Have an Android device and a Wi-Fi network at home? Then I’ve got something nifty for you! It’s called LazyDroid, and it gives you access to much of your phone from your desktop computer!
How does it work? Click the LazyDroid link in the last paragraph from your Android device (or just search for it on the Android Market). Install the “server” software on your device and start it up. You will be given the IP address and port number you need to access your phone. So you then go back to your desktop computer and enter that IP and port into the address bar… and you’ll see this:
From here, you can do all sorts of nifty things. “FileManager” is a Windows Explorer-type file manager that allows you do upload, download, delete or rename files on your device’s internal storage or SD card. “SMS” lets you read or send text messages from your phone via your desktop. “Contacts” lets you add, remove or edit any contacts on the phone. “Camera’ lets you take pictures from your desktop. “Clipboard” adds a needed cut-and-paste feature to the OS. And “Sensors” lets you muck around with the GPS and accelerometer settings of your phone. What’s more LazyDroid offers pop-ups for events like SMS messages and phone calls. If you have LazyDroid running on your phone and a Bluetooth headset when you receive a phone call, LazyDroid will pop a message up with the caller information so you can decide whether to answer or not. Similar capability exists for text messages, making LazyDroid a kind of convoluted instant messaging client.
LazyDroid is pretty nifty, although I’m not sure how often I’d use it. I don’t think I’d want it running all the time, so if I’m upstairs on the computer and the phone is downstairs, I’d have to go downstairs to enable LazyDroid server on the phone… so why not just use the phone, eh?
The worst part is that LazyDroid only seems to work with Internet Explorer. I tried it with Firefox 4.0.1 and the “desktop” and each of the apps loaded, but no data appeared on the screen. I guess having LazyDroid is better than not having LazyDroid, but with it being IE-only I’m really not sure how often I’ll use it!
Lastly, I didn’t mention it, but you can configure LazyDroid to use a specific port (and well as require a username and password) in the “Settings: section of the phone.
Hi and thanks for your post about LazyDroid!!!
I want to inform you that LazyDroid works perfectly with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome while Internet Explorer isn’t ufficially supported because we use some html5 features that doesn’t work on it.
If it didn’t it’s for a bug or for a cache problem 🙂
Well, like I said, anytime I opened an applet in FF 4, the applet would open, but no data would appear. For example, File Explorer would open, but I would only get an “hourglass”. I once waited 15 minutes for any data to appear, but it never did. OTOH, it worked perfectly for me in IE 9.
Hi, i want to test it on an android system installed in a hyper-v system. but with such systems you have no access to the market. exists an altenative link?
thx in advance.