows the user to connect to the desired computer and interact with it via mouse and keyboard. The Splashtop Remote Desktop Client relies on a server application-called Splashtop Streamer-that the user must first install and configure on the computers that they wish to access. The software, which was released Wednesday in the Mac App Store, allows users to interactively control another computer over the Internet or a local network. Splashtop has brought its Remote Desktop tool to Mac OS X.

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