Google open-sources the code for ReMail, the e-mail program for the iPhone, buys San Francisco-based DocVerse, and preps your iPhone to be a remote control.

Google has decided to open-source the ReMail code, based on code form the company of the same name that Google acquired last month. As a result, developers can now get ReMail back in the App Store – where it sat briefly, before being pulled – and release upgrades.

ReMail is good product with a definite audience, and hopefully won’t see the same fate as the Jaiku service, a Twitterlike technology that has languished since its open-source code was released. It is hard to imagine, however, that ReMail will pull people off the enterprise-grade e-mail offered by Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.

Google buys DocVerse

Google has acquired San Francisco-based DocVerse.

"With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications," Google product manager Jonathan Rochelle said in the blog post.

This is a clear shot at Microsoft. Both companies are moving into each others’ areas: Microsoft with its Bing search engine, and Google in the application space with Google Apps and OS space with its Chrome OS.

iPhone becomes remote control

This Spring Google will be introducing the RedEye Mini, a tiny device that plugs into the iPhone or iPod Touch's headphone jack and turns it into a fully customizable, fully functional infrared remote. Priced at $50, it is competitive with a full-fledged touchscreen remote.

Made by Thinkflood – the same people who made the pricier and clunkier original Redeye – the Redeye Mini is intended to control most devices, whether TV, cable box, or stereo.