When Mocha VNC first came out I was on my summer vacation. Dimitri called me and told me I had to try it. I did and it blew my mind. The ability to see and control your computer from your iPhone or Touch... brilliant. Amazing. OMG!! Wow.

Since then there have been numerous remote clients released. Most work pretty well and range in price from free to a few dollars. The vary in regard to setup and features but all offer the same core functionality- logging into you home computer and controlling it.

When LogMeIn Ignition was released I was of two minds.

On the one hand I was thrilled to see a big name like LogMeIn getting into the game. Every time a significant player brings their service or functionality it adds that much more to the establishment and deepening of this powerful computing platform.  

On the other hand I thought, are they out of their minds charging $29.99 when similar apps are far far less? Do they think their branding is worth that much of a premium?

There was, of course, no way that I was paying such a premium just for the privilege of reviewing the application. Fortunately, they were kind enough to give me a review copy which allowed me to see what anyone purchasing application was paying the extra money for. After using it for time I can honestly say that if you were one of those people who's willing to pay a premium to have the best of something this is actually worth a look.

Set up was easier than I found with any of the other available applications. Moreover, once the initial setup was complete, it now takes one click to log in and to access my home iMac. Once setup was complete and I logged in, it offered a useful screen of tips that can be turned off but is useful enough that I actually have left it on for the time being. The screen resolution was excellent and the ability to zoom in works quite well over both WiFi AT&T's 3G  connection. I should note that every time I log in I see a warning that I'm running out of memory. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to have any effect on using the application. While I'm not sure what it's about I'm not worrying about it too much.

I am to use the application in both landscape and portrait. Landscape, of course, offers the best view. Because the zoom function works so well I don't find myself at a significant disadvantage trying to navigate my 24 inch iMac on such a small screen. One of the things that they did it brilliantly was provide the option to either move the cursor around the screen, as is the norm, or allow the cursor to be fixed and have you move the screen beneath it. I know it sounds awkward, in fact it was awkward to use at first, but now I wouldn't do it any other way.  Moving the screen so that what I want is beneath the cursor actually makes navigating the large iMac screen at home far easier. It also comes in handy when using the application to write and edit a word or two. You simply move the entire text until the point of insertion is beneath the cursor and then click.

The soft keyboard works well in both landscape and portrait in both the left and right click work on the mouse. All in all, it's a well conceived and executed application.

Applications like this have a lot of initial "wow" that often wears off after the initial excitement. That will certainly not be the case here. Let me give you one example why.

I had a doctors appointment this afternoon and spent a good deal of time in the waiting room. I only brought my iPhone along but wanted to get some work done on the website. There was a comment to which I wanted to post a response but for some reason I wasn't able to do so directly from my iPhone. I pulled up the application, logged into my home iMac, navigated to the comment on my iMac using the iPhone, and wrote and edited a comment. I then hit "preview", made a few changes, and hit "post". Yes, it took me a little bit longer than it would have a right directly on my computer but there was not a single thing that I wanted to do or that I would have done had I been in front of my computer, that I was not able to do remotely using my iPhone. In my opinion that makes this an incredibly useful application.

A second example. As I wrote a few weeks ago, because of some recent surgeries I only have use of one hand right now. It makes typing a little bit difficult. There were a number of times this evening when I wanted to write something when I actually logged in using my iPhone and used the iPhone's keyboard to type with one hand instead of the keyboard. It was actually more helpful than it may sound.

At the beginning of this review I wrote that I don't use LogMeIn. Truth is, thay was a bit of a lie. I didn't use LogMeIn before this review but after using LogMeIn ignition... I do.

Quick Take

Value: Very high if you actually use the application.
Would I Buy Again:  After my experiences with it today I would absolutely purchase this again.
Learning Curve:  Relatively small.
Who Is It For:  Anyone who has a need to login to their computer remotely and actually use it remotely.
What I Like:  Application works incredibly well. They made a great choice about giving the option to move the screen and not the cursor. Once you purchase the application you can use the free version of the service can not incur any additional fees.
What I Don't: There's no question that this is one of the more expensive applications I've used.

Final Statement:  While there's no question this is one of the more expensive applications I've used, it's also one of the most useful. I wouldn't have picked up the application were not able to have the opportunity to review it. I'm very glad that I did.

Version # :	1.1.85
Date Released:	12/13/2008
Web / Native:	Native
Type:	Productivity
Price:	$29.99
Our Rating
User Rating:	Average: Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (5 votes)
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