Access PIM Info On Your PC Before It Boots

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115265,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115265,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br />"Want to check your e-mail without waiting for your computer to boot up? Phoenix Technologies is releasing an upgraded version of its Phoenix FirstWare Assistant software that includes support for e-mail. By pressing a "hot button" the user will gain read-only access to e-mail and personal data, such as calendars, notes, and contacts, effectively turning their laptop into a PDA, Phoenix says."<br /><br />I suspect this is some app that runs in the background copying relevant bits from your Outlook data file to a special place on the hard drive that this app can read back to you without booting the operating system. Seems to me this is answering a question no one has asked. Part of what makes a PDA so attractive to me is its size. I am not going to whip out my laptop/tablet at the airline check-in counter no matter how fast it can get to the data. What about you?

[webagogue]

This is interesting but not something I could imagine using. WinXP boots for me within about 45 seconds. If I need info faster than that I pull out my PPC.

Be sure to watch out for other features that nobody asked for (no user, anyway) such as DRM-enabled bios.

[Gen-M]

My guess is that this is aimed more at devices like OQO or Vulcan ("FastStart") and not so much laptops or desktops. Vulcan has this type of functionality with a second screen on the lid of the device.

[markhammill]

There's been a similar application to this on the Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC for a while called quicklook.

The program is installed on a cf card in the cf slot.

When in windows it automatically transfers your outlook information to the cf card. I don't think it included e-mails.

You can then boot from the card to view your outlook information using the hotbutton.

Although I tried it, even on my tablet pc I didn't bother using it.

This was partly due to the poor syncronization process and the fact that I have a smartphone and ppc anyway.

[Kati Compton]

Actually, I would like this... Sometimes I want to do a quick email check before bed, and don't want to turn on the computer unless I *do* have email.

But I don't use Outlook for email. ;)

[mjhamson]

Okay, I will not deny that this news and the statements that are made do nothing less then piss me off.

The reason for the "slowness" in booting windows (or any OS for that matter) is that the OS needs to wait for devices. Hard drives must spin up, video cards must do their inits, memory checks and other bios checks, monitors must warm up.

The truth is that parts of the industry have been pushing very hard on the hardware folks to fix these problems. But the hardware blokes do not have the will or want to make these improvements. So for Phoenix to come out with this little low level app is nothing more then a deceptive ploy. There is no customer-interest going on here. it is simply a means to which a company can garnish market share without any attempt at solving the real problem.

I can tell you that I know for a fact that on a properly built off the shelf system, windows can do a full boot in 7 seconds. But it is the problems noted above that make such user experiences impossible.

[Gremmie]

Want a fast boot-up? Buy this: http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/

The truth is that parts of the industry have been pushing very hard on the hardware folks to fix these problems. But the hardware blokes do not have the will or want to make these improvements. So for Phoenix to come out with this little low level app is nothing more then a deceptive ploy. There is no customer-interest going on here. it is simply a means to which a company can garnish market share without any attempt at solving the real problem.

I don't think hardware "blokes" don't have the will--MIT has been trying to develop magnetic memory so that when you turn off a computer the memory does not need electricity to sustain itself. I know that IBM has been trying to develop this too (if you look at the development of memory, magnetic concepts have been tried, but they are far too big to use). Yes this is a quick fix, but no, the industry hasn't been muddling around because the answer lies in the development of another product--flash memory (refer to above link and note the PuRAM).

[danmanmayer]

This was done to get support for one of the first BIOSes that has built in DRM and therefore can enforce its policies on whom ever may be using the system. I don't support forced anything because it is always a loss / loss situation for the consumer... So while the feautres are neat they would never be worth getting stuck with something like microsoft reader DRM for e-books... hehe

[Janak Parekh]

The reason for the "slowness" in booting windows (or any OS for that matter) is that the OS needs to wait for devices. Hard drives must spin up, video cards must do their inits, memory checks and other bios checks, monitors must warm up.
Actually, that's only one of many reasons. There's a reason the Linux kernel can initialize on a PC in under 20 seconds, and BeOS was able to boot in under 10 -- they don't do the other kinds of heavyweight lifting Windows does at startup. I'm not saying Linux or BeOS does what you need -- but it's entirely possible to build a solution that's faster.

I can tell you that I know for a fact that on a properly built off the shelf system, windows can do a full boot in 7 seconds.
I assume you're referring to XP? XP uses many tricks to boot fast. One thing Microsoft did is to build a prefetch cache which keeps track of the DLLs and EXEs loaded at startup and reorganizes them on the disk. It's clever, and it works. Nevertheless, they're still loading a lot.

--janak

[jlp]

Vulcan's FlipStart pocket desktop (sic) already has that kind of thing: you don't need to turn it on to access your WinXP PDA Outlook data: full email subject and body text (obviously enough attachments need the full computer on), appointments, addresses, even MP3 files can be accessed directly on its small embeded lid LCD screen; control is thru multifunction multidirectional pad on lid as well.

http://www.flipstartpc.com/images/features_lidmodule.jpg

[Ed Hansberry]

I can tell you that I know for a fact that on a properly built off the shelf system, windows can do a full boot in 7 seconds.
I assume you're referring to XP? XP uses many tricks to boot fast. One thing Microsoft did is to build a prefetch cache which keeps track of the DLLs and EXEs loaded at startup and reorganizes them on the disk. It's clever, and it works. Nevertheless, they're still loading a lot.
Read the sections on boot up performance (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/evaluate/xpperf.mspx) for more details. Ever watched an XP machine boot compared to a Windows 2000/NT machine? XP almost never lets the hard drive stop. It keeps looking for the next thing to process even though the OS is waiting on some hardware to finish initializing. 2000/NT will load drivers, wait, load more, wait, load more, wait, etc.

[lsbeller]

The key here is that this app will only let you review the information - not modify or add to it. With the Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC, from within Outlook (the only PIM it's compatible with now), you would click on a synchronize button that would save the PIM data to a flash memory card in HTML format. For many Tablt PC users, this is a great thing even with the Tablet PC standard for resuming from standby at 4-7 seconds.

For many though, the best non-publicized feature was the ability to publish any html file to the same app. So, you could save an Excel spreadsheet or Word Document to HTML and view it as well without booting Windows!

[Ed Hansberry]

For many though, the best non-publicized feature was the ability to publish any html file to the same app. So, you could save an Excel spreadsheet or Word Document to HTML and view it as well without booting Windows!
Hmmm... but you'd have to save as HTML first, so you either know what doc you'll need, in which case you can just print it, or you save all files as HTML just in case? I think I know why it is a non-publicized feature. ;)

[lsbeller]

Yes, but when carrying a Tablet PC, the real idea is to go as paperless as possible. And for often referenced but seldom modified documents (say a price list for a sales rep) it is nice not having to boot up to get to it if the only thing you are carrying is a Tablet PC.

[Mark Johnson]

There's been a similar application to this on the Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC for a while called quicklook.


It looks like FirstAware Assistant is the direct offspring of QuickLook. Both are from Phoenix. HP apparently marketed QuickLook as though it was some sort of a stand-alone utility, but it looks more like this is simply a Phoenix BIOS update that adds a "boot from CF card" option.

Seems like this is quite similar to other BIOSes that support a "boot from usb mass-storage device" option (like some Dell notebooks I think) or the IBM ThinkPads that supported CF boot.

Once QuickLook sends the boot sequence to the CF card instead of the hard drive, apparently the CF contains a tweaked FreeBSD kernel and the actual data reader utility.

This whole concept is IMHO very nice. I don't think it will replace PDA's any more than it would replace having a full Windows XP installation on the drive. It is, however, a sweet way to handle a "niche" set of problems.