iPad App Let’s You Tap Into Your Desktop June 4, 2010
Controlling Any Desktop from an iPad
I’ve been resisting the urge to get an iPad myself - I don’t know why, but I have. That may now have to end after I read Rich Jaroslovsky’s article in Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday.
It starts out with the catchy line “Don’t tell Steve Jobs, but I’ve been running Adobe Flash on my iPad.” After an opening line like that, I had to read on.
Turns out, the article is about an iPad app that you can get from the iTunes App Store for $29.99. Yes, that’s the price, but what it can do is cool. The app is called LogMeIn Ignition. Setup is extremely easy and the app allows you to control any Windows PC or Mac that you’ve installed the individual downloadable software on.
Once on your iPad, you get a list of every machine you’ve linked to - the ones that are offline are grayed, the ones that are currently online and available … of course … are bold. When you select an available machine, you quickly see the desktop just as you’d see it if you were sitting in front of it. All open windows, programs, etc. are displayed just as if you were there.
There are some limitations, but the good outweighs the bad. Some limitations include:
- The target machine must be on and online
- Some company networks will block access
- The app does not support sound
- The app works on an iPhone or iPod touch, but you’ll want to use an iPad for the bigger screen (which means little to no scrolling)
