In case you were too busy during the Holiday festivities, you might have missed the announcement that LogMeIn Remote Access app is now available as a free download from the App Store. For the unaware, LogMeIn is a nifty app that lets you access your PC or Mac desktops on your iOS devices.
The old premium version is still available via in-app version but it will cost you $40 per year to enjoy premium features such as HD video and sound streaming, file transfer, and cloud storage integration. So, if you don’t have a need for those features and you don’t want to spend so much moolah, the free version will suffice.
Question now is, does LogMeIn Remote Access app deserve a place on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch? So here, we give a detailed round-up of the features and functionality of the LogMeIn iOS app. It is hope that after reading this review, you will have an idea whether you should give this app a try or find an alternative instead.
LogMeIn – Features and Functionality
LogMeIn app for iPhone and iPad has one purpose – to let you remotely control your PCs and Macs over Wi-Fi/3G. Using this app, you will be able to access your files, run apps and most importantly control your desktops – from practically anywhere.
By access it means that you can open files and edit them as well from your iPad or iPhone. For business professionals or IT people, LogMeIn is a pretty handy app that can be use for remotely fixing computer problems.
Using LogMeIn
It’s pretty easy to use LogMeIn for the first time. After installing the app on your iOS device, you also need to install the desktop companion software. Then as soon as you open both the desktop software and iOS app, you’ll be asked to register an account. And then log in to that account to start using the app.
After the customary registration process has finished, LogMeIn app will connect with your computer. Make sure that both are running on the same Wi-Fi network. Once the connection is successful, you can see the name of your computer go online on the app.
From here you can tap on the name of your computer and you’ll be brought to a new screen with three icons/options. Tapping on the first option will bring you to a new screen which displays what’s on your computer’s desktop. From there, you can start using apps and software installed on your computer.
Below this screen you’ll find several options – keyboard, mouse, search, settings and close. Tapping on the keyboard icon will bring out your device’s keyboard and you can start typing. The next icon lets you use a virtual mouse the same way that you use a mouse on your computer. Then there’s the search function.
The settings option lets you choose whether you want the app to display offline computers, show or hide Cloud Bank, select Google file formats, save viewed files, clear stored username and password and se timeout for Remote Control and File.
And those are pretty much what you can do with the freemium version of LogMeIn iOS app. Also, the app works for both iPhone and iPad so if you have both, it would be best to use your iPad since it has a larger screen display than the iPhone. It would be better to access your Mac or PC and view files on those computers. The image below shows how a PC screen looks on an iPad.
The app also allows you to switch views from your PC to your Mac.
Final Thoughts
In it’s present form, the free version of LogMeIn offers pretty good and useful features. For what it says it can actually do, we give this app very good marks. You’ll appreciate how flawlessly it reacts to your commands using your iOS device. The lag time is barely noticeable.
If you think you need to control your computer remotely within your house, well this app serves that functionality. We can’t help but commend LogMeIn for putting this app for free, despite uncertainty in whether users will actually get the premium version after using this app.
