First launched back in January, OnLive Desktop is a free service that gives you access to a full-on Windows 7 desktop—well, remote access, anyway.

As I described in my initial hands-on with OnLive Desktop, the system works by sending a live video stream of a Windows desktop that’s running in far-flung server warehouse. When you tap, say, the Windows Start menu on your iPad, your command is streamed instantly (or almost instantly; there is a slight but noticeable lag) to one of OnLive’s remote PCs.

The free version of OnLive Desktop is fairly limited; you only get access to the core Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), along with Windows Media Player, some system utilities, and 2 GB of storage.

Earlier this week, however, OnLive unveiled OnLive Desktop Plus, a new version of the service that adds full web browsing via Internet Explorer—including support for Flash, a feature that’s sorely missing on the iPhone and iPad.

OnLive Desktop's web browser isn't just for Flash; indeed, it's often faster than the iPad's Safari browser at loading big web pages.

I gave OnLive Desktop Plus a quick test drive, and came away fairly impressed. Yes, there’s still a slight delay between the time you tap a button on the OnLive-powered Internet Explorer browser and when something actually happens; that said, even the most Flash-happy sites I tried loaded smoothly and quickly, while the Flash videos I played on the desktop version of YouTube looked impressively sharp. Even a 1080p-quality movie trailer on YouTube (which can’t be fully rendered on the iPad’s not-quite-HD display, by the way) played with only a few slight hiccups.

Don’t forget, though, that the OnLive version of Internet Explorer is a full-fledged web browser, and a speedy one at that. Despite the tiny lag when typing a URL into the address bar or clicking a link, you’ll see web pages—even big ones, like the New York Times home page—load in a flash (no pun intended), often faster than they would on the iPad’s mobile Safari browser.

Nice, but there’s a catch: OnLive Desktop Plus will set you back five bucks a month.

That’s a fairly hefty price to pay just to watch Flash videos—especially considering how many Flash-heavy sites now boast mobile-optimized versions that work just fine on the iPad. Then again, you’re also getting Windows 7 and Microsoft Office in the bargain.

There is a cheaper alternative to OnLive Desktop: Skyfire, a third-party web browser for iPhone and iPad that’s also capable of playing Flash videos. Skyfire costs just $5 with no monthly fee, a bargain compared to what you’ll pay for, say, a year’s worth of OnLive Desktop Plus.

That said, the experience of watching Flash videos on Skyfire is somewhat clunkier than it is through OnLive. Instead of streaming just like they would on a desktop browser, Flash videos on Skyfire must load in a separate window, and you’ll often find yourself waiting for a half-minute or so for videos to begin playing. Again, though, we’re talking just $5, with no monthly subscription.

So, would you pay $5 a month for Windows 7 and Flash video on your iPad?

The post Hands-on with OnLive Desktop Plus, the latest way to watch Flash videos on the iPad appeared first on here's the thing.

Available now in the App Store, OnLive Desktop requires little more than a free OnLive account. Just launch the app, sign in, and presto—it’s Windows 7, right there on your iPad. (Versions of OnLive Desktop for Android devices, the iPhone, PC and Mac desktops, and even Net-connected TVs are coming soon, OnLive says.)

What’s going on here? If you guessed that it’s something to do with the “cloud,” you’re right.

You can run the full version of Microsoft Word with OnLive Desktop for iPad, but you'll need steady fingers to tap those tiny buttons.

Think of OnLive Desktop as a touch-sensitive remote control that’s connected to a far-flung Windows-powered system in one of OnLive’s many server warehouses. That means when you tap on “your” desktop using the OnLive Desktop app, you’re actually sending commands to a high-powered computer that’s hundreds (or even thousands) of miles away.

Of course, using OnLive Desktop on your iPad presents a couple of key challenges.

For one thing, the OnLive Desktop app itself is speedy, all right, but not instantaneous—that is, there’s a split second between the time you, say, tap an icon on your desktop and the icon actually lights up. It’s only a slight delay, but it’s noticeable.

A second, somewhat bigger challenge is using Windows with your fingertips rather than a mouse and keyboard. Tapping a desktop icon is easy enough, and you can right-click by tapping and holding. But homing in on the tiny “undo” button in Microsoft Word requires a steady finger, while selecting a passage of text entails calling up the Windows on-screen keypad, tapping the shift key, and then carefully tracing the text you want to highlight. And trying to actually type something is, well, not much fun.

Then again, consider this. Using OnLive Desktop would mean never again having to worry about dealing with Windows updates or security patches ever again; instead, OnLive’s staff would take care of all those updates, seamlessly and painlessly in the background. OnLive could even conceivably upgrade your account to Windows 8 when the time comes, with no work required on your part.

The free version of OnLive Desktop gives you access to a basic Office suite and Windows Media Player, but you'll have to pay up for web browsing.

And despite the tiny lag between tapping a command and seeing a response, OnLive’s remote Windows systems are blazingly fast; I’ve rarely seen Microsoft Word launch as quickly as it did through OnLive Desktop.

One more thing: while trying to use Windows on an iPad may sound a little nuts, OnLive Desktop could get a lot more interesting once versions for PC and Mac desktops arrive.

So, what exactly do you get with your free Windows Desktop account? Basically, we’re talking the core Microsoft Office apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—plus Windows Media Player, a kit of basic utilities (like Paint and Calculator), and 2 GB of “secure” storage. There’s also a website where you can upload and download files in your Documents folder.

What about Internet Explorer, or downloading and installing new programs? For that, you’ll need to upgrade to OnLive’s upcoming, $10-a-month “Desktop Pro” plan, which ups the storage ante to 50 GB. And if you’re really ambitious, you’ll eventually be able to deploy OnLive Desktop to an entire company through OnLive’s Enterprise service.

The possibilities are enticing, no question; for now, though, OnLive Desktop for iPad is more of a curiosity than a practical alternative to a true Windows desktop.

But what a curiosity it is—and hey, the price is right.

The post Hands-on: OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7 to your iPad appeared first on here's the thing.