OnLives desktop plus has been out a few days and I finally got to try it. If you do not already know, OnLive Desktop Plus give you Window 7  Touch Desktop on your iPad. It’s like remote desktop a.k.a. VNC except was smoother. So smooth you can watch video, flash video. Yes that’s right, you can finally have flash on your iPad because the Plus version comes with Internet Explorer (yes, I know, I know). But is it worth it?

Well of course it depends on how you use your ipad. If you need to access websites that contain Flash, then your set. And its more then just a full featured web browser, keep in mind this is a virtual desktop so browsers websites, or downloading files is super fast. This really pays off if you are downloading or uploading files to cloud services like dropbox. You can imagine downloading and opening a large PowerPoint file as if you were sitting at a desktop with a great connection. And both the paid and the free service comes with a basic version of Microsoft office, so you can edit that file as well using a full set of tools.

Which brings us back to the question. Is it worth it? If you already have a remote desktop solution in place, and do not need a smooth experience, then it may not be. However, if you do access websites that require flash or where you need to edit office files and need the full compliment of office tools, then yea I would say so. However, its not perfect. As you can see from a screenshot, when I was double checking a few things for this post, the system seemed to have lost Internet connection. I tried later and the whole system was down.  Not a good start.

A nice side note; I have a keypad for my iPad, in fact, I’m typing this on my iPad now. The keypad worked in Word on OnLive when I tested it. However, trying to use Windows with touch only is a bit challenging. Event the shortcut keys worked! Nice. I’m going to pay the $5 and try it for a month and see how often I use it. I’ll report back after 30 days.

Now remember, you can try the service free right now. You will have access to the desktop and basic MS word tools, however, you will not have access to the web browser.  I’ll tell you want I’m really looking forward too though, using OnLive with Windows 8!