Apple’s SIM connector patent explained and why it matters for Nano SIM

As Apple fights rivals Nokia, Motorola and Research In Motion for the upcoming Nano SIM card standard, a new patent filing indicates the company is thinking beyond smartphones. The iPhone maker already holds an important Nano SIM patent and now we’ve learned they’re researching a universal SIM card connector solution.

Yes, it would require a “drawer” and devices would need to be engineered with this in mind, but the benefits offset engineering hassles. Apple’s SIM card connector solution could let you transfer a SIM card from one device to another. Plus, it is reliable and resistant to damage by an improper insertion of a SIM card.

It even works with Integrated Circuit Card found in credit cards, broadening potential uses to e-commerce applications. And if this patent filing is an indication, Apple’s universal SIM connector could be coming to a MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple television near you…

Patently Apple observes:

The ability to transfer a SIM from one device to another is perhaps one of the advantages to Apple’s design and why the ETSI is strongly considering it as a standard. In the era of mobility and device interconnectivity, Apple’s solution may be the winner.

The benefits of Apple’s solution include easy removal of a SIM card, resistance to damage by an improper insertion of a SIM card and reliable mechanical performance.

A patent application filed with the United States Patents & Trademark Office (USPTO) describes a “plunger system” where a user can push a plunger rod and eject a SIM card. Reinserting the card is a simple matter of pushing the card into the connector.

Resistance to damage could be achieved with internal contacts arranged in such a way that they have a low profile, which would protect the contacts from damage due to an improper insertion of a SIM card.

Apple’s filing envisions uses of the SIM connector beyond smartphones. The document mentions tablet computers, laptops, media players and even displays (think iTV) as benefiting from this invention.

The most interesting aspect is the SIM card itself.

According to Apple, the SIM connector could work with Micro SIM as well as Mini SIM, provided the latter is inserted in a mini SIM card tray. More importantly, the SIM connector would work with the upcoming Nano SIM and even Integrated Circuit Card (ICC) used, for example, in Visa credit cards.

The publication explains:

Apple’s mystery inclusion of “other type of card” in this application could be demystified by their latest granted patent which discusses the use of an Integrated Circuit Card (ICC) in connection with a SIM Tray. An ICC is what is used in Visa credit cards, for example. This translates to ICC’s being integrated into an iPhone or other mobile device via a mini-tray system for the purposes of ecommerce. This was covered in our report titled “Apple Wins Patent Relating to Nano SIM and iWallet Chip.” This is a huge advantage in Apple’s SIM strategy and one that could be helpful to the entire industry. This is likely why Apple’s SIM card standard is being considered by the ETSI.

Summing up, no wonder Apple crossed swords with Nokia over the Nano SIM standard. Obviously, there’s more to the Apple-backed Nano SIM variant than meets the eye.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute will vote on Nano SIM in about 30 days.

Apple on its part promised to offer own Nano SIM solution to industry players on a royalty-free basis. The opposing camp did not make such a commitment.

It is now becoming obvious why exactly RIM has resorted to name calling and why Nokia is threatening not to license essential SIM-related patents should Apple prevail.

See, there’s nothing stopping Nokia from extracting license fees from competitors in case their Nano SIM proposal wins. Yes, it all comes down to patents and money – at least for Nokia, RIM and Motorola. Or any ways this is the last option

Not bad for a tiny SIM card.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Apple’s SIM connector patent down in the comments.

Happy Birthday iPad

Two years ago today, the iPad went on sale in the United States for the first time. The launch came just two months after Steve Jobs unveiled the tablet on January 27, 2010, in front of a large crowd at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco.

The CEO told the audience that Apple felt that it had finally come up with a device that would be better at tasks like browsing the web, sending emails, and sharing photos than either a smartphone or a laptop. “And we call it, the iPad.”

In the face of “it’s just a giant iPod touch” criticism, Apple sold 300,000 iPads on launch day. And then went on to sell more than 3 million of them over the next three months. The slate single-handedly reinvented the tablet space.

Seeing the iPad’s popularity, companies like Samsung and RIM scrambled to put together and release their own tablets. But here we are, two years later, and there still isn’t a viable competitor. The iPad holds over 60% of the market.

And Apple’s not showing any signs of slowing down either. Its latest tablet is also its most successful, selling over three million units during its first three days. The company is expected to sell more than 55 million iPads this year. Wow.

Happy birthday, iPad.

Owners are loving their iPad’s Retina display, say Heatgate is a non-issue

In spite of way overblown ‘problems’ with the new iPad overheating, charging slower and having minor performance issues with native Retina gaming, owners are simply loving their new gadget, with a whopping 98 percent being satisfied or very satisfied with their purchase in a new ChangeWave poll.

The study, released this morning, polled two hundred owners of the new iPad, with three-quarter singling out the high-resolution 2,048-by-1,536 pixel Retina display as its defining feature…

The March 2012 study by ChangeWave Research, a service of 451 Research, reveals that the third-generation iPad commands an even higher satisfaction ratio score of its predecessor, the iPad 2. More than four out of five new iPad owners, or 82 percent, say they are very satisfied with their device and 16 percent are somewhat satisfied.

In a similar ChangeWave survey last year, three out of four owners of the iPad 2, or 74 percent, said they were very satisfied with their second-generation tablet.

As for the overheating woes, it’s somewhat of a problem for four percent and not much of a problem for seven percent, with 89 percent of respondents saying it’s not a problem or something they had never experienced.

Not a single person said the new iPad running warmer was a major concern.

ChangeWave concludes:

Simply put, the heat issue does not appear to be a perceived problem for the overwhelming majority of new iPad owners.

The sentiment echoes a recent Consumer Reports conclusion that the new iPad was not especially uncomfortable to hold for brief periods. The consumer watchdog does not consider a ten-degree operating temperature increase a safety concern.

The Retina display is a major selling point for three out of four respondents, or 75 percent. Nearly one out of four, or 22 percent, like the device’s long battery life. Other likes include 4G LTE support (21 percent), its speedy performance (one out of five, or 20 percent) and the much-improved five-megapxel iSight camera on the back (18 percent).

As for other findings, some eight percent dislike a bit thicker appearance and added weight, the latter also being the topic of our own review of iPad 3. The amount of built-in flash storage is a concern for another eight percent.

Additional dislikes include lack of integration with other devices (seven percent), excessive heat (seven percent) and battery life (six percent).

No other issue was cited by more than five percent of new owners, which is remarkable in and of itself.

There, the people have spoken.

Hopefully, we can now put both Batterygate and Heatgate non-issues to rest?

iPad 3 tops Consumer Reports tablet ratings, Retina display “a new benchmark in excellence”

Following a favorable ChangeWave Research study which put to rest so-called Heatgate, the influential United States consumer advocacy group Consumer Reports published this morning their definite findings concerning Apple’s third-generation iPad tablet.

Just as they did with iPad 2, Consumer Reports says the new iPad tops their tablet ratings, stressing its high-resolution screen “establishes a new benchmark in excellence”…

Here’s what they’re liking about the new iPad, per blog post:

The high-resolution screen of the new iPad establishes a new benchmark in excellence, providing the best rendering of detail and color accuracy we’ve ever seen on a tablet display. As a result, the iPad tops our new tablet Ratings, posted today. Performance on the new iPad ($500 to $830) was superb in virtually every other way as well. The 5-megapixel camera took very good photos. Verizon’s 4G network yielded very fast, dependable connectivity to a 4G-compatible version of the iPad in our informal tests. And despite the energy-intensive display and graphics, the iPad still has longer battery life than all other tablets.

They’ve also confirmed previous findings that the device has trouble recharging while simultaneously running a graphics-intensive game, “showing that the problem was limited to times when the device was playing a demanding game with the screen fully bright”.

Consumer Reports ran “a battery of tests” recently to conclude that the new iPad was not especially uncomfortable to hold for brief periods, saying they did not consider a ten-degree operating temperature increase a safety concern.

As if you had any doubt, the consumer watchdog had to slam the new iPad over something so they stated the obvious.

The new iPad’s display does, in at least some applications, serve to magnify imperfections in content designed for lower screen resolution. For example, some text in e-magazines looks worse on the new device than on the iPad 2, as others, including PC World, have noted. Publishers who offer iPad editions, including Consumer Reports, are still weighing how to balance the advantages of increased visual resolution with drawbacks, including lengthening the already considerable time required to download an e-magazine to the device.

Of course low-resolution apps don’t look sharp on such a high-resolution display!

Other than that, I think Consumer Reports did a fine job mea culping themselves for their preliminary (and sensationalist) report on the device.

Did you expect such a verdict by Consumer Reports?

Facebook iPad app updated for Retina display

It took them a while but Facebook has finally updated their iPad application with Retina display graphics. The update also brings a few new features as well as minor bug fixes.

Considering how big Facebook is, I find it slightly disappointed they take so long to release such a simple update. Anyway, we have listed the full change log below for those of you interested…

You can go offline in chat

The right profile picture appears for everyone

Your list of friends always includes all your friends

In sets of photos, your name is displayed correctly

Photos of people who like Facebook Pages load correctly

Your friend-request notification only lights up if you have a request

You can change your language to Czech, Danish, Greek, Indonesian, Malaysian, Norwegian (Bokmal), Portuguese (Portugal) or Thai

If you’ve got a new Retina iPad, you’ll see a crisp, high resolution interface

You can get the new update by loading your App Store app directly from your iPad.

Foxconn to Increase Shipments of New iPad to 12-15 Million Units for 2Q12

Foxconn is increasing shipments of the new iPad to 12-15 million units in 2Q12, according to a DigiTimes report.

Shipments from the new iPad supply chain are expected to expand significantly in the second quarter of 2012, with iPad assembler Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to see its shipments of new iPads grow to 12-15 million units in the second quarter compared to six million units shipped in the first quarter, according to an industry estimate.

The site also reported that TPK and Wintek each shipped about 6-7 million touch modules for iPads in the first quarter, and Chimei Innolux (CMI) shipped another one million units. Judging by the number of modules already shipped, sources are concerned that suppliers may have to lower shipment targets for the next quarter.

So When can we expect in india? BY NEXT MONTH I GUESS

iPad helps Apple become Japan’s top consumer brand, for the first time

As Apple’s influence across industries continues to grow, so does its reputation among consumers the world over. The latest example is Japan, the country infamous for its fickle consumer and, at times, odd expectations with everyday gadgets (at least by Western standards).

A new study puts Apple as the top consumer brand in Japan – and for the first time, too. The achievement echoes a sentiment shared in a survey earlier this week, saying that half of all households in the United States now own at least one Apple product.

According to Nikkei, a large media corporation in Japan, an annual brand evaluation survey of consumers by Nikkei BP Consulting Inc. conducted online over November and December of last year had the Cupertino, California-headquartered gadget designer score 90.5 points out of 100 for total brand power.

Apple catapulted from 11th last year. Its iPad tablet computer and two other key products also made the list for the top-40 brands. In a survey of businesspeople, the U.S. technology giant took second behind Toyota Motor Corp.

Overall brand power scores were calculated based on the responses of some 52,000 people aged 18 and older and targeted a thousand consumer brands.

Sample size is certainly large enough – after all, 52,000 people can’t be wrong.

In years past, we’ve seen Apple re-inventing itself as a consumer electronics powerhouse with a lineup of iOS devices.

The process began at the 2007 iPhone introduction, when Steve Jobs wrapped up the MacWorld keynote by announcing that Apple was dropping “Computer” from its name, becoming only “Apple, Inc.”.

Jobs remarked the name change reflects Apple’s broadened product lineup that now includes computers, but also cell phones, set-top boxes, music players and wireless appliances, to name a few.

And at the 2010 iPad introduction, Jobs took it even further by calling Apple the largest mobile devices company in the world, by revenue.

He said:

iPods are mobile devices. iPhones are mobile devices, too. And most of the Macs that we ship are notebooks, they’re also mobile devices. Apple is a mobile devices company – that’s what we do.

And with a full-blown TV set reportedly on the horizon for a 2013 release and other consumer electronics products likely on their roadmap (can you say digital cameras), I think Apple is well on its way to becoming the Sony of the 21st century.

Or has the company already achieved this status?

Chime in with your two cents down in the comments.

iPad App Store now matching growth pace of its iPhone, Android counterparts

The iPad section of Apple’s mobile application store is growing steadily and now matches the respective growth rates of Google Play marketplace (formerly Android Market) and the iPhone/ iPod touch section of the App Store. That’s the gist of a Distimo survey released Tuesday, which confirms the iPad App Store as by far the largest tablet app marketplace in the United States.

Check out the above chart pitting the growth rate of universal iOS apps (pink) versus native iPad software (gray). But it ain’t just about app count: Android slates are still suffering from the lack of high-quality apps optimized for various tablet form factors. Contrast this to iOS developers who adopted concern for an optimal user experience right from the iPad’s very beginnings.

Now, raise hands who’s fond of scaled-up iPhone apps on their iPad? Didn’t think so…

The Next Web got an exclusive first look at the Distimo report that focuses on the United States market. Drawing parallels between the first 24 months of the iPad App Store on one hand and the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch software and Google’s mobile store on the other, it becomes clear that:

Two years post-iPad launch, there are now over 180,000 applications available in the App Store for iPad in the US, which means it’s growing at roughly the same pace as the App Store for iPhone and Google Play, which offered 200,000 and 175,000 applications after two years in business, respectively.

Data also reveals that the proportion of universal binaries which run on both the smaller iPhone/iPod touch devices and the iPad’s bigger canvas has increased to over 61 percent in February 2012.

Also playing to Apple’s favor: More than the 55 million iPad shipments to date and the fact that its tablet accounts for an IHS iSuppli Research-estimated 57 percent of the entire tablet market, worldwide.

Per Apple’s latest public update earlier this month, the company’s mobile store features more than 200,000 native iPad apps less than two years since the iPad’s inception. Native iPad apps are offered in a wide range of categories, including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that native iPad apps easily outstrip those found on the Google Play store. As pointed out by Sacha Segan over at PC Magazine, Android developers frequently take the easy route and just blow up their existing phone apps to various tablet screen sizes by means of the Android operating system’s built-in resolution-independence features.

Though both Apple and Google provide great tools that let developers optimize for different form factors, thus far only iOS developers have taken notice. One could argue this is (mostly) due to pixel-doubled iPhone apps looking really fugly on the iPad’s 1024-by-768 pixel resolution display anyway.

Tim Cook made this point by comparing several Android and iOS apps side-to-side during the company’s unveiling of the new iPad last month. The image below depicts the CEO illustrating how the official Twitter for Android client wastes screen real estate, leading to a sub-par experience.

Apple’s platform is not nearly as fragmented as Google’s, but it should be noted that the third-generation iPad has introduced a new resolution of 2,048-by-1,536 pixels, in addition to the 1024-by-768 pixel resolution of prior iPad models, the 640-by-960 Retina display pixel resolution of the iPhone 4/4S and the latest iPod touch and the legacy 320-by-480 pixel resolution of older iOS devices.

Last month, Apple warned iOS developers to provide Retina app screenshots for iPhone and iPod touch software, perhaps signaling intentions to soon abandon the legacy 320-by-480 pixel resolution altogether.

It’s interesting that paid magazine and newspaper apps have been on the rise since the Newsstand feature was introduced alongside the iOS 5 launch last October. Distimo says that the top 100 grossing Newsstand apps are now raking in more than $70,000 in daily revenue here in the United States.

Free apps are most downloaded in – surprise – China and United States remains the leading market for paid apps. Just last summer, China filed as App Store’s second-largest market. As of recently, more iOS devices are now activated in the 1.33 billion people Chinese market than in any other individual country, including the United States.

When it comes to in-app purchases, Distimo found out that more iOS third-party software sports the ability to purchase additional content from within the app compared to Android. Specifically, about ten percent of all native iPad apps support in-app purchases versus six percent for iPhone and iPod touch apps and just two percent for Android apps.

This, too, is understandable given that Android apps are mostly ad-supported and knowing Android users are less inclined to pay for their software.

More pretty charts are available on Pinterest.

For the record, I do not own an Android tablet. However, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to play with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab for weeks. I think it’s a compelling product marred with sub-par apps. Coming from the word of gorgeous native iPad software, I just couldn’t stand looking at those blown-up Android phone apps.

Have you seen Android’s resolution-independence in action? What did you think of it?

Apple dispatches VP of iPad marketing to set the record straight on Batterygate

In what could be described as a timely (and prudent) move to prevent the perceived battery issues with the new iPad from getting overblown, California-based Apple has dispatched its vice president of iPad marketing Michael Tchao, who went on the record to indicate that overcharging your iOS device won’t harm its battery.

According to a statement provided to the AllThingsD blog, run by the Wall Street Journal network, this is by design and there’s nothing wrong with the iOS battery gauge. It says 100 percent just before your device reaches a completely charged state, continuing charging to 100 percent. Then, it discharges a bit and charges back up to 100 percent…

Apple CEO Tim Cook is running things differently then his predecessor, the late co-founder Steve Jobs. That said, it’s nonetheless indicative that Apple saw fit to go official on the matter through the mouth of its high-ranked executive.

Tchao told Ina Fried, the author of the AllThingsD post:

Apple does in fact display the iPad (and iPhone and iPod Touch) as 100 percent charged just before a device reaches a completely charged state. At that point, it will continue charging to 100 percent, then discharge a bit and charge back up to 100 percent, repeating that process until the device is unplugged. Doing so allows devices to maintain an optimum charge, Apple VP Michael Tchao told AllThingsD today. “That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like,” Tchao said. “It’s a great feature that’s always been in iOS.”

Prior to joining Apple in October of 2009, Michael Tchao served as general manager for Nike Techlab/Nike+. Of course, Apple now integrates Nike+ support in iPods. Another conspicuous link: Apple CEO Tim Cook sits on the Nike board. Yesterday, Cook got photographed with fans inside Apple’s retail store in China, wearing a Nike LiveStrong jacket.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tchao had also worked in various capacities at Apple between March 1986 – August 1994. Though not (yet) featured on Apple’s Leadership page, Tchao has gained prominence inside the company over the past twelve months, as indicated by his appearance in the iPad product video, seen below.

By the way, he’s got the perfect radio voice!

Tchao also highlighted some of the best iPad apps to the T3 magazine.

This brouhaha surrounding the new iPad battery got press time last week as Dr. Raymond Soneira discovered that Apple’s new tablet keeps charging for as much as an hour after the battery gauge hits the 100 percent mark.

People got concerned over subsequent news reports asserting that this might prove to be a flaw in iOS software that might affect all iOS devices, not just the third-generation iPad. Picking up blog reports, CNBC caused quite a stir with claims that Apple told them charging the device past the 100 percent mark “could harm the longevity of the battery”.

So far, people have observed that running graphics-intensive games, cranking up the screen brightness to 100 percent and straining the device’s battery in other ways adds up to longer charging times.

There you have it.

Hopefully, we can now put this behind us and keep charging our devices overnight, as before, without fear of damaging the battery.

Agreed?

What Batterygate? The new iPad lasts 25+ hours when hotspotting

When used as a personal hotspot only over Verizon’s 4G cellular connection, the new iPad gets more than 25 hours of run time, AnandTech found out in their battery life testing published this morning. This is better than your average MiFi device by at least a factor of five. Matter of fact, it gets exactly an hour less in hotspotting tests compared to WiFi benchmarks, which falls in line with Apple’s official specs.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime beats Apple’s third-generation tablet when hotspotting in Normal, Balanced and Power Saving profiles. With that in mind, the ability to use your iPad as a personal Verizon hotspot for more than 25 hours is certainly welcome news in a string of negative reports alleging issues with the tablet’s much-improved 42.5Wh battery.

Author Anand Lal Shimpi writes:

If you have an iPad on Verizon’s LTE network and use it as a personal hotspot (not currently possible on the AT&T version), it will last you roughly 25.3 hours on a single charge. Obviously that’s with the display turned off, but with a 42.5Wh battery driving Qualcomm’s MDM9600 you get tons of life out of the new iPad as a personal hotspot.

If you’re one of the fans concerned about the iPad’s battery woes and appreciate AnandTech’s exhaustive technical reviews, you should also check out their analysis of the Retina Display on the new iPad.

As for Heatgate and the emerging Batterygate, let it be known that not everyone agrees with screaming headlines depicting the device running burning hot in one’s hands.

Image courtesy of iFixit

Sure, it gets warmer when you crank up the brightness level to 100 percent, but people are finding in their own tests that it runs cooler than some Android tablets (as always, not everyone agrees).

More on this in the below chart, courtesy of PCWorld.

If you’re really eager to get to the bottom of this overcharging thing, I suggest a nice article by MacWorld UK that lays out everything you need to know about charging your iOS devices. Apple also has nice resources on the subject on their website.

It is my hope that we all can soon put this so-called scandal behind us and move on. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I definitely get this feeling that ever since the so-called Antennagate scandal erupted – and it was an issue, no question about it – bloodthirsty media is adamant to make teething problems with new Apple products look bigger than they really are.

Jonathan Mann put it best in the iPhone Antenna Song:

The media loves a failure

In a string of success

The facts won’t ever matter

If they can make bigger messes.

I think that pretty much nails it, wouldn’t you agree?

Enable Internet Sharing in Mac OS X to Turn Your Mac Into a Wireless Router

Did you know you can turn your Mac into a wireless access point by using Internet Sharing? Internet Sharing works for both Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, and with internet sharing enabled, your internet connected Mac will broadcast a wifi signal that can be used by another Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, or whatever else you need to get online from. Here are situations where Internet Sharing is particularly useful: You don’t own a wireless router – no problem, let the Mac become one There is only a wired internet connection (ethernet) available, and you need to get a wireless-only device online, like an iPad or MacBook Air You’re at a location that charges internet access per device, rather than a flat rate for all devices, this is fairly common at hotels and airports Skirt the connected device limitations of Personal Hotspot (iOS) and Internet Tethering from mobile phones Hotels in particular have a bad habit of charging customers a per device fee rather than a single per room cost for internet access, using Internet Sharing gets around that greatly inflated expense. The setup we are going to use in this example is as follows: Wired internet connection -> Mac -> Other Devices, here’s a simple diagram to demonstrate this: It’s easy to set up, let’s get started. How to Share Internet from a Mac to Other Computers & Devices We’ll walk you through the process of setting up a secured wireless access point, broadcast from an internet connected Mac to be shared with other Macs, PC’s, or iOS devices.

Connect the ethernet cable to the Mac

Launch “System Preferences” from the  Apple menu and click on “Sharing”

Click on “Internet Sharing” from the left menu Select the pull-down menu next to “Share your connection from:” and choose “Ethernet”

Alongside “To computers using:” check the box next to “Wi-Fi” or “AirPort” (name depends on OS X 10.7 vs 10.6)

Next click on “Wi-Fi Options” and name the network, and then click to enable security/encryption, and then type in a WEP key as the wireless password

Click “OK” and confirm that you want to start internet sharing

You’re done.

Your Mac is now broadcasting a wireless signal that can be picked up by any other wi-fi enabled devices. Connecting to the Mac’s shared internet connection is now the same as connecting to any other wireless network, find the wifi access point name you set, enter the password, and you’re online. The network is relatively secure thanks to the WEP password you set, if you forgot that password you just have to disable security and re-enable it to set a new one. If you’re a perfectionist, you could then run the Wi-Fi Diagnostics tool and get the optimal signal for the network, but in a brief hotel or airport situation, the the devices will be close enough together that this won’t matter much.

Angry Birds Space Launched

After announcing Angry Birds Space from the International Space Station, Rovio has finally released the pig bashing game. Additionally, the Finns have simultaneously launched merchandise and books based on the game.



As its name suggests, the game is set in deep space. Thanks to the zero gravity conditions, the gameplay has been drastically changed in this iteration. Needless to say that targeting pigs will be a tricky affair. The company has added new birds with special powers to entice fans of the franchise. Apart from its 60 levels, the game will have many hidden stages. Additionally, Rovio has promised a continuous flow of downloadable content.



Angry Birds Space is not only available for mobile phones, but also the computers. Here's the list of download links for each platform:


• 
Windows ($6);
• Mac ($5);
• Android (Ad supported);
• iOS ($1).


Run Windows & Microsoft Office on the iPad for Free with OnLive Desktop

Want to run Windows 7 right on an iPad? OnLive Desktop does exactly that, letting you access a cloud-based Windows 7 PC directly from iOS. Complete with the full Microsoft Office 2010 suite, you can use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint with full touch controls, and believe it or not it’s actually really fast and fluid. Amazingly, this is free for the first 2GB of virtual storage space on the cloud PC, though additional storage and paid plans are available. The paid plans start at $4.99 and include up to 50GB of storage, provide access to more Windows applications, add DropBox support, and also bring full Internet Explorer access with Flash (useful for web developers who don’t want to run IE in virtual machines). Using OnLive Desktop is easy, here’s all you need to do: Download the free OnLive app from the App Store (iPad only) Sign up for a free OnLive account The account signup process requires an email but is otherwise quick and painless. Enter that ID into the app, and you’ll immediately find yourself on the desktop of a Windows 7 machine, right on the iPad. Try this service out and get it while you can, because there is some question as to how long OnLive Desktop will be around. Microsoft is actively complaining that the service violates their Windows 7 licensing agreements, though OnLive is adamant that it’s supported and is willing to fight for it. Hopefully the two can come to an agreement and keep the OnLive service alive, because frankly it’s a cool technical feat and also has some very useful applications for the real world. Better yet, Microsoft should just buy them and offer the service directly with Windows 8 Metro, which is optimized for touch and may well be a significant competitor to iOS down the road… who knows. Anyway, check it out, even if you don’t like Windows it’s impressive to try out the free service. If you want to really have some fun, use OnLive Desktop on the iPad in combination with Reflection for Mac OS X, which brings Windows 7 to your iPad and onto your Mac:

Now, who wants to offer the same service for Linux and OS X?