Have you ever wished you can easily text on your phone using your keyboard while working? You can keep your phone out of sight so as not to distract you but still operate it using your laptop when you want to.
Well SideSync by Samsung can help you with that. The catch is, it will only work with Samsung’s ATIV line of notebooks and PCs, and Samsung smartphones, those that run on Android Jelly Bean that is. Still, it’s a very useful app if you manage to meet those requirements.
Side Sync is an app that is already pre-installed in all ATIV PCs so all you have to do is download the same app on your smartphone. It’s not located in Google Play but in the Samsung App store. Once you have both, you can connect your phone to your laptop via USB (via wireless is still in the works) and let the magic begin.
Yesterday we saw the demo for Samsung SideSync which has two modes ““ Keyboard/Mouse Sharing and Phone Screen Sharing.
With Keyboard/Mouse, you can navigate your phone using your keyboard and mouse. Just go past the edge of your screen to bring your cursor to your phone like what you do on a secondary monitor. I don’t know what’s the point of using a mouse on your phone when you can simply touch to navigate but using the keyboard can come in handy. You can do the Cut/Copy/Paste thing easily between apps. Say you want to share a URL of a website you’re viewing, you can copy that URL and paste it in your message. There are some keyboard shortcuts too. The right-click mouse button will be Back while the Win button brings you to the home screen.
Phone Screen Sharing is useful if you want to hide your phone but still use it via your PC. You will see a graphical representation of your phone on your desktop screen which mimics everything you do on your phone or vice versa. You can still use your keyboard and mouse to navigate your virtual phone and send messages or play your games. What’s nice here is that you can transfer files from your PC to your phone and vice versa simply by drag and dropping. You can also copy and paste text easily between your PC and phone.
Samsung is really making it easy for people to go straight Samsung when choosing an electronic product. Their aim is digital convergence which lets your Samsung products (gadgets, appliances, PCs) interact with each other in one way or another. The Samsung ATIV line is the successor to the Samsung Series line of notebooks. We’ll see more ATIV notebooks, tablets, and All-in-One’s in the coming months.