Whatever the reason, you want to take a look at your phone through your computer screen. Maybe you busted up the LCD a touch, and not everything’s as readable as you’d like it to be. Could be you’re looking to take some screen shots, or stream some footage for a blog post or social site. Maybe you simply think it’d be a cool idea. Regardless of the reason, you want to be able to look at your phone through your computer- and possibly control it via your monitor, to boot.

There are actually a few ways you can go about doing that, depending on what OS your phone’s running- in each case, you’re going to have to download a few tools

Blackberry

There’s actually a few ways you can go about getting a stream of your Blackberry set up. Method one involves downloading bbscreenstream, then putting it in the same folder as javaloader.exe. Connect your Blackberry to your PC (make sure you have your Blackberry Desktop Manager running), and activate the screen streaming program. Hit play, select your device, and you’re done. Unfortunately, this only lets you view the screen- it doesn’t actually let you control it from your PC…there’s also a bit of a lag to it, as well.

An alternative is to shell out for the Impatica Viadock. Unfortunately, at $40.00, it’s not really the sort of purchase most users will want to make.

Finally, you can try downloading and setting up Tinycontroller. Again, you’ll have to shell out a bit for the full application, but thankfully it’s only $5.00 – much more reasonable than Viadock, no?

Android

Simply download and install MyMobiler. There are instructions on the website concerning how to do it, and the download’s completely free.  Note that in order to use it, you need to be running Android 2.2 or later. Furthermore, in order to actually view your screen, rather than just control it, you’ll need to be using a rooted device. There’s also a link to a useful guide on how to go about rooting your device.

You could also use Ashot.

iOS:

Unfortunately, pretty much the only way to control an iPhone from a PC (rather than the other way around) is to jailbreak it. There are literally no applications on the app store that’ll allow for the kind of connection we need. Kind of annoying, no? Anyway, the process for this is a little more complicated. First, jailbreak your phone. Note that this will void the warranty, and could very well brick the device. At the very least, it’s easy to reverse. Anyway, If you’re still willing to proceed, refer to the steps below(via eHow)

1. Download jailbreakme, and use it to jailbreak your phone.

2.  Download and install Cydia. It’s an application directory for jailbroken iPhones.

3. Use Cydia to install Veency.

4. Open up your Wireless menu and create a new network. Name it whatever you please.

5.  Make sure Wi-Fi is turned on, then select the network you just created from the list of networks that appear. Once you’ve done this, tap the blue arrow and you’ll be on the IP information screen.  If nothing’s there, you’re going to have to open Safari and load a random website, then go back. Write the IP down.

6. Download and install VNC software on your computer (it doesn’t really matter which you use). When it asks you to provide a host address, type in the IP you wrote down.

7. Hit “accept” on your iPhone. That’s it, you’re done!

Windows Phone 7:

Mymobiler works for Windows phones just as easily as it works for Android, believe it or not. Download and go. Pretty easy, right?

Alternatively, you could just buy an adapter for any of the above. They do exist.

Image Credits: [Gizmodo]

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