OnLive Desktop app streams Windows 7 to your iPad

Cloud gaming service OnLive has an iPad app that has been stuck in Apple approval limbo for a month. While its future is uncertain, OnLive has another iPad app that will be launching later this week. It won?t, however, be streaming LA Noire or Batman: Arkham City to your tablet. This version of OnLive will stream a Windows 7 desktop onto your iPad.

While there are, at this moment, several ways to get a remote version of Windows on an iPad (LogMeIn and other remote desktop apps), they all require you to access your own computer. Additionally, controlling a mouse cursor with your finger can be a headache-inducing experience that removes all fun and ease from using an iPad.

OnLive Desktop changes all of this. You don?t need your own copy of Windows; you don?t even need your own PC. Just as OnLive?s gaming service streams its own remotely-run games to your device, its desktop streams your own instance of Windows to your iPad. Perhaps most importantly, though, it?s optimized for touch. So if you want to open Microsoft Office, you don?t have to drag a mouse cursor and simulate a double tap; simply tap the icon and it will open. Consider it a little preview of Windows 8 for tablets ? only you don?t have to buy a new device.

The base version of the OnLive Desktop app will be free, but it has limits. The free version gives you 2GB of cloud storage, and comes pre-installed with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint ? all with touch optimization. But an OnLive Desktop Pro app will be launching soon, which will up your storage to 50GB, let you install additional apps, and save your Windows environment for return visits. The Pro version will cost $9.99 per month, and will be launching at a later date.

In addition to consumers, OnLive is also aiming its app towards enterprise customers. If you?ve ever used OnLive?s gaming apps, you?ll be familiar with the Arena: go there to be a spectator in others? games. OnLive is using the same tech to allow business customers to collaborate on projects.

This has the potential to be huge. Smartphones and tablets are the principle players in our digital worlds. As far as they?ve come, they still trail desktops in terms of processing power and storage. Solutions like OnLive?s gaming and desktop solutions use the internet to fill that hole. If you have solid enough of a connection, there will soon be little that you can?t do on an iPad.

OnLive Desktop will initially only be available for iPad, but Android and Mac OS X versions will be launching later. The free OnLive Desktop app has already been approved by Apple (if only its iPad gaming app could say as much), and is set to launch this Thursday. OnLive encourages interested customers to sign up early at the source link below.

OnLive

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/onlive-desktop-app-streams-windows-7-to-your-ipad-2012019/

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