Lifehacker’s Kevin Purdy reviews the Yoics Google Gadget.

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Overview

The Yoics Remote Access gadget adds the device list into Gmail (iGoogle and Google Desktop).  Once installed you can access any of your Yoics configured computer, folder or devices, with a click of a mouse.  Just click on device hyperlink and a new browser tab or window will be opened up with the device.

Getting started

To begin, you’ll need to have some Yoics configured devices.  If you want to be able to remote desktop or remote access your computer’s folders, you can set it up for free by downloading Yoics for Windows or Yoics for Mac.  Yoics is also available for Linux, the Drobo network attached storage product and network cameras for Lorex and Astak.

Gadget url

In order to add the Yoics Gadget to Gmail, you’ll first need to enable Google Labs.

1. Select “settigns”
2. Select “Labs”

1. Enable “Add any gadget by URL”

1. Select “Gadget”
2. Enter the following url:  http://www.yoics.com/gadgets/YoicsBetaGadget.xml
3. Click “Add”

That’s it.  You’ll see the Yoics gadget added.  Simply enter in your Yoics user ID (or email address) and password.

Accessing your devices

• Clicking on the blue Yoics icon will open up a new browser window or tab with your device.
• To share a device, click on the share icon next to the device.
• To see the access log of a device, just click on the log icon.
• Clicking on the green Yoics icon will show your friends devices.

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OK, so you love your Mac, but wouldn’t it be great if it was a server too?  Or maybe you’ve got a Mac Book, no reason you shouldn’t be able to serve up files or photos to friends, even if you’re on-line at Starbucks right?

The latest version of Yoics for Mac is just about ready, but we’re so excited about it we decided to make it available as a public Alpha, so if you want to instantly transform your Mac into an Internet appliance now you can.

Because it’s Alpha, expect that there will be issues, but Tom our main-Mac-man, assures us that it’s pretty good, and that any feedback we get will get implemented ASAP.  If you do have some questions, feel free to comment here, post on the public Mac page on our forum , or you can send us an email at “macsupport [at] yoics [dot] com.”

Download the most recent pre-release here:

Overview

The Internet is all about easy access and sharing. Unfortunately even with high-speed broadband connectivity, your computers and networking equipment are hardly web friendly resources. Until now!

Yoics is a powerful network solution that transforms any computer or network attached device instantly into an easily accessible and shareable internet resource.

The Yoics desktop looks and works a lot like an instant messenger application, except instead of a device list, you get a list of devices . These devices can be yours or ones that have been shared to you. With the Yoics desktop you can make any data, service or even device on your network accessible to you from anywhere on the Internet.

During initial setup, you’ll have the option to use our setup wizard to auto configure your Mac for remote desktop, folder sharing, photo sharing and web-cam sharing.

Yoics also provides custom configuration, so that advanced users can configure just about any data, service or device to be accessible and shareable remotely.  We’ve got a separate page for advanced setup .

Yoics Web folders

Once you configure a folder with Yoics, it becomes instantly Internet accessible and shareable either via a web browser or a webDav folder.

The real neat thing about Yoics folders are that they are actually Apache servers on their own.  So if you’ve got some web-skills, select “web template” when you create your Yoics folders – and you can fully customize them to your hearts content.

Yoics Photos

File view is just one of the options that you have with Yoics Folders. If you have a folder with digital pictures, just configure it with Yoics Photos, and you instantly have a personal photo site, viewable and shareable across the internet.

Remote desktop

Sometimes accessing files or folders just isn’t enough, especially if you’re providing computer support for a less than savvy computer user that you know. Yoics features a pre-configured remote desktop server, so remotely managing computers with your keyboard and mouse is as easy as a double-mouse click.  So you can access remote machines without requiring complex virtual private network (VPN) or router configuration.

Yoics surveillance

Have an iSight or other webcam? With Yoics, now you can instantly “see” your camera from any browser, even the one on your iPhone. The motion detection/surveillance storage isn’t turned on yet for this Alpha version, but stay tuned, for your own personal web surveillance solution.

Yoics NOW proxy

Files and remote desktop are undoubtedly the two most popular things that people want access to. But lets face it, there are thousands of other network devices and services that would be awesome to have remote access into, and with Yoics NOW it’s immediately possible. Want to print to your network printer from vacation? No problem. Want to get to your router’s configuration screen without having to open a hole in your firewall? Easy. Whether it’s a dedicated network device or a TCP/IP service running on your machine, Yoics NOW allows you to transform it into a remote accessible and shareable internet resource.

Here you see MyTunesRSS , a media server, configured to work with Yoics.

iPhone access

At Yoics we’re big fans of the iPhone, so as you might imagine, most of our stuff works great when viewed from its browser.

System requirements

• PPC G4, G5 or Intel Core Duo processor
• ac OS X version 10.4.5 or later
• 512 MB RAM
• 80 MB HD space
• DSL or Cable High Speed networking at 384Kbps or higher
• Additional resources are required for systems sharing more than 5 active Yoics services.
• Systems sharing greater than 10 services will require premium computer systems and high speed network connections.

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The Internet is all about easy access and sharing. Unfortunately even with high-speed broadband connectivity, your computers and networking equipment are hard to get to and isolated. Until now!

Download the latest release: 2.7.101 with enhanced device support & integrated music streaming.

Early releases are as such early & might have some issues.  If you have any problems, please post them on our board.

Download Most stable release: 2.6.802 with YouTube/Twitter June 19, 2009

Yoics is a powerful network solution that transforms any computer or network attached device instantly into an easily accessible and shareable internet resource. Featuring an intuitive user interface, remote access and sharing has just gotten as easy as using instant messaging. If you’ve had issues with Yoics conflicting with your anti-virus software, upgrade to this version.

Overview

The Yoics desktop looks and works a lot like an instant messenger application, except instead of a device list, you get a list of devices . These devices can be yours or ones that have been shared to you. With the Yoics desktop you can make any data, service or even device on your network accessible to you from anywhere on the Internet.

During initial setup, you’ll have the option to setup remote desktop, folder sharing, photo sharing and web-cam sharing. Yoics also provides custom configuration, so that advanced users can configure just about any data, service or device to be accessible and shareable remotely.

If you are ready to go, download Yoics from the above link and off you go. If you have any problems, here are a couple of links to help you along the way.

• Yoics Installation for Windows
• Yoics Initial setup for Windows

Yoics Web folders

Once you configure a folder with Yoics, it becomes instantly Internet accessible and shareable either via a web browser or a webDav folder.

Yoics Photos

File view is just one of the options that you have with Yoics Folders. If you have a folder with digital pictures, just configure it with Yoics Photos, and you instantly have a personal photo site, viewable and shareable across the internet.

Remote desktop

Sometimes accessing files or folders just isn’t enough, especially if you’re providing computer support for a less than savvy computer user that you know. Yoics now features pre-configured UltranVNC server, so remotely managing computers with your keyboard and mouse is as easy as a double-mouse click. Our software also support multiple versions of VNC,  and we’ve pre-configured the free version to work with Yoics, so you can access remote machines without requiring complex virtual private network (VPN) or router configuration. If you’ve got your own preferred remote desktop program, no worries, Yoics is easily configured to work with the application of your choice. RealVNC personal edition, TightVNC , UltraVNC, and even Microsoft Remote Desktop are already drop-down menu choices.

Yoics surveillance

Have a webcam? With Yoics, you can instantly transform it into your own personal surveillance system. Not only can you view it live from any browser, motion detected footage is stored on your hard disk, which you can browse at your leisure.  You can also have a daily summary created or even a daily time-lapse and if you have a YouTube account, all your video clips can be uploaded – automatically.  You can even have a Tweet automatically sent out everytime video is captured.

Yoics NOW proxy

Files and remote desktop are undoubtedly the two most popular things that people want access to. But lets face it, there are thousands of other network devices and services that would be awesome to have remote access into, and with Yoics NOW it’s immediately possible. Want to print to your network printer from vacation? No problem. Want to get to your router’s configuration screen without having to open a hole in your firewall? Easy. Whether it’s a dedicated network device or a TCP/IP service running on your machine, Yoics NOW allows you to transform it into a remote accessible and shareable internet resource.

Here you see TVersity, a media server, configured to work with Yoics.

iPhone access

At Yoics we’re big fans of the iPhone, so as you might imagine, most of our stuff works great when viewed from its browser.

System requirements

• Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2/SP3, Vista SP1
• Windows .NET Framework 2.0 (installed with Yoics if not already installed).
• 1GHz CPU
• 1GB memory
• 100MB HD space
• DSL or Cable High Speed networking at 384Kbps or higher
• Additional resources are required for systems sharing more than 5 active Yoics services.
• Systems sharing greater than 10 services will require premium computer systems and high speed network connections.

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With remote desktop, you gain the abilty to remote maange your computer from any web browser.  In addition, you can share your desktop to easily give demonstrations or presentations, without the need to sign-up for an expensive paid for service.  Yoics comes pre-configured with the free version of Real VNC, one of the most popular remote desktop programs.  The only limitation with this program is that it does not work with Vista versions of Windows.  Yoics also supports the personal version of Real VNC, TighVNC and Microsoft Remote Desktop.  If you’re using Windows XP, the setup Wizard will automaticall setup your desktop for you.

Setup Wizard

The easiest way to configure Remote Desktop is through the setup wizard.  The wizard will start the first time you run Yoics and is available anytime by going to >> Tools, Setup Wizard.

Just make sure the first option is selected, and the Wizard will automatically configure your compute for remote desktop.

1. If you are running VISTA, this option will be greyed out.
2. The default name that Yoics will assign is “My Desktop,” if you setup multiple computers, beginning with the second one, Yoics will ask if you want to select a different name.

Accessing via the Desktop

Like all other Yoics devices, simply double-click on the device & a window with you remote desktop will be launched.

Accessing via the web

Go to yoics.com and login using your yoics credentials.

Once logged in:

1. Click on “My Desktop” just like you would any hyperlink.
2. The device window will give you status on the connection & will be updated with the VNC logo.
3. You’ll get a separate VNC connection window, simply select “OK” to complete the connection.

Remote desktop window

Whichever way you access, you’ll get a separate window which you can remote manage with your keyboard and mouse.  The mouse and keyboard reaction time performance will vary based on the connection speed of your computer & the remote computer.

Questions about VNC

If you have any questions on how to work with VNC, please visit their support website.

Other remote desktop solutions

• RealVNC personal edition or TightVNC
• Microsoft Remote Desktop

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Yoics comes preconfigured with the free version of RealVNC.  If you are interested in using the Personal Edition of RealVNC (supports Vista) or tightVNC, Yoics provides an easy setup for both of those as well.

With remote desktop, you gain the abilty to remote mange your computer from any web browser.  In addition, you can share your desktop to easily give demonstrations or presentations, without the need to sign-up for an expensive paid for service.

Open desktop configuration

Bring up the remote desktop configuration window by selecting >> Services >> Desktop.

The desktop configuration menu allows you to customize your remote desktop configuration.

1. When using custom setup, this is where you enter the name you would like to call your remote desktop (default for the setup wizard is My Desktop)
2. Settings.  Here you can either select to use the pre-configured FREE VNC version (note, does not work with VISTA), by selecting the check box.
3. VNC Options.  If you are using the pre-configured FREE VNC version or one of the supported versions, clicking this will bring up the VNC configuration window.
   
   
4. Settings for preferred VNC service.  Use these menus to use a version of VNC other than the pre-configured FREE VNC version.
5. Clicking the dialog will bring up a selection of the currently supported versions.
   
6. If the version of VNC that you are using is not on the supported list, don’t worry, chances are it will still work with Yoics.  Just enter the service by name in this box.
7. Once you’ve set everything up, just select OK to complete configuration.  Alternative select CANCEL if you simply want to exit with no changes.

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