Tiny keyboard and mouse combination devices such as the wireless iPazzPort, Compass Mini or FAVI FE01-BL Mini can help people who have a limited range of movement. Most of these connect to your PC using USB and work with Windows computers. Some use Bluetooth so can be used to remotely access Android tablets and smartphones.
Use your Phone
These devices are not expensive, but an even cheaper, sometimes free, alternative is to use your smartphone screen to as a PC mouse and keyboard. Android and iPhone devices both have a range of apps available for you to try.
Remote Mouse
This app is available for free for both iOS and Android but expect to pay two dollars if you want to access all the features, one of which is holding the phone in landscape mode.
The mouse works in exactly the same way as the glide-pad mouse that is built into most laptops. You can tap the screen anywhere as a left click or press the dedicated virtual buttons that appear on the screen.
You can pop up a keyboard for typing and access other useful keys such us page up and down (for scrolling).
Talking of scrolling there are some useful mouse shortcuts such as holding two fingers to scroll up and down or make a double-tap and drag to move items around.
Remote Mouse Server
One caveat of the Remote Mouse is that unlike the iPazzPort and other devices, the smartphone apps all require a small server app to be installed on the host computer. This means that if you do not have administrative rights to your computer (such as at work) you might not be able to use the smartphone. It also means that you need to be connected via the same wireless connection – something that won’t always be available.
You can find out more about the app from the Remote Mouse website.
