Cloud-based services have fast become The Next Big Thing, particularly for mobile devices with always-on data connections. OnLive is a pioneer in this category, providing cloud-based gaming to a rabid user base for some time now, but what’s in store for the company’s second act? How about an iPad app that brings a slick, touch-based Windows 7 experience complete with Microsoft Office and 2GB of cloud storage, all for free? OnLive Desktop makes it possible.

OnLive, Inc. introduced the company’s latest cloud initiative last week with the debut of OnLive Desktop, a free App Store offering that brings a touch-friendly Windows 7 experience to the iPad, complete with full-featured Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The icing on this cake is a free 2GB cloud storage account, and soon power users will be able to increase that to 50GB -- along with the ability to add additional PC applications -- for only $9.99 per month.

Sounds great, but there has to be a catch, right? Touch-based Windows 7 and Microsoft Office on your iPad with cloud storage, all for free? We’re happy to say that OnLive Desktop lives up to its promise for the most part, with a lightning-fast, responsive app that proves cloud-based services are no longer the future -- they’re here and now.

To use OnLive Desktop, you’ll need an OnLive account, which is also free. If you’re already using the OnLive gaming service, you’re ready to go -- simply download the 4.8MB app, log in with your email address and password and within moments, the Windows 7 desktop will appear on your iPad. New users should head to the OnLive Desktop website and sign up first, since there’s currently no option for doing so within the app itself.

We were among the first to download the app after it hit the App Store last Thursday night, although there was an initial hiccup. After entering our credentials, an error flashed on the screen and there was no sign of Windows 7 -- likely caused by the surge of early adopters giving the app a spin, because an hour or so later we logged in with ease and were off and running; fortunately, it hasn’t happened since.

The app itself is a model of simplicity: The only preferences are tucked away in the Settings app, where you can choose to let OnLive Desktop automatically control its bandwidth usage (the default setting) or adjust it manually with the slider. OnLive says the minimum network requirement is a 1Mbps internet connection, but suggests 1.5 to 2Mbps for best results, and the app works on both the iPad and iPad 2.

In addition to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, standard Windows 7 applications like Windows Media Player, Calculator, Notepad, WordPad, Paint, and Sticky Notes are also included. Microsoft Surface Collage is also part of OnLive Desktop, which allows you to use multitouch to create a photo collage with your fingers, much in the same way the company’s expensive Surface hardware works. Collages can be saved to your Pictures folder and even set as the desktop background to personalize your OnLive Desktop experience. We were able to easily upload a few of our own JPEG photos to the cloud, move them into the Pictures folder, and create a collage to customize our desktop.

Speaking of which, most any kind of file can be uploaded to your free 2GB cloud storage locker from any web browser, where they’ll show up in your Documents folder the next time the iPad app syncs; you can force this by tapping on the black circle with the white checkmark in the bottom right corner. We had no problems uploading several Word and Excel files from Office 2011 for Mac, which opened just fine in OnLive Desktop. A short iPhone 4S-generated video also played back quite well -- complete with sound -- from Windows Media Player. Files saved to your Documents folder will appear in your OnLive Files account, where you can click to download to your computer or choose to delete them from the cloud -- which you'll need to do for printing, since OnLive Desktop currently doesn't support any print method.

Considering OnLive Desktop is akin to using VNC for accessing a remote computer, the natural assumption might be that the experience is marred by slow screen refresh and a subpar touchscreen experience -- after all, the user is essentially accessing a remote copy of Windows 7 on an OnLive server. While the touch-based controls take a little getting used to for those used to clicking with a mouse or trackpad, OnLive Desktop is otherwise quite fast and seamless, as anyone who has used its cloud-based gaming platform can attest to. Most of the time, it was faster than using a cheap netbook or PC, which is a pretty remarkable feat.

Text entry is accomplished by a touch-based on-screen keyboard or via handwriting recognition. Neither of them are quite as functional as the existing iOS keyboard, but they’ll get the job done in a pinch for quick edits. (We don’t see anyone writing The Great American Novel this way, however.) Both entry methods can be resized to aid those of us with chubbier digits, but even at the maximum size, the handwriting recognition is pretty slow going. The on-screen keyboard also exhibited a fair amount of lag, especially compared with the rest of the app.

Since all of the action happens from the cloud, occasional hiccups may occur. Should the network choke, you’ll likely see a “Network Problem” window pop up, notifying you “OnLive is unable to continue due to poor network quality or a lost connection,” which then runs a five-minute network quality test. Thankfully, we only had a single incident of this -- after tapping Continue, we picked right back up where we left off.

Once you exit OnLive Desktop by pressing the Home button on your iPad, you’ll need to sign in again -- thankfully, the app gives you the option of saving your credentials so you won’t have to type them again. Since it takes less than 10 seconds to sign in, this isn’t much of a hassle, especially considering your Windows 7 desktop appears exactly the way you left it when you closed out of the app.

OnLive Desktop isn’t going to replace using Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion for Mac power users, but for occasional users who don’t want to invest in a copy of Windows 7, Microsoft Office, or the virtualization software to run them on their own system, it’s a pretty slick app and the price is certainly right. OnLive has big plans for the Desktop app, with output to monitors and TVs through the company’s OnLive MicroConsole and connected TVs, as well as clients for Android, iPhone, Mac, and PC. Stay tuned: we’ll have a full review of OnLive Desktop in the near future.

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