WiFi Mouse Pro

Summary

For smartphone and/or tablet users, WiFi Mouse Pro can act as a stand in for a hardware mouse and keyboard for your computer. It displays both a mouse and keyboard via a WiFi/WLAN connection, and its functionality is pretty vast thanks to multitouch gestures. Find out more about this remote mouse and keyboard app in today's review.

Test device: Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.1.1
Root: No
Runs as of Android version: 2.1

Before you can get cracking with WiFi Mouse Pro you will have to download and install the companion server programme for PC or Mac from the developers' homepage. Once this is done simply start up the app from your smartphone or tablet and connect to your computer by hitting “Auto Connect”.
As an alternative: enter your computer's IP address manually—and that's all she wrote! The app is then connected to your PC/Mac.

Now that that's all cleared up, another question arises: who will actually benefit from such an app? I mean, users who are sitting in front of their computers certainly won't, right?
A remote mouse is, however, highly useful to persons who need to make presentations or HTPCs that are hooked to television sets. And in the event that your hardware mouse's battery dies this app is an easy and simple quick fix.

Aside form standard mouse-functions (moving the cursor, left/right click and scroll wheel) there are a bunch of multitouch gestures to help make life simpler, for instance pinch-to-zoom or four-finger swipe to display the desktop. This makes ideal use of your device's potential, and thanks to the integrated software keyboard you needn't even resort using your other keyboard. That's right, sit back and get cosy on your sofa and remote control your computer from the most comfy position you can think of. There are even separate options for right and left handed users.

I came across what I feel to be two small drawbacks during my test runs: controls for the mouse cursor were not always super smooth, and the same is true for keyboard input. Mind you, this is certainly also contingent on the WiFi connection. The second thing is that the scroll wheel's functionality seems to be inverted, meaning that in order to scroll up I had to swipe downwards with my finger. This strikes me as being counterintuitive, and unfortunately I wasn't able to change this in the settings. I'm getting used to it now, but I would still prefer if there was an option for changing this setting.

UPDATE: The developer took note of our critique and as of the 2.1 version of the app there is an option for selection the direction in which you wish to scroll: from top to bottom or from bottom to top. 

If you go to the settings you will further be able to indicate if you are right or left handed.

Bottom line:

WiFi Mouse Pro remains a very useful app. Some may classify it as a “special interests” type application, but I find it to be pretty nifty. It clearly deserves a four star rating.

WiFi Mouse Pro is easy to navigate and input will appear almost instantly on your computer screen, whether you're controling your computer from your smartphone or tablet.

Scaling issues have also been resolved with the newest version of the app, and it now optimally uses the entire display.

The WiFi Mouse interface is neat and simple and controls are intuitive: swipe in the direction you want to mouse to point. Additional elements such as a virtual scroll wheel and button for key input prove to be great bonus features.

In a nutshell: WiFi Mouse Pro performed well, the controls are smooth sailing and the app didn't crash at all.

WiFi Mouse Pro will normally set you back EUR 3.18 but seeing as it is our app of the week we are pleased to offer a special price of only EUR 1.59. That's a more than fair price if you consider that it allows you to have remote control access over your computer via an app.
And the server programme is compatible with Mac and PC to boot.

If you're still not convinced, check out the free version of the app which is available for a seven day trial period.