During CES 2012, the surprise appearance of OnLive Desktop was an intriguing idea for Windows lovers: rent a Windows 7 computer remotely and stream the whole experience to your iPad.
Helping the cause for the first iteration of OnLive Desktop was its price: free. That version had only 2GB of cloud storage, and the Windows 7 environment ran only a suite of Microsoft Office applications (sans Outlook), but for the cloud-curious and those who lack a word processor for their iPad, OnLive's streaming solution is a clever way to explore a mobile office.
OnLive was slated to release a Pro version with more dedicated servers, 50GB of storage, and access to an assortment of other applications, including a Flash-enabled browser, for $9.99 a month; that's hardly inexpensive, and likely to appeal largely to business executives with expense accounts. Today's launch of OnLive Desktop Plus is a surprise half-step: for $4.99 a month, users get the same 2GB of storage, but added access to that long-promised Flash browser; Microsoft Internet Explorer is included; and users also get Adobe PDF compatibility, and Dropbox support. … Read more