Logmein Ignition; Remote Control Software for iPhone
by Theo Priestley on 21/05/09 at 7:33 pm
Theo Priestley is the Director of Process Maverick, a business process management consultancy firm and Senior Editor for iPhoneCTO.
Have you ever wished you could take control of your computer from your phone and access the applications and files on it? With LogMeIn Ignition you can. Ignition for iPhone gives you direct, one-click access to all of your LogMeIn computers via iPhone or iPod Touch. You’ll need to install the LogMeIn Ignition client on each computer you want to access (PC/Mac) and subscribe to their monthly or annual service in addition to purchasing the app from the App Store ($29.99)
With your iPhone or iPod Touch you have the ability to access a PC / Mac from anywhere in the world. Say you need to send someone a document but, you’re nowhere near your office or your laptop. Using Ignition, you remotely log into your computer, find the document and send it in an email. You are quite literally using your computer via your iPhone.
Ignition offers similar functionality to Citrix’s Receiver application (see my other review), but without having to install the XenApp server software. Navigation is relatively straight forward and intuitive. You can easily access your files and control the computer with multi-touch and by moving the mouse pointer by sliding your finger around. Again, the limitation is the iPhone’s screen size which I also found to be a problem with Citrix Receiver. And Similar to Citrix Receiver, you’ll receive some lag over a 3G connection, but this is to be expected. If you’re worried about security, don’t be. LogMeIn offers 256bit encryption.
LogMeIn Ignition is an excellent application. It’s well put together and in my opinion, more flexible than Receiver. Don’t be put off by the high price. It will quickly repay for itself the one time you find yourself needing your computer and you pull out your iPhone instead.
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