LogMeIn updates Android app, brings tablet support

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 13 January 2011 13:46

Your IT - Mobility

Although LogMeIn already had an Android OS compatible app, a new version brings optimisation for tablets like Samsung's Galaxy Tab, remote wake and remote sound capabilities.

Phone manufacturers have built tablets based on non-tablet-optimised versions of the Android OS, and app makers have come bearing tablet-optimised apps.

The latest comes from remote control software providers, LogMeIn, whose free update for existing LogMeIn users on Android brings those long-awaited tablet-optimised features, plus some extra new features to boot, although the new features work on Android OS smartphones, too. 

LogMeIn says the new features include 'Wake-On-LAN, remote sound, multi-monitor support, and more', with LogMeIn promising that 'once purchased and downloaded from the Android, a single instance of the app can be used across any of a user's supported Android devices (i.e. multiple smartphones and tablets).' 

As you're likely aware, LogMeIn Ignition (the full title of LogMeIn's remote control software on Android OS and iOS) 'lets users remotely access and control PCs or Macs directly from a mobile device or tablet, providing easy access to files, data and applications, from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection.'

LogMeIn introduced its Android OS compatible version last July (2010), and proudly notes that it is 'among the top paid productivity apps in the Android Market'.

However the app was beaten to market by the iPad optimised version of the app way back in April 2010, so while an Android tablet-optimised version has been a long time in coming, it is finally here.

To add some gravitas to its press release, LogMeIn quotes research firm Gartner that 'predicts that tablet shipments will reach 54.8 million units in 2011 and forecasts tablet shipments to exceed 208 million units in 2014', and notes Samsung's success in reporting last December (2010) that 'the new Samsung Galaxy Tab had surpassed the one million units sold mark, less than two months after the device first went on sale.'  

Continued on page two, please read on!