Blade Shadow puts a Windows 10 PC on your iPhone or iPad

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Blade Shadow on Mac
A powerful PC without the PC.
Photo: Blade

Shadow, the service that puts streams a powerful Windows 10 PC to your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is expanding across the U.S.

You can use it to play games, run desktop applications, and lots more — without forking out for a powerful desktop of your own. All you need is a monthly subscription and an internet connection.

You can do almost anything on an iOS device these days. And if you really need a PC, you can now buy entry-level Windows machines for next to nothing. But what if you want to experience the wonders of PC gaming, or run beefy applications that require plenty of power?

You could spend thousands on a more powerful computer — or you could subscribe to a service that streams a powerful computer to the devices you already own.

Shadow is open to all (in the U.S.)

That’s exactly what Shadow, a service from French company Blade, does for $35 a month. You’re essentially renting a high-end rig, except you don’t have to find room for it in your home.

Shadow gives you access to a Windows 10 PC powered by Intel’s latest processors and a beastly Nvidia 1080 GPU. The machine is housed in a server farm, but you control it remotely from any iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, or PC.

So long as you have a fairly decent internet connection, you’ll enjoy a snappy experience. Blade says it can provide 720p video at 60 frames-per-second with a 5Mbps, but you’ll enjoy an even greater experience if you have faster broadband or fiber.

Shadow puts power at your fingertips

With all this power, you can enjoy the latest PC games, taxing applications like Adobe Premiere, and other software that your existing machine just can’t cope with. And it’s incredibly affordable.

Thanks to Shadow, you no longer have to bust open your savings and buy a high-end PC yourself. If you already have an entry-level laptop, or a MacBook Air that’s getting long in the tooth, Shadow breathes new life into it.

Shadow was previously only available in France and California, but as of August 9, it’ll be available nationwide in the U.S. Try it out before spending thousands on a new PC you might not need.

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