Use LCARS Interface on Android and iPad!

Sorry if you got too excited by the headline, but LCARS Interface has not actually been ported to other platforms yet. However, if you do own an Android tablet or an iPad, you can still have a little bit of fun over your home network! We used to use this a lot with our own testing to make sure that LCARS Interface is actually usable on a tablet interface before we acquired all of the testing gear we have now. I figure I would share what I do so those of you who don't own Windows 8 tablets can pretend that you do sometimes! It's not perfect, but for something that's free it does a really good job! (Your results may vary depending on the speed of your devices and home network).

Read on to get instructions on how to set it up!



What you need to do is download the Splashtop 2 app from the Google Play store or Apple App store (it's free).

You will then need to go download the Splashtop streamer for your desktop/laptop from Splashtop.com (it should be right on the front page).

Once you set up the streamer, and a Splashtop account (also free) you can log in to your desktop or laptop from your tablet. If you have the streamer running correctly, your tablet should find your other computer automatically.

If you are using Android, the default settings should work. If using an iPad, you may have to play with the resolutions a little bit in order to make LCARS Interface look better. I do my best to support the 4:3 aspect ratio (test with 1024x768 in the simulator) but I can't make everything work with it.

Splashtop 2 supports all of the regular Windows 8 gestures to things like swiping in from the right side will get your charms, swiping on the Start screen will work, etc. Sounds also get re-routed through your tablet so the experience is even better!

Launch LCARS Interface like you normally would from the start screen, and you should end up with something like this:

Here it is shown on a Nexus 7 tablet since it's what is closest to me right now and it does the job just fine. I recommend a 10" tablet for the best results, though. This tablet runs 1280x800 which is close enough to the 1366x768 of Windows 8 tablets that everything still scales correctly. Most anything 16:9 should work similarly.

It is possible to do this on a phone as well, but I don't recommend that since it probably will be too small to actually use with the layouts made for larger screens.  Keep in mind this app is still running on your desktop and not actually on your mobile device. I forget that sometimes myself and do things like hit the Back button which don't produce the intended results here!

If you have any problems getting it set up, let me know! I will try and help you, although I'm not affiliated with Splashtop so their support might be better to contact if Splashtop itself is not working.


Splashtop 2 is free to use on your local home network. If you want to connect to your computer away from home, you will need to subscribe to their monthly service. Have fun!