The latest version of the VMware View app has been released for both the iPad and Android. Several new documented changes in this version, as well as some other slight undocumented modifications. Here is the documented list:

  • Optimized for VMware View 5 with improved performance
  • Support for iOS 5 including AirPlay
  • Presentation Mode for use with external display and AirPlay
  • Embedded RSA soft token simplifies login to desktop
  • Background tasking to move between Windows and iOS apps 
  • Updated look and feel
  • Integrated online help
  • Buffered text input for multibyte text entry
  • Now in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese
  • Bug fixes

The three bolded are my top choices for best new features. It was a complete pain having to reconnect when switching between apps, and made me almost not want to even use it. I’m very happy to see that is now fixed.

The included online help is also a blessing as it gives novice users (which should be a large portion of the userbase of this app, if VDI is successful) a way to figure out how to maneuver and operate the application.

 

Lastly, Presentation Mode will be very handy for a lot of users.

Two of the undocumented features that I have noticed are:

  • Passwords are no longer savable. You must authenticate every time you log in. Previously you could save the password to the iPad, but this was removed for security reasons.
  • The screenshot of desktops used as icons for the specific Virtual Desktops is now blurred, which is likely for security reasons as well.

 

The only thing I wish they would have fixed, which is ultimately not an issue with just this app but other apps out there as well, is the fact the drop down menu to select the touchpad, disconnect, etc. is interfered with now by the iOS 5 Notification Menu. It can be a pain trying to pull down the right bar. Hopefully that gets fixed in the next release, as well for other apps as well.