Windows XP on an iPod. Why not!

Sub Title: "What happens on MojoPac, stays on MojoPac."

Last week I was handed a printout from a web article on MSNBC. I am not easly impressed but this product (MojoPac) has much potential. Throw away the fact that it is version 1. The fit and finish on this product release is very good.

Downloaded and installed the evaluation copy in minutes. Then proceded to load Lotus Smate Suite 9.8.1 (the whole thing), Open Office (the whole thing), and Adobe viewer. I did not use a stop watch, but i percieved that those applications ran quicker under Mojo on the thumb drive. Maybe? Learned how to "Pin" the Microsoft Termainal Server Client to the Start Menu. Works great.

Mobile computing just got more portable.

"Making even the latest pocketbook-sized ultra-mobile personal computers look more like lumbering giants, RingCube Technologies Inc. unveiled software that can virtually squeeze a PC onto an iPod, USB keychain drive, cell phone or any gizmo with digital storage space."

From the Mojo web site more information about Mojo "How does it work?"

Mojo Experience

"Your experience using Mojopac is exactly as if you are using an ultra portable PC (your MojoPac device) and docking it to a computer (the Host PC you are plugged into). Your MojoPac PC is running from your portable device, but it is borrowing the resources (screen, processor, CD/DVD drives, internet connection, printers, etc.) of the Host PC. In other words, MojoPac is your real PC (your applications, settings, data), and any computer it is connected to is being used as a utility to run MojoPac.

Creating a MojoPac PC: Creating a brand new MojoPac PC takes less than 3 minutes. Plug your portable storage device (such as an iPod or a USB Flash or Hard Drive) into any Windows XP PC. Download MojoPac from our website and install it onto the device.

Once you have installed MojoPac, you can log into this MojoPac PC you created (which is running from your portable device), and bring up your newly created MojoPac desktop (MojoView). What you see is similar to a brand new Windows XP PC, and behaves exactly the same.

Using a MojoPac PC: You can plug your MojoPac enabled device to any Windows XP computer (Host PC), and you will immediately be presented with your personal applications, files and environment - and it looks exactly like a standard PC experience. In your MojoPac PC view (MojoView), installing applications is similar to installing applications on any PC - simply load the application installer CD/DVD, or download the application installer from the web and proceed as you would on any normal PC. In fact, in your MojoView, your "C" drive represents your MojoPac device, NOT the Host PC. So applications install in the right place automatically, no extra steps required.

MojoPac lives side-by-side with the Host PC: When you bring up your MojoPac PC after plugging your device into a Host PC, the Host PC will keep running as it was before the connection. You don't need to change the Host PC's settings, install anything on it, or close any of the applications that were running on it. Even more importantly, you can go back and forth between your MojoPac PC view and your Host PC view - you can work on both PCs at the same time, and operate both environments simultaneously. Using your MojoPac toolbar (MojoBar) you can easily toggle back and forth between the host PC view and your MojoPac view. Each presents you with whatever personal preferences and environments you have chosen for that system and MojoPac will never alter the settings or status of the host PC."

The Professional

"You've been lugging that laptop around for so long that one shoulder is now higher than the other. It's time for a smarter way to work.

MojoPac allows you to carry applications and files from your office to your home to a tradeshow in Tokyo on a device that can fit in your pocket. Imagine being able to access your personal versions of Quicken, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Yahoo Messenger by plugging in your iPod to any PC anywhere in the world. Your language settings are stored on your MojoPac - which means you can connect to a Japanese PC and still have all your environment and applications in English!

MojoPac also allows you to keep your home life and your work life separate, but enable to access both at the same time. Take your work with you. You never need to load work applications on your home system again, or worry about data synchronization. MojoPac can keep all your work applications and data completely separated from your home PC's disk drive. And once you remove the MojoPac-enabled device, your home PC will not retain a trace of your work information.

Take your home with you: You can use MojoPac to take your personal applications (multimedia, finance, games, instant message clients, and personal browsing) to work with you, connect to your work PC to run all these apps in the privacy of your MojoPac device, without leaving any trace on your work PC. Nothing will be installed or stored on your work PC, in compliance with your IT policies. What happens on MojoPac, stays on MojoPac.

Recommended devices for The Professional MojoPac: We recommend USB hard drives (1'', 1.8'' or 2.5'' drives) since they provide performance and portability while offering sufficient storage to carry business and personal applications for the Professional. For more in depth overview please visit our Devices for MojoPac page."

Some of the applications you can run on a MojoPac device:

Business and Productivity

Microsoft Office (Microsoft Office 2003 (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook): Enterprise, University, and volume licenses only **
Lotus Notes 6.5.3
Acrobat Reader 7
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5
Quicken 2007
Open Office 2.0
Adobe Photoshop CS2: Enterprise, University and volume licenses only **

and Microsoft Remote Desktop- RDP Client

You can "pin" the RDP client to the start menu. I checked to make sure that when show local desktop drives is selected that the "Host" machine drives were not available. Indeed only Terminal Server displays the valid Mojo drives. Nothing on the PC hosting the client is visable.

Want more information then visit Mojopac.com. They have more detailed information about "What is Mojo", "How does it work?", "Who is it for?" and how to download and install a 30 day evaluation version.

October 10 update. Here is a link to iPod Linux. Why not?

Until the next post,

Steve