Reel 1 · An Introduction
Augustus Skipworth & SkipWire Laboratories proudly present
Your very own computer, delivered by wire to any screen in the house, or the world. Mac and Windows machines share their desktops with iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows at up to one hundred and twenty pictures every second.
Free. Completely. Forever.
“Why, in the home of the future, your desk will go wherever you go. And the future, ladies and gentlemen, has arrived ahead of schedule.” The Narrator
AUGUSTUS “GUS” SKIPWORTHFounder · Chairman · Visionary (self-appointed)
Reel 1½ · A Personal Message
Hello. Augustus Skipworth here. Founder, chairman, and as of this morning sole owner of the SkipWire Laboratories campus, the lake beside it, and the smaller lake inside that one.
Folks, I have spent a great deal of money in my life. A great deal. And here is what I've learned: a man should not have to walk to his computer. The computer should come to the man. By wire. At one hundred and twenty frames per second.
So my boys in the lab built SkipWire, and I'm giving it away. Free! The board of directors called that “financially catastrophic.” I called the board of directors “dismissed.”
Now, if you'd like my Central Switchboard to connect your machines from the far side of the world, that costs a little something. Somebody's got to pay the operators. Everything else? On the house.
The future is coming whether you like it or not. I'd prefer you like it. Skipworth out.
Augustus Skipworth
Reel 2 · The Carousel Theatre
Please remain seated. The auditorium will rotate. Mr. Skipworth paid for the rotating.
It begins at your Mac or Windows PC. SkipWire watches the screen and hands each new picture straight to the machine's own hardware video encoder: VideoToolbox on the Mac, the graphics card's encoder on Windows. No grinding. No waiting.
And when nobody is watching, the encoder rests. A thrifty machine is a happy machine.
The Founder interrupts: “Thrifty? I own four of these in every room, including the pantry. Carry on.”
Pictures and sound travel over QUIC datagrams, the express lane of the modern internet. SkipWire always looks for the most direct path: the same Wi-Fi, a direct address, or your own Tailscale network. A late frame is dropped, never queued, so you see the present and not the past.
Every packet is encrypted, end to end, between your two machines.
The Founder interrupts: “I had my men run an actual wire across the Atlantic. Turns out we didn’t need it. Keep the wire. Sentimental value. Low voltage, mind you. Some fellow in 1858 tried the other way.”
Your iPad, iPhone or second computer decodes in hardware and paints the picture with Metal, in step with the display, up to 120 Hz on ProMotion screens. The host sizes the stream to the window you are actually looking at, so nothing is wasted.
Sound arrives too, by way of the Opus codec.
The Founder interrupts: “I asked for a hundred and twenty-one. They said ‘physics.’ I said fine. For now.”
And here is the marvel: you touch, you type, you play, and the far machine obeys. Mouse, keyboard, trackpad gestures and game controllers all travel back down the wire the instant you move.
Then the curtain rises on Act I again, about a hundred and twenty times a second.
The Founder interrupts: “That’s you! Look at you. Splendid. Wave at the camera. No, the other camera.”
Reel 3 · The Exhibit Hall
Each specimen has been tested by laboratory staff. Mostly on the interns. The interns are fine.
Exhibit A-1
Smooth as a new phonograph. SkipWire paces itself to your display, up to 120 Hz on ProMotion iPads, iPhones and high-refresh monitors, when the hardware allows.
The Founder: “Sixty frames was good enough for my grandfather. My grandfather is not invited.”
Exhibit A-2
The machine's own video silicon does the heavy lifting: VideoToolbox on Apple Silicon, NVENC, AMF or Quick Sync on Windows. AV1 and VP9 are standing by as understudies.
The Founder: “I asked for quiet fans. I got quiet fans. That is how asking works when you own the building.”
Exhibit B-1
Our patented-in-spirit touch mouse for iPhone and iPad. Prefer something plainer? Switch to Trackpad mode, or Direct Touch, where one finger puts the pointer right where you tap. Pinch to zoom, two fingers to scroll.
The Founder: “Left-handed? We built you one too. Large targets for large thumbs. I am not a monster.”
Exhibit B-2
Pair a physical controller and it simply works. Or summon an on-screen pad: dual-stick, classic 8- and 16-bit layouts, even a six-button arcade panel.
The Founder: “Productivity in the lab fell forty percent. I have never been prouder.”
Exhibit C-1
The host learns how big your window is and how far you have zoomed, then sends just the right picture. Sharp text on a phone, full detail on a monitor, and no bandwidth thrown out the window.
The Founder: “Zoom in. Further. Further! There. Sharp as my lawyers.”
Exhibit C-2
Hosts with several displays? Swipe between them on iPad, or on a Mac open each remote display as its own tab. Tear one off into its own window, merge it back.
The Founder: “I have eleven monitors. You may have as many as you like. Not twelve. Twelve is mine.”
Exhibit D-1
The host's audio comes along for the ride, low-delay and clear. Mute it from the viewer, or tell a Windows host to keep its sound to itself.
The Founder: “We tested it on a theremin. It never sounded better, and neither did the man playing it, who was me.”
Exhibit D-2
No email, no password, no sign-up form, no usage tracking. Each machine holds its own Ed25519 key and remembers only the machines you introduced it to.
The Founder: “Other companies collect your data. I collect zeppelins. Different hobbies.”
Reel 4 · Making Introductions
Two machines meet once. After that, they are friends for life.
On the same network, SkipWire hosts announce themselves automatically. Away from home, put your machines on your own Tailscale network (our recommendation) or other similar means and they will find each other there, just as if they were in the same room.
The host shows a short PIN. Type it on the viewer, once. The two machines prove they saw the same number without ever sending it, then swap their cryptographic keys.
From then on, pick the machine and go. SkipWire races every route it knows and takes the quickest, preferring a direct path whenever one exists.
INTER-OFFICE MEMORANDUM · RE: TAILSCALE
Tailscale is a separate, independent service that builds a private network between your own devices. Its personal plan is free at the time of this filming. SkipWire uses it as a road, nothing more: SkipWire has no account with Tailscale and does not need you to give us one.
Filed by Laboratory Staff
Reel 4½ · The Hall of Achievements
Bronze plaques from the east wing of the Skipworth Memorial Lobby, which was named while he was still alive, at his request.
Inherits a modest fortune. Makes it immodest by Thursday.
Founds SkipWire Laboratories in a decommissioned zeppelin hangar. Keeps the zeppelin.
Marks one hundred years of the Atlantic cable by sending a telegram across it, addressed to himself. Congratulates himself warmly. Keeps the voltage polite.
Opens the world’s first market in ornamental gourd futures, then buys every contract himself. Analysts call the price “purely decorative.” He has not sold. He will never sell.
Places a long-distance telephone call to the Moon. Nobody answers. He leaves a message.
Installs one in his own home, from bed to breakfast table. Has not walked since.
Acquires an eleventh monitor. Declares twelve “excessive, for anyone but me.”
Gives his remote desktop to the world at no charge. Dismisses the board. Buys a lake to celebrate. Then a smaller lake inside it.
Reel 4¾ · The Skipworth Collection
None of these were failures. Mr. Skipworth has been very clear about that. Every one now lives on as a SkipWire app icon, selectable in Settings.
1977
A writing desk on its own monorail that trailed Mr. Skipworth from room to room so he would never be far from his work. It followed him into the lake. SkipWire finally does the same job without the rails, or the lake.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Finished, at last.”
The SkipWire icon
1961
A television that watches you back. The board called it “deeply upsetting” and had it locked in the basement. Today nearly every screen has a camera in it.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too early.”
Alternate icon
1963
A complete television, strapped to the forearm with velvet. It weighed nine pounds. Mr. Skipworth wore two, for balance.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too right.”
Alternate icon
1968
A direct line to the Moon, installed a full year before anyone was up there to answer it. He left a message. He is still expecting a call back.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “The Moon wasn’t ready.”
Alternate icon
1959
Letters fired through glass tubes at two hundred miles an hour. Only one house was ever connected: his. He wrote to himself every morning and replied every afternoon.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too fast for paper.”
Alternate icon
1971
A lectern with two spring-loaded gloves that applaud the speaker on cue. Calibrated, at considerable expense, for exactly one speaker.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Merely accurate.”
Alternate icon
1973
A small, obedient cloud on a leash. It keeps its owner in pleasant shade and rains on everyone standing nearby.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too generous. To me.”
Alternate icon
1966
A mechanical valet with a vocabulary of one phrase: “Excellent idea, sir.” It was the most popular employee in company history, with one voter.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too loyal.”
Alternate icon
1952
A mechanical arm on four miles of cable, so Mr. Skipworth could press the elevator button without leaving his bed. It pressed every button in the building. Twice. SkipWire does the same thing now, with a mouse.
Mr. Skipworth’s verdict “Too helpful.”
Alternate icon“People say I was ahead of my time. I say my time was behind me. Keep up.”Augustus Skipworth
Reel 5 · A Word About Money
“Free,” said Mr. Skipworth. The accountants have been sedated.
The People's Edition
$0 forever
Optional · For the Traveller
A modest subscription via the App Store
The only thing SkipWire sells. Our coordination server works like a telephone switchboard operator: it helps your machines find each other and punch a direct line through home routers and firewalls, so you can connect from anywhere without setting up Tailscale.
Reel 5½ · The Requisition Office
Fill out no forms. Mr. Skipworth abolished the forms. Simply choose your machine.
Form W-1 · The Windows Edition
Shares this PC · Controls other machines
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
Download for WindowsA direct download from SkipWire Laboratories.
Form M-1 · The Macintosh Edition
Shares this Mac · Controls other machines
macOS 14 Sonoma or later
View on the Mac App StoreDistributed by the Mac App Store.
Form I-1 · The Pocket Edition
Controls your Macs and PCs
iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 or later
View on the App StoreDistributed by the App Store.
“Install it on everything you own. I did. Including the zeppelin.” Augustus Skipworth
Reel 6 · Questions From the Audience
Truly free. Streaming, pairing, every feature, on your own network or over Tailscale, costs nothing and needs no account. The only paid part is the optional Central Switchboard, for people who want to connect across the internet without setting up Tailscale or some other method. Connecting locally between two computers on your network requires no additional software or subscriptions.
Either install Tailscale on both machines (free for personal use, set up once), or subscribe to the Central Switchboard and let SkipWire arrange the connection for you.
No. It only introduces your machines and helps them open a direct line. Your pictures, sound and keystrokes travel between your own devices, encrypted end to end.
Macs and Windows PCs can both share their screens and control others. iPhone and iPad are viewers: they control other machines but are not themselves shared.
Yes. High frame rates, low delay, physical controller passthrough and on-screen pads were designed with exactly that in mind. How it feels depends on your network; same-room Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet gives the best results.
Mr. Skipworth would like you to know that he is extremely real, extremely busy, and currently unavailable for comment, as he is inside the smaller lake.
We are not at liberty to say.
Portfolio Company Announcement
We’re excited to unlock the value that SkipWire’s users have been selfishly keeping for themselves.
On behalf of everyone at Solitary Lake Partners, we would like to thank Mr. Augustus Skipworth for his many contributions to SkipWire, most of which have now been discontinued.
Mr. Skipworth has stepped back to pursue other interests, effective immediately, and was escorted from the building at 9:04 a.m. We wish him well. We have asked him not to contact the company.
Rest assured that nothing about SkipWire will change, except the parts you liked.
The Investment Committee
Solitary Lake Partners Holdings LP
Following a comprehensive strategic review, we have right-sized the SkipWire experience.
Fourteen plans. Four are shown here. The rest are available on request, and on renewal.
$0/mo*
$9.99/mo
Most Profitable
$19.99/mo
$49.99/seat/mo
*Essentials is free forever. “Forever” means one fiscal quarter. Prices are subject to change, and will. Plans renew automatically at the highest available tier.
Non-core inventions identified during due diligence.
| Asset | Founder’s assessment | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The Desk That Follows You | “Finished, at last.” | Rails sold separately |
| The Wire-O-Vision | “Too early.” | Repurposed for “customer insights” |
| The Moon Telephone | “The Moon wasn’t ready.” | Number reassigned to a call centre |
| The Self-Applauding Podium | “Merely accurate.” | Retained for earnings calls |
| The Agreeable Butler | “Too loyal.” | Promoted to Gary |
| The Gourd Exchange | “He will never sell.” | Still not sold. He is still not selling. |
| The Lake in the Smaller Lake | “Mine.” | Drained |
To streamline the download experience, downloads are now available through your account executive.
Download fees are billed per byte. Installation is a separate engagement.
Yes! SkipWire Essentials is free, forever.* Please see the asterisk.
We prefer the term “right-sized.” Your experience has been aligned with our margin targets.
Please chat with Gary. If Gary is unable to resolve your issue, Gary will apologize for the inconvenience.
We’re sorry to see you go. Please hold. Your call is important to our quarterly results.
Mr. Skipworth is no longer affiliated with SkipWire. If you see him near a lake, please do not engage.