If you’re an academic or professional that needs to give presentations, there are a few pieces of iPhone software that will fit your needs perfectly. Ever had those clumsy moments when you needed to be both next to the main screen and to click on your laptop because the clicker wouldn’t work at the last minute? No more, thanks to Pointer ($.99 in the App Store) or Stage Hand ($7.99 price tag).

Neither will directly prepare your presentation for you, or protect you against really annoying questions from the audience; but it will turn your iPhone into the most convenient clicker you’ve ever had, to guarantee that any presentations you do have will go smoothly.

Features include: You can jump to any slide at any time, you can see special notes, and they both work well. Both can walk you through both PowerPoint and Keynote presentation, using the Wifi connection of your MacBook. Both can double as rough track-pad, even outside of a presentation. Both need you to download and install a local applet beforehand, and I recommend that you set everything up before you start.

Although the software works right away, there are some tweaking to do with multiple screens parameters in your Preference panel. Both have similar options: clicking sound, typeface size, jump to a given slide, highlight color. Each has slightly different options for this.

Honestly, there is very little difference between the two apps; Stage Hand does have a WiFi meter and the ability to move the iPhone to switch to the next slide.

Pointer

Stage Hand