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Toshiba Ubiquitous Viewer Lets Phones Control PCs

Toshiba says it has developed software to let users control computers in their homes or offices from their mobile phones. Unlike existing systems, the Toshiba software will let users make changes in files, not just view them. Users will be able to see their full PC screen, but only by scrolling their tiny phone screens.

Cell phone users will be able to actually remotely switch on PCs that support the Wake-on-LAN function. The phone's keypad becomes a virtal qwerty keyboard. Information will be SSL encrypted. Toshiba plans to make the system available ("only in Japan") by the end of March for 3G mobile phones.

In his 1996 novel Idoru, William Gibson wrote about a device called a control-face that was used to remotely monitor your home computer system:

Masahiko undid the tip two buttons of his tunic and withdrew a six-inch square of something black and rigid, no thicker than a pane of glass. He brushed it purposefully with the fingers of his right hand, beaded lines of colored light appearing at his touch. Though these were fainter here, washed out by the train's directionless fluorescents, Chia recognized the square as the control-face of the computer she'd seen in his room.

Read more at Yahoo, Mobileburn and Computerworld.

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