On Test: OnLive Wireless Controller with Tablet and Desktop Gaming

Its fair to say that gaming is as popular as its ever been and with games like Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Call Of Duty continually setting new standards 2012 is looking like another vintage year.

But it’s not just like of Sony and Microsoft enjoying this renascence period oh no there’s a new kid in town and you should be paying attention to… Leading the charge and challenging the big boys is OnLive – the first company to offer a true cloud gaming service. (If this is all new to you then click here to get our lowdown on OnLive).

So what’s new in the world of OnLive? Wireless Gamepads and bluetooth adapters that’s what! Now it means you really can play your game anywhere you want, front room, bedroom, office (and you don’t have to be tapping the screen of your tablet all day long if you have the new Wireless Controller). Simply download the app onto your tablet, laptop or desktop, log in and away you go!

OnLive’s tablet app launched with 25 games, each adapted for use with a touchscreen. The list includes stuff you wouldn’t expect, like LEGO Batman, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, L.A. Noire, and of course, Batman: Arkham City (3 mention already, can you tell this is my favourite game at the moment?!)

I’m not going to lie though thumbs on glass or keyboard and mouse don’t do it for me so thankfully there’s the OnLive Wireless Controller, which looks like a hybrid Xbox 360-PlayStation 3 controller and syncs with the tablet’s OnLive app wirelessly or with the supplied bluetooth adapter and is awesome!

If you want to give it a try, all you need is [the controller], the free OnLive app and an OnLive account… And what do we think? Well if it means we can carry on playing Batman: Arkham City at lunchtime (which it does) then its a double thumbs up!

OnLive Desktop Brings No-compromise Windows Apps to iPad – US first, UK later…

Yep you read right. Full Windows® apps, including Microsoft® Office, delivered instantly from the Cloud.

So what’s the scoop in a nutshell?

OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of instant-action cloud computing, announced that it is bringing the first no-compromise Windows desktop to iPad® through its free OnLive™ Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes® App Store.

And the detail?

OnLive Desktop provides instant access to full-featured, media-rich Windows 7 applications, including Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® software, remotely hosted on powerful PC servers in the cloud. Based upon OnLive’s instant-action cloud gaming technology, OnLive Desktop delivers a seamless Windows desktop experience, with instant-response multi-touch gestures, together with a full on-screen Windows keyboard and handwriting recognition, enabling complete and convenient viewing and editing of even the most complex documents. Rich media, such as video, animation, slide transitions and even PC games, never before practical via remote desktop delivery, run fluidly and dynamically with instant-action interactivity. OnLive Desktop makes remote feel local.

“OnLive Desktop is the first app to deliver a no-compromise, media-rich Windows desktop experience to iPad, opening up powerful new possibilities for consumers and businesses,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC. Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games—never before usable on a remote desktop—play seamlessly.”

The FREE* OnLive Desktop app comes with 2 GB of secure cloud storage and as-available access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop pre-populated with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus several utilities and touch games. Using instant-response touch gestures such as pinch and zoom, flick to scroll, drag, drop and Aero snap, users can quickly and easily navigate files, open, edit and save the ones they need, and store them securely in the cloud for access from any device through a simple Web interface. PC apps have full desktop functionality: Word documents can be created and edited with full redline and commenting capability, using a full Windows touch-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition or Bluetooth keyboard. PowerPoint presentations can be created with rich graphics, videos and animated slide transitions, and even presented directly from the iPad, either onscreen or via an external monitor. Data can be updated and analyzed instantly in Excel, translated into graphs and transferred into presentation documents. With OnLive Desktop, work is now possible anywhere you have an iPad and Internet connectivity, with the immediacy, functionality and responsiveness of a local PC.

The Free OnLive Desktop app for iPad is just the tip of the iceberg. Android®, smartphones, PC, Mac® and monitor/TV support (via the OnLive MicroConsole™ thin client with Bluetooth keyboard/mouse) are coming soon, with your same OnLive Desktop available by login from any device. Your OnLive Desktop can be accessed anywhere, on any device, at any resolution.

- OnLive Desktop Pro is coming soon, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority access, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing, additional PC apps, and other OnLive-unique features for just $9.99/month.

- OnLive Enterprise will be available for businesses and organizations of all sizes, seeking centralized, secure computing resources, as well as Independent Software Vendors seeking to deliver custom applications. With OnLive Enterprise, IT departments have full control of user entitlements/access privileges to both retail and ISV applications, while enabling users to access the same applications through any device. For example, a hospital can entitle different levels of records access to doctors, receptionists and patients, with full privacy, whether data is viewed on a smartphone, computer, on an easily-sterilized tablet in an examining room, or even on a hospital room TV. No user data is left behind on any device, so records remain secure if a device is lost or stolen. (IT professionals and ISVs, please contact OnLive at enterprise@onlive.com for OnLive Enterprise details and pricing.)

- OnLive Desktop Pro and Enterprise support exclusive OnLive collaborative services. Building on the same proven technology as the massive spectating Arena of the OnLive Game Service, OnLive securely enables as many as thousands of simultaneous users to view one or many OnLive Desktops from any device, with live spectating and group chat, and multi-user control. Whether using OnLive collaborative services as a shared document reader or virtual whiteboard in a small workgroups, for chatting over home videos among far-flung family members, or for lecturing with Q&A to an audience of thousands of students around the world, OnLive provides instant, media-rich collaboration.

The OnLive Desktop iPad app will be available Thursday to U.S. customers for free in the iTunes App Store, and will be released soon in the UK. Customers are encouraged to sign up early for their free OnLive account, available today at desktop.onlive.com. For more information, visit desktop.onlive.com.

*Terms and conditions apply. See desktop.onlive.com for details.

smartphones

Google releases Flash to HTML5 converter

Google has released a Flash to HTML5 converter under the name Swiffy. You can find it Here.

With googles mobile OS Android supporting flash, it will be interesting to see how this will fit around their strategy. Whilst the OS supports Flash, it is currently not enabled on many android handsets, and performs below par when it is enabled.

Swiffy will no doubt be a welcome addition to developers, especially for those concentrating on iOS devices which do not support Flash files.

It is reported that whilst it converts most flash animations, video files are not supported.

More to come once this blogger gets a chance to get converting.