How to control an iPod from an Android device

Recently I have been playing with some old stereo equipment and started thinking: "It would be great to be able to control my iPod remotely so that I could change the songs playing on my stereo from across the house".  It then dawned on me that their had to be some software out there to remotely control my iPod from a PC.  While doing some digging around I came across Veency (pronounced VNC).  This is a service that can be installed on a jailbroken iPod which acts as a VNC server.  All you need is an active wifi connection and you are all set.  Afterward I wanted to take it a step further so that I was not tethered to my desktop computer to be able to adjust my music.  So I turned towards my Toshiba Thrive tablet for a solution.  Low and behold there is a great little vnc viewer called "android-vnc-viewer" which would allow me to accomplish exactly what I wanted.  Below I will walk you through the steps I had taken to do this.

1. Jailbreak your iPod/iPad etc. (You will have to Google this if it has not already been done)

2. Open the 'Cydia'

3. Select the search option and look for "veency"

4. Select "Veency" from the list then touch "Install" in the top right corner. (If you receive an error right after you click "Install", reboot your iPod and try again.  You may need to run a quick update in Cydia before you can download the package properly)

5. The installation will complete and then you will be prompted to restart your iPod afterwards.  Give it a good 5 minutes to restart, if it appears to hang on a loading screen then press and hold the power button to shut it off.  Lastly, power the iPod back on.

6. After your iPod starts back up, simply connect to your wifi network and locate the IP address that was assigned to the iPod.  You can get the IP address from "Settings - General - Network - Wi-Fi".  Then press the blue ">" arrow to the right of the SSID (wifi network) to which you are connected to.

7. Here is where you will locate your IP address. Write it down or remember it for when you go to connect  to the iPod using VNC from another device.

8.  Also, to avoid having to acknowledge a prompt on the iPod each and every time you want to connect with VNC, go into "Settings - Veency" on the iPod and simply set a VNC password. (Remember this for later)

9. Your iPod should now be ready to go and you should have everything you need to connect from another device.

10.  On your Android phone/tablet, go to the Android Market and install the vnc viewer called "android-vnc-viewer".

11. Once installed, go ahead and locate the android VNC app and start it up.

11. You will then be prompted with a screen similar to the one in the photo below. On this screen you will need to create a new connection and type in the iPod's IP address you had found in Step 7.  The default VNC port number of 5900 is correct.  You can also type in the VNC password which you had defined in Step 8.  If you do not type it in here, you will simply be prompted for it when you try to connect.

12. Once you are certain your settings are correct, click "Connect".

13. Voila! You should now be able to see your iPod screen  on your Android device.

This is a view of my Toshiba Thrive while connected to the iPod.  You can see that it does not blow up to full screen however it is still very functional.

Here is my tablet and iPod side by side.  As you can see, I am playing around with the Pandora online radio app on my iPod by sending commands through my tablet.







I hope you find this posting useful and please leave any comments or criticisms you may have below.

-TanthT