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Parallels’ new iPad app ‘Access’ makes your Mac apps feel like native iOS apps [Review]

Parallels Access App Switcher

For years, there have been iPad applications that allow remote access to your Mac from anywhere in the world. Parallels Mobile, for example, was launched back in 2011 and allowed you to view your Mac and Windows virtual machines on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad (and later discontinued). But these apps have always been a huge turn-off for the majority of users, since OS X isn’t built for touch screens. Trying to press small buttons, editing text, scrolling through pages and other flukes have made it impossible to use your Mac from an iOS device for an extended amount of time.

But now, Parallels has solved all of these problems and more with the new Parallels Access, their new service that makes it a breeze to connect to your Mac from an iPad and access all of your files and applications in a way that makes all of your apps feel like iOS apps – it “applifies” your Windows/Mac apps.

Features

  • launchpad parallels access
    Launchpad for top apps

    I’ve always thought Launchpad was useless on the Mac, since you can quickly spotlight the name of an application to open it up. However, in the context of an iPad, Launchpad makes perfect sense. When you select your computer, your most-used applications are shown in the regular grid view. You can also search for other applications on your computer at the top.Programs from your virtual machines also appear on Launchpad. Tap on the Windows version of Excel and it’ll boot up your virtual machine and display Excel just as if it was an iPad app. Really quick and seamless.
  • app switcher parallels
    App switcher
    Going from app to app isn’t as easy as the Mac (command-tab), but they’ve made it really quick nevertheless. On the right, an app switcher icon remains on the screen at all times (unless you dismiss it and push it away) and pressing on this shows all of your open applications and their windows. Tap on the thumbnail and it’ll come up front and center.Keep in mind that the applications are running on your Mac and displaying on your iPad, so you have full access to all of your computers’ files. When you open Word, you can go to File > Open and browse through your entire hard drive to find the document you’d like to open. You can of course open the Finder application as well through Parallels Access.
  • Gestures, Smart Magnification, SmartTap
    If you want to scroll through a page in Chrome, just move your finger up the screen just like you would on iOS’ Safari app. To make an image bigger in Preview, just use the pinch gesture. Parallels has done a great job of making native iOS gestures ‘just work’ in the app.With Smart Magnification, you can hold down your finger in the middle of text and move along the letters while the magnifying glass comes up. In addition, if you hold your finder down in one position for awhile then it acts as a long click or a “hold” click which allows you to drag windows or graphics around.SmartTap is probably the greatest advantage this app has over other remote viewing apps. When the buttons are small – even just a few pixels wide – you can tap as closely as you can to them and the software will figure out where you meant to tap. It’s intelligent enough to know that there might not have been a button right under your finger so it’ll find the closest one.
  • iOS native editing features
    Selecting text will display the iOS highlighting and “pins” that show up at the beginning and end of text. The pins make it really easy to highlight more or less of the text.
    Parallels Access on iPad accessing Windows Word 2013 with Parallels Access Windows & Mac Keyboard
    The on-screen keyboard has all of the Mac modifier keys and other extraneous keys that are not normally found on the iPad. If an app requires you to hold down a modifier key while clicking, Parallels Access has no problem handling that kind of a situation.
  • Dictation and multilingual keyboard selection support

There are a host of other features included, like Touch Mode support for Office 2013, security precautions that allow you to prevent others from accessing the computer while you’re viewing it through Parallels access, and more. Thankfully, Parallels offers a 14-day free trial for you to check them all out.

Installation

parallels dashboard

Setting up Parallels Access is relatively straight-forward. In addition, you don’t need to be a Parallels Desktop customer to use the new service.

On the Mac side, the Parallels Access Agent is installed and sits in the menu bar at all times. When you first install it, the app will ask if you want to change your System Preferences settings so that the computer doesn’t go to sleep (while on AC power) since the app requires the computer to be on and awake in order to work. On the iPad side, install the Parallels Access application from the App Store (link will be up soon). Once both are installed, you create or sign in to your Parallels account on both devices and right away your iPad shows the Mac(s) you’ve associated with your account.

The entire process is seamless and as straight-forward as you’d expect. Each computer requires a paid subscription, but a 14-day free trial is included and once you’ve used it for a couple of days there’s a good chance you’ll be hitting that buy button.

My experiences

parallels

I was quite skeptical when I first heard about Parallels Access. After all, I wasn’t a big fan of Parallels Mobile and any other app that I’ve used to remotely access my Mac from my iPad has been absolutely disastrous. Since the iPad’s screen size is smaller than the Mac’s, navigating around required a lot of zooming in and out. In addition, the gestures were always complicated and hard to memorize. But Parallels Access is definitely the spot-on solution for remotely accessing your computer.

With each app opening up in a large size, you can easily press all of the buttons and see exactly what you’re doing. In addition, the SmartTap feature is quite, well, smart. There are times when it’ll be too smart and press buttons that I don’t actually want to press, but for the most part, Parallels has done a great job at making the system intelligent.

My MacBook Pro has actually been staying on my desk ever since I started playing with Parallels Access. Even when I’m on the couch, I’ll bring my iPad with me and remotely access my Mac to get some work done or couch surf.

On a different note, a big reason that I don’t use my iPad terribly often is due to the fact that you can’t view two apps at once. Parallels Access has a “Desktop” mode, which allows you to see the Mac’s dock, menu bar, and everything else just like you would with an older remote access app. But since you still get the SmartTap and intelligent gestures that come with the app, it’s a much nicer experience even when using the small iPad mini.

Another thing that I was skeptical about was video or music streaming. All of the sounds that come from the Mac – iTunes streaming, notification noises, etc. – are streamed to the iPad’s speakers. Somehow, it works to near perfection. Songs don’t sound perfectly crisp, but there isn’t ongoing stuttering and you can even watch Flash videos (ugh) on websites without a problem. Parallels also told me that streaming works well even in low-bandwidth conditions

Parallels Access has definitely changed how I work on-the-go. It feels like I have my Mac with me all the time.

Conclusion

parallels access

I’ve always carried around my MacBook Pro to meetings and other outings. With Parallels Access, my back will be thanking me for replacing my computer with my iPad mini since all of my files and applications are now accessible anywhere I go. In addition, my reliance on Dropbox or other cloud file services for dealing with documents on-the-go has been reduced, which is a huge plus for me since it means less file duplication and transfers from device to device.

Parallels Access is $79.99/year/computer and available today. Once the links are live, you can grab the iPad version in the App Store and the Mac agent from Parallels’ website.  The PC version of the computer agent will is also available as a beta free of charge.

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Comments

  1. This sounds like a seriously incredible app! I would love for my iPad/iPhone to have the full power of my computer, but $80/computer/year sounds kinda steep. (Mind you, most iOS users spend $1-10 in the App Store for quality applications, on a non-recurring basis, mind you). Is the price worth it, Scott?

    • Scott Buscemi - 11 years ago

      It’s all about the value the app brings for you. Personally, Access brings much more than $80/year in value. It means I don’t have to buy iOS apps for functions that I already do on the Mac normally. It means I can keep everything centrally located. It means I can have a powerful computer with me wherever I go. So it definitely gets my stamp of approval, but I understand how some might believe the price is too high. This is a prosumer/professional product.

    • stenar - 11 years ago

      Nope, not worth that price.

  2. Andrei Pricope - 11 years ago

    Simply incredible, a game changer! Imagine this setup: iOS on iPad + MacMini for all your apps (OS X and Win) + networked storage for files/backups/media. 100,000s of apps, iLife, iWork, Office, pro audio/video/CAD, Photoshop, etc., etc….
    Multi-tasking, gestures, keyboards, Siri. Total control over content: create, edit, consume, share!
    Now, if only Apple would come out with a 12.9″ iPad, that would be pure heaven!

  3. Michael Brooks - 11 years ago

    Yet another subscription based pricing model. So won’t be buying on principle. I have 2 computers that i would use this for. Meaning after 3 years i’d have spent $480… on an app. No thanks.

  4. vigilant007 - 11 years ago

    It amazes me to see people complain about the cost of software.

    If this works as well as they claim then it’s price lines it up with GoToMeeting and LogMeIn Pro. Both of those products suck when connecting to the Mac.

    I’ll be trying this for the 14 day trial period. If this works like they claim I’d be happy to pay them for apps that aren’t available on the ipad

  5. Eric Williams - 11 years ago

    Reblogged this on Subcritical.

  6. Shahab 21 (@Shahab_21) - 11 years ago

    Super Good but $80? NO!

  7. pandren (@pandren) - 11 years ago

    I could really see the use of Access but I’m a bit curious though. If I really, badly, need to access my home computer wouldn’t I do that from another regular desktop computer? I mean if I need it that bad.
    I’m not saying Paralells haven’t done a great job. I wish them the best with Access.
    I’m just curious what, if it’s possible to compare, is the difference between Access and TeamViewer besides the price?

  8. Daniel Perván - 11 years ago

    Has anyone managed to figure out how the data is routed? While the application looks promising, I simply cannot have any critical data transmitted through third party servers, quadruple so if they are American. At first glance whole setup is very automagical and as far as I can tell there is no indication of whether they solely host a simple DDNS server or if they also apply some kind of man in the middle type of processing.

    Either way, the fact that as far I can see there is no way of manually adding servers (i.e. connect to this specific IP address) without using their automatic setup wizard, makes it very uncomfortable to use for professional purposes.

  9. Geo Herrera (@HellaGeo) - 11 years ago

    I’d be most concerned with any growing pains that the software has to work through before being ready to go out of the gate at that price.

  10. Ezhik - 11 years ago

    Could be rather nice with Windows 8. I tried remote controlling a Windows 8 machine from an iPad, it was rather nice.

  11. Online Backup UK - 11 years ago

    I just had one of those “wish I’d thought of that” moments.. We use teamviewer at work, and the iPad app is awful. Same with all the other ones. This looks promising (if not a little expensive) though.

  12. Richard Getz (@RichGetz) - 11 years ago

    Have you tried this remotely? Say from a Starbucks while your MBP is at home?

  13. Felonius NoSpamius - 11 years ago

    Nah. Sticking with the less flowery but still usable free app that comes with the paid desktop vm app. 80 bucks a year for this? Maybe for business types that will use it, but not for us everydayers. Really nice UI though.

  14. Aliasgar Babat - 10 years ago

    Parallels remote access tool is good but it was never my cup of tea as I am fed up of monthly payments of various hosted services. Hence, I decided to switch to a one time payment option: RHUB. It remote support servers are easy to use and it provides me maximum customization as per my requirements.