Twenty-one months ago, we expressed skepticism over OnLive, the gaming service offering streaming video games over the internet. In that time, OnLive has left beta, and recently offered it’s “microconsole” for $100. Still, OnLive’s growth has been slow, to say the least.

After our article went live, it didn’t take long for someone (Darq) at onlivefans.com to respond.

On the topic of OnLive struggling to have an attractive library, they already have some of the leading names in the gaming industry partnered up with them… I think right now is a poor time to judge the game library. I imagine that there are many skeptics out there that will decide to partner with OnLive and offer their games after the beta this summer.

Twenty-one months later and OnLive has 38 games available (we’re not counting expansions). And if we discount sports titles with “2010″ subtitles that now have 2011 releases, the already-abysmal library is even smaller. That’s today. Is now the right time to judge OnLive’s game library? The sad thing is, how many games were available 21 months ago? Is OnLive even meeting the goal of one new release per month?

Maybe it’s a testament to the service that OnLive was able to bring games like Borderlands and Batman: Arkham Asylum to the table, but these titles do not make up for the many other big-name games that are available for the XBox 360 and the PS3, which are simply missing from OnLive’s library. And, even these former big-name titles are yesterday’s news in the console world, where pre-used prices are less than OnLive’s pricing.

Yes, OnLive is cheaper than a console because there’s no necessary hardware cost if you already own a computer and a controller, but the lack of titles is a serious matter; even the Wii has a more enticing library for hardcore gamers than OnLive does. Maybe with OnLive, you have a few more dollars to spend on games, but since there’s a real limit on how many games you can feasibly buy (never mind how many games you’d actually want to buy from that limited selection), the price savings for OnLive may very well be irrelevant.

One of OnLive’s more promising offerings is the idea of streaming MMOs, since this is a gaming niche that many console gamers simply can’t participate in. Yet, OnLive has nothing to show in this area, either.

I believe you’re exagerating OnLive’s inability to cater to the add-on/modding or customization community. OnLive already has started promoting their SDK, and with their push on a community driven player experience I see them have a large focus on being able to mod for games that wish to support it.

Why still no MMOs On OnLive (a gaming niche that PC gaming is known for)? Not only has OnLive not addressed whether they can realistically support client addons for MMOs, but they don’t even have a single MMO announcement yet. There’s no point in us even addressing addons/mods for other games, since these are clearly a pipedream at this stage in the game.

Does OnLive have potential? Certainly. But given its performance on our home FiOS connection, and the absolute lack of games, the service doesn’t seem to be doing well for itself. If subscription numbers are going up at all, it’s certainly not because of the gaming library, and we can’t imagine people sticking around for more than a couple months if things don’t change for the better soon.

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A lot of people still don’t understand how the iPad could replace a notebook. Mainly, this seems to be an issue of adopting new habits. Over at TUAW, Steven Sande doesn’t get it.

I have to vehemently disagree with the entire idea that an iPad can be a true laptop replacement in times of need.

That’s funny, because it seems to work alright for some people.

Sure, LogMeIn Ignition and iTeleport are great, and I have them on my iPad. But I try to use them as sparingly as possible and never to do work on my office iMac. Why? Most of the time, I find that even on a fast network, the scrolling required to move around the 27″ screen on the iMac is ridiculously slow.

Maybe Sande’s work computer is at an obscenely high resolution, but one then needs to wonder why he didn’t just decrease the resolution before going on his trip (or during, via screensharing itself). Since Sande likes counterpoints so much, he ought consider that we accessed our east-coast Mac Mini running at 1080p resolution, from Greece, via iTeleport without issue, for simple file management tasks.

Trying to type into our content management system here at TUAW over a screen sharing connection is an exercise in frustration; it’s slow and there’s a lag between typing and seeing the text appear on the screen (and the system doesn’t support direct editing in Mobile Safari).

Sounds like this is a TUAW content management system issue and not an iPad issue. We noted ourselves that we regularly write content in an external app, and then cut’n paste into the web-based WordPress app via Mobile Safari. Why would a similar method for uploading blog content not work for Sande? Did he forget that cut’n paste has been available on iOS for some time now?

While I was on my trip, I was spending an hour or two a day working on my NaNoWriMo 2010 novel to make progress on completing it before November 30. The original document was written in Microsoft Word (don’t ask — I write most of my books and other documents in that tool because of force of habit), and neither Documents to Go nor QuickOffice Connect seemed to do the job for me on the iPad. What did I do? Open the Word document in Pages for iPad after pulling it from my Dropbox. Pages for iPad is excellent for this type of writing, but it doesn’t allow me to auto-save the documents back to Dropbox.

There are four obvious solutions for this.

1. Change your poor habits in relying on a Microsoft file type.
2. Handle your edits on the road, and at the end of your trip, re-upload to Dropbox.
3. Once you’re done with your edits, copy/paste into an app that does handle Dropbox.
4. Stop using Dropbox and use Mobile Me.

Sure, Dropbox, Elements, and PlainText (as well as other apps) are lovely for writing text files, but I want a real word processor.

It’s curious that, in a world where there’s a clear demand for text editors aimed at writers instead of those requiring layout functionality, that Sande wants a “real word processor.” Since his example here is writing a novel, what functionality in Pages does Sande need so badly that he can’t get in an app designed for writing novels? At least if his complaint was that an app like Ulysses wasn’t available for the iPad, he’d have a more genuine argument.

…until there are real apps that work just like the big boys (Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote and Numbers) and support opening and saving in Dropbox, a laptop is still going to be the best way to do real work anywhere.

Unless we missed something, Sande’s example apps don’t save to Dropbox natively, either. And really, why dismiss the iPad based almost exclusively on the habit of using a single third-party service, when Apple offers a competitor that works better for Sande’s purposes?

If I have to carry an iPad and keyboard with me, why don’t I just carry a MacBook Air around?

Because chances are, you’re not using both the iPad and keyboard all the time. For most people, even half the time. Wouldn’t you prefer flexibility than being forced to schlep a keyboard around whenever you want to surf the web, check your mail, watch a movie, or play a game?

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While we may not think that the 4G iPhone is an enormous upgrade, it’s all about the cameras, and that’s specifically the area we’re hooked on. So for some 5 megapixel camera love (plus flash and HD video recording), the new iPhone has us interested. We bought the 3GS upon release, so we should be eligible for the discounted upgrade, but… we’re not.

We pre-ordered our iPhone 3GS to replace our 2G iPhone on T-Mobile, activating it on day one of 3GS availability. About half a year later, we converted our plan to a family plan, and then added a line for our girlfriend. There was also some hooplah about converting the plan to be region-free, since we both ported numbers from different area codes. During all this reshuffling, her phone somehow became the “primary” number on the account, which was inconsequential until today.

When we checked to see if our phone was eligible for the discounted upgrade, we were told it wasn’t, and that we would have to wait until February. The second line we added, however, even though activated half a year later, was already eligible, even though the reverse should be true. Apparently, AT&T can’t fix this in the system, because even if they switch the original phone back to be the primary, that switch alone causes a three-month penalty for future upgrades. So because AT&T didn’t set things up the way initially requested (presumably because it was easier for the salesperson who set up our second phone), I now can’t upgrade at the lowest cost possible. Why AT&T can’t simply swap upgrade eligibility between phones remains a mystery, considering that both phones are on the same plan, billed to the same person.

For us, this is a major complaint against AT&T, especially since the customer sales representative we spoke to today had major attitude when we politely addressed the issue and the reason for our dissatisfaction. This from a company we’ve defended from daily onslaught by other iPhone users. Thanks, AT&T. You have one more year from us, and then you better hope you’re still the only US iPhone carrier.

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We jumped on the FIOS bandwagon for our last move in hopes of super-fast internet speeds. While cable was long-touted as an outstanding alternative over DSL, our Comcast connection wasn’t perfect, and the 12MB advertised speeds were hardly that. So when we moved to a location previously wired for FIOS, we thought we’d be in for smooth sailing, since the only major complaints about FIOS we encountered were regarding a fresh install. Supposedly, once everything was in, people experienced Internet ecstasy.

Making the order.

The process we went through just to get FIOS activated was nothing short of a monstrous affair, however, at least as far as activating utilities go. While we already scouted out the information we needed for the plans we wanted, we were ambushed by our electric company when we activated power at our new residence. They claimed to be a FIOS partner, and could go ahead and take out FIOS order, thus not necessitating a call directly to FIOS. If anyone ever tells you this, tell them they are liars, and immediately hang up.

We told them no such thing, and though the convenience worth it. Little did we know that our power company could only offer us plans that were not the lowest advertised, nor were the packages very customizable. Of course, we didn’t know this until the basic order had already gone through, so by the time we hung up the phone, we had to call Verizon anyway to sort things out. And so began our phone call march, because getting through to a human being at Verizon is no easy process, especially when Verizon bounces you from operator to operator, oftentimes dropping the call midway through. Complicating the calling chain was the fact that our mobile phone number, representing the only phone we own, was not bound to a local area code, which meant that we were routinely routed to a Verizon office hundreds of miles away, instead of dealing with someone who could handle local orders.

Hours later, we finally got our order fixed. Not fixed per se, because we basically had to start a new order, and the rep we spoke to promised to delete the original order once it entered their system (apparently there’s lag in this). It’s worth noting that when we explained that our power company took our FIOS order, the immediate response was, “Yeah, don’t do that.” This was a common thought among Verizon reps we spoke to, which begs the question as to why Verizon has affiliates like power companies in the first place, since even Verizon employees think it’s a bad idea. (Apparently, numerous calls are fielded every day in which Verizon employees need to fix issues with customer orders thanks to affiliates screwing them up.)

Of course, the original order didn’t get cleared when it should have been even after we lined up our correct order. This required even more phone calls to the local office after we received e-mails and phone messages concerning the first order.

Using TiVo.

There were two non-standard requests with our order, both of which caused us pain in getting things set up. The first was that we had a TiVo HD unit that we previously used with Comcast, which we were told would work with FIOS. When the FIOS installer showed up (mind you, they provide a window of four or eight hours, effectively making you take the day off of work), he didn’t know much about TiVo at all. He fumbled through the TiVo menus and eventually got a signal to show up, and was thus content with this part of the setup. He did not, however, make sure that the on-screen guide worked, so when he was done, none of the channels matched up with their descriptions. We would later find out that fixing this was a simple matter of re-running the TiVo setup process, but Verizon was useless in providing this information. Their response to my concerns that things weren’t working as intended was, “We don’t support non-Verizon supplied hardware.” Yet they do, actually, because they bothered going so far as to install the Cable Card we’re leasing from them. In other words, they did a half-ass job; either support setting up the TiVo in full, or don’t do it at all and just hand customers their Cable Card.

Verizon’s shitty router.

The second FIOS install obstacle was that we didn’t want to use their supplied router, because we already had an Apple Time Capsule which handled our routing needs. This was a non-issue with a cable modem, but as our brief time using DSL showed us, things would be more complicated if the supplied modem had a built-in router. We addressed this in advance with the FIOS installer, and he said it wouldn’t be a problem – he wasn’t authorized to make changes to the provided router, but the included manual had all the instructions necessary to disable the routing capabilities of the Verizon device, such that we could just hook our Time Capsule up to it. Liar.

First off, no manual was supplied with the router. There was a quick setup guide, but no in-depth instructions. Naturally, he took off before we could go through the supplied guides in depth, so we were left hanging. We explored the firmware options via the router’s web interface, searched the web, and came up empty-handed: the supplied device did not have a way to disable the router. Sure, we could have just sucked it up and used our Time Capsule for backup purposes only, but we liked Back to My Mac working as intended, didn’t want redundant DHCP, and are, quite simply, stubborn. So, back to the phone, being transferred from person to person, and ultimately coming upon a solution.

Originally, we thought we needed a networking interface module (NIM) to use as a basic modem, which we could then plug our Time Capsule into. It turns out that NIMs weren’t being distributed by Verizon anymore, however, despite the fact that not every rep we spoke to knew about this, so we were transferred to their business department twice because they could supposedly provide us with such a mythical NIM. The real solution, however, is simply to have Verizon deactivate the internet-over-coax signal, and enable the internet-over-ethernet signal on the main FIOS box (installed in our basement). This meant that we’d still have a coax cable running from the FIOS box to our television (not first through their router), and we’d have an ethernet cable running from the FIOS box to our Time Capsule. Figuring this out wasn’t easy, because one Verizon rep was insistent that the ethernet port on the FIOS box was for technician troubleshooting purposes only (this despite the fact that we pointed to internet resources saying otherwise).

Sadly, when the signal switching was eventually done, another Verizon rep refused to stay on the line to verify that things were then working as intended. Of course, they weren’t, so we were now back to having no internet. Calling back, and explaining the changes made to our setup, a new rep insisted that we needed to reattach the router such that they could try to query it, even though we explained that internet-over-coax was disabled. She was insistent that they could still query the router, though we knew she was wrong. Eventually, she agreed to send over a technician again to sort things out.

Of course, by then we were back on the internet searching for solutions, and we finally found one. It turns out that once the signal-switching occurred, the internet-over-ethernet worked so long as the Verizon supplied router was attache to the FIOS box over ethernet. This then required us to login to the router’s web interface and ask for the IP to be released and reassigned. Once we pressed the “release” button, we needed to swap out the Verizon router for the Time Capsule. The IP was reassigned to our own router, and we were up and running. Up and running about 10 hours after the original technician showed up.

Conclusions?

The biggest conclusion here is that Verizon employees who handle FIOS tech support (on and off-site both) have no consistency ins training. Some are positively clueless about Verizon-supplied hardware, while a few have either been around long enough, or taken the time to research the equipment, and thus know enough to properly inform Verizon customers. Either way, the installation process is long and painstaking even without a fresh install.

Of course, if we had simply ordered a regular package, complete with Verizon’s comparatively poor DVR and configuration-limited router, perhaps the entire installation for us would have taken no more than two hours. But this isn’t 1999, and installing broadband internet in homes where many people have their own routers and DVRs shouldn’t be a troublesome experience for the customers or the on-site technicians.

Of course, now that everything’s installed, our service has been rock-solid over the last month, so at least there’s that. Speeds are much faster than via Comcast (and for less money), which is certainly nice. But we knew to expect that going in, so while the end-service may get an “A,” the customer service during install gets a “D” a best. Not exactly what we expected considering all the AT&T slamming in favor of Verizon. Even Comcast, which as a comparatively poor reputation, has never caused us as much pain when we had a problem, and in most cases were responsive and better informed than the many Verizon folks we spoke to. Something worth keeping in mind if you ever make a similar leap over to FIOS.

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In what might possibly be AOL’s greatest move ever, a deal was signed to power AOL’s search features with Google technology. The great thing about this deal isn’t simply the fact that AOL users will have access to a good search engine, but that Google’s policies will go into wider distribution, including their policy to gather up and advertise links removed from their main search, which we reported on earlier. This means that groups like the Church of Scientology won’t be able to pull content from the hands of more Net users, since AOL, the largest Internet Service Provider in the world, won’t directly be able to alter search results.

We remember when most people hadn’t even heard of Google.

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