£99 box gives you online Windows

Online Windows desktop site Nivio is launching a neat little box a little smaller than a paperback that access its services directly and appears to the user as a standard PC.

The £99 Nivio Companion can be bolted to the back of a VESA-standard monitor, but founder Sachin Duggal says: "Most people thinks it looks too good to hide away."

Nivio is offering a 15in LCD monitor for £50 extra. The company says it offers homes and businesses an alternative to purchasing software such as Microsoft Office and running a expensive PC. Users can instead use a Windows desktop and applications running on a remote server.

The basic service, which includes 10GB of storage, costs £4.66 a month and Microsoft Office (home edition) costs £2.50 a month. You can also rent other applications by the month – if you don't use them in a month you do not get charged.

Duggal says the advantages are that users, including those that buy the Companion, can access the service from any computer running Windows, MacOS, Linux or Unix. And they do not need to bother about extra costs such as virus protection and software upgrades.

The Companion is a thin client, with minimal local capability, though it can play audio files from a USB drive.