In January, Palo Alto, Calif., cloud-computing company OnLive, best known for a streaming video game service, unveiled a free service to make the iPad more productive. OnLive Desktop brings to the iPad online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
These aren't stripped-down iterations, either, but fully functioning versions that live in a virtual Windows 7 desktop environment hosted on OnLive's powerful remote servers. You can create, edit and review Word documents; add graphics, videos and animations to PowerPoint presentations; and massage data in Excel as if you were working on a Windows computer. You get 2 gigabytes to store your work in the cloud and can access the files from a PC or Mac. This free OnLive offering also comes with Windows Media Player and other Microsoft accessories such as Paint, Notepad and Calculator. The Windows Touch Pack is here, too, with programs such as Microsoft Surface Collage.
