Though there are an abundance of Office-compatible apps out there for the iPad, many users have been holding out for an official Microsoft Office app for iOS. While such an app is rumored to be in development, there's no guarantee as to when it'll be released. To address this demand, developers such as OnLive and CloudOn have taken advantage of cutting-edge cloud technologies to bring Microsoft Office access to the iPad. CloudOn's service was an instant success, attracting so many subscribers upon launch that it was temporarily shut down. The app is now back up and requires a Dropbox Account. Similarly, there's OnLive's Desktop app which enables users to access a Windows 7 desktop that's packed with Microsoft Office favorites like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and more. After struggling to find a solid Office competitor that requires very little modification of documents to ensure their compatibility when imported into Microsoft Office apps, I was thrilled to give OnLive Desktop a shot.
OnLive is a cloud-based gaming company from Silicon Valley which released its Desktop in mid-January. Unlike CloudOn, OnLive is known in the gaming community for providing access to high-end games over the cloud, but its new app aims to reach a wider audience by providing access to some of the world's most widely used computing applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The OnLive Desktop app can be downloaded for free from the App Store. You'll need to create an account at sign-up, which grants you with up to 2GB of secure data storage over the cloud. If you require more than 2GB of space, you may want to consider the Pro edition (coming soon) which boasts priority access, 50GB of secure data storage, cloud-accelerated web browsing, and the ability to add your own PC applications. They're also offering an option for IT and Enterprise use, though those products haven't been fully detailed.
The one thing that initially concerned me was the mention of priority access for Pro users. At the bottom of the product's services page, it mentions that Standard users will get access upon availability. I'm extremely curious to see how this affects accessibility for Standard users once the Pro service launches. However, since there are no issues as of today, I am going to review the app as I've experienced it. I'll provide an update to this if anything changes. (I'm cautiously optimistic about this….)
What's to love about this app? I enjoyed how quickly I was able to create an account, upload documents, and access Office apps from my iPad. While the iPad lacks the performance specs of most modern day desktops, I was impressed with how well this app rendered over a decent internet connection. According to the developer, a 1.5 to 2Mbps internet connection speed is sufficient for a solid experience and a connection of even lesser speeds (1Mbps) should suffice. At the time of this review, I was fortunate enough to access it from a 15Mbps Internet connection, so needless to say, I experienced stellar performance. I transferred some of my own presentations and found them in the My Documents folder on the Windows 7 instance that was launched upon sign-in. OnLive does a great job of keeping documents synchronized. I was impressed with its integration of Microsoft's keyboard (which can be launched on screen), Windows Touch, and Windows Handwriting Recognition.
In addition to providing a pleasant Windows 7 interface, OnLive packs its desktops with Office 2010 apps which keeps users up to date and provides endless possibilities for users demanding Office access combined with mobility. Personally, I've benefited from the ability to upload documents that I've previously created using Office 2008 for Mac and Office 2007 for Windows and the ability to check their compatibility with Office 2010. If changes need to be made, they can easily be done within the app and synchronized for sharing and export. I prefer to use this app with my Apple Bluetooth keyboard, although I also have found its handwriting recognition feature useful and fairly accurate. The Windows 7 Desktop also comes with several additional Windows apps such as Paint, Sticky Notes, Notepad, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Blackboard, Microsoft Garden Pond, Microsoft Rebound, and Microsoft Surface College (referred to as the Windows 7 Touch Pack). These features are all simple to use if you're familiar with Windows 7 and the Office Suite, but in case you find yourself stuck, OnLive has provided a handy "Getting Started" presentation that can be launched from your desktop.
To ensure your enjoyment, I'd like to point out a few of my small gripes: You can't copy and paste content from other apps or Safari. I hope this can be addressed in a future version, but for now, it's just the way it is and it can be quite annoying. There's also no support for web-browsing but this is less of a concern since you can also launch Safari and switch between the apps. If you've left the app for an extended period of time, it'll time out and log you out. This is expected, but it's annoying that it has to relaunched in order to let you log back in. Again, not a major issue but worth mentioning.
OnLive Desktop will finally enable you to leave your laptop at home and travel light with your iPad without having to compromise accessibility and compatibility. I highly recommend that you give this app a shot. All in all, it's pretty solid and should be of great value to many Office users.
