There’s quite a market for apps that allow you to control your computer remotely from your iPhone. Some are relatively simple, like apps that simulate Bluetooth number pads, or provide convenient access to keyboard shortcuts for professional-grade software. But for software that lets you control your computer from anywhere in the world—as though you were right in front of the monitor— LogMeIn Ignition is a very strong contender.
On Tuesday, LogMeIn announced a series of smartphone-centric enhancements to its service. For one, LogMeIn is showing off a forthcoming viewer for LogMeIn Express that allows iPhone and Android users to view the desktops of computers with the LogMeIn software installed. This should be ideal for collaborative work and moments when you want to share what’s on your screen but don’t want to fight over the mouse. LogMeIn’s current Web-based viewer is a Flash app, which obviously doesn’t work very well on the iPhone.
In addition, there’s an Android port of LogMeIn Ignition, bringing all the benefits of LogMeIn’s robust, $30 iPhone app to the Android platform. For now, this is only being demoed on the show floor of the Mobile World Congress conference, but LogMeIn would be happy to put interested customers on a mailing list for updates.
Finally, for those fine men and women who deal with the woes of technical support and IT, LogMeIn’s own LogMeIn Rescue now allows support people to configure e-mail settings for iPhone or iPod Touch devices over the web. No need to get on the phone and talk about SMTP servers or explain how IMAP works. Ideally, you should simply direct your users to a certain Website, and once the site is finished with its work, their e-mail will be working just fine.
Given the direction LogMeIn is taking with their remote desktop software, it seems that the company is focusing on easy-to-use solutions with business customers in mind. And to its credit, why not? The buzz about the iPhone in enterprise has been improving and the BlackBerry isn’t the darling of the workplace that it used to be.