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You Can Lug Home Your Office Computer Inside Your Pocket
In a world of multiple PCs, keeping them all coordinated is a hassle. Some people lug laptops home every night, so they can work on their office files and office e-mail after hours. Others use slow dial-up connections at home or in hotels to perform cumbersome remote log-ins to office networks.
But, what if you could take the key contents of your office PC, and much of its look and feel, anywhere, without lugging a laptop or logging in to your office network?
A new $150 gadget about as big as your thumb, called the Migo , lets you do just that.
You just plug the little Migo into the USB port of your office PC -- or any other Windows PC you choose -- and software embedded on the device will copy onto the Migo your recent Outlook e-mail, Web-page "favorites," key files or folders you designate, even your desktop icons and wallpaper.
Then, when you get to any other PC where you'd like to work -- at home, at a hotel business center, Internet cafe, etc. -- you plug the Migo in again and enter your password.
In seconds, this "guest" machine is transformed into a partial clone of your original PC.
Your own desktop icons and wallpaper replace the ones that were there before. Your own e-mail shows up in Outlook instead of the e-mail that was there before. Your own Internet favorites show up in the second machine's Web browser instead of the favorites that were there before. And your own key files show up in a desktop folder and can be opened in Microsoft Office or other applications.
When you're done working on the second PC, you just log out of the Migo and remove it. The machine you were using reverts to its original state. And when you return to your original PC, the Migo updates its files to reflect any changes you made.
I have been testing the Migo for a week or so, using six different Windows PCs, and I really like it. There are a few small downsides, but in general it works as advertised.
The Migo , made by Forward Solutions of San Ramon, Calif., is based on a popular new type of computer storage called a keychain drive. These are pocket-size devices stuffed with memory chips that can hold computer files.
Many people already use keychain drives that cost much less than the Migo to move key files between different PCs. But Migo vastly improves this process, because it comes with synchronization software that's embedded right in its hardware, along with an embedded security system that protects your files.
With a cheap, plain-vanilla keychain, it would take a lot of work to replicate as much of the original PC experience, including e-mail, bookmarks and wallpaper, as the Migo does. With the Migo , all this happens with a few mouse clicks.
By default, the Migo copies the past 30 days of e-mail in your Outlook inbox, any items on your desktop that have changed in the past 30 days, your wallpaper and your Internet Explorer browser favorites. A simple interface will let you customize this. You can choose to copy more or fewer days of e-mail, or e-mail from Outlook folders other than the inbox. You can select specific files or folders to copy, or certain types of files and not others.
The software monitors the total size of the material you want to copy and warns you if it will exceed the capacity of the Migo . Currently there are two models: a 128 megabyte model that sells for $150 and a 256 MB model for $200. The company plans a 512 MB model by the end of the year, and models with more than a gigabyte of storage in 2004.
In my tests with a 256 MB model, I found I could pack in plenty of e-mail and lots of key files. Migo stores all of your stuff in a secure portion of the device that can be accessed only with a password, if you opt for password protection.
When you log into the Migo on a second PC, a small tab appears at the top of the screen with a thumbnail picture of the desktop of your original PC. You just click on the picture and the second PC is transformed. You can even save the key contents of multiple PCs on the Migo and install any of them on a guest PC.
Migo can be purchased from the company's Web site, at www.4migo.com, or from various retailers listed on that site.
However, there are some restrictions and drawbacks to the Migo . Any guest machine you want to use must have Outlook installed, plus any programs, like Microsoft Office, whose files you want to use.
In addition, Migo leaves some traces of your work and files behind on the guest machine, even though the actual files are stored only on the Migo . For instance, a copy of Word on the guest machine may list your file names as recently used, though the files themselves can no longer be accessed. Migo's maker promises a new version soon that will totally wipe out these vestiges.
Also, I ran into a nasty crash twice when trying to remove my Migo . The company says it is working on a fix.
But, all in all, Migo is a terrific little product that makes life simpler. 把办公电脑装进口袋搬回家 个人电脑(简称PC)的世界真是五彩缤纷，要运用得当可不容易。有些人每天把手提电脑搬回家，晚上加班处理公司文件和电子邮件。还有些人在家里或酒店采用慢吞吞的拨号上网连接方式，经过繁复的远程登陆程序进入公司的网络处理公文。 但是，如果把公司电脑里的重要内容，以及属于这台电脑里的风格和感觉，带到任何地方而不必拎著手提电脑跑来跑去或登陆到公司网络，情况如何呢？ 一款名为Migo的新产品能让能帮你做到，它的售价为150美元，只有大拇指那么大。 你只要把这个小巧的Migo插进公司电脑（或任何带有Windows操作系统的PC）的USB端口，Migo内置的软件就会把最近的Outlook电子邮件、收藏夹里的网页、选定的重要文件和文件夹，甚至电脑桌面的图标和墙纸复制到Migo里。 随后，当你打开家里、酒店商务中心和网吧里的其他电脑进行工作时，只要把Migo插入电脑，并输入密码就可以了。 转瞬之间，新电脑就被克隆成原先的电脑了。 电脑桌面上的图标和墙纸就变成了公司电脑里的式样；Outlook里的电子邮件也被你个人的电子邮件所取代。你收藏夹里的网页也会出现在新电脑的网络浏览器里。你的主要文件也会出现在桌面的文件夹中，能用Microsoft Office或其他软件打开。 当你结束工作时，只要退出Migo并拔下接口就可以了，电脑会自动转换成初始状态。而当你再进入公司电脑时，Migo会更新电脑里的文件。 我用六种不同的Windows PC对Migo进行了一周左右的测试，感觉真不错。当然也有一些小毛病，但总体来说的确是名不虚传。 Migo是由加利福尼亚州的Forward Solutions制造，设计原理是基于一种名为钥匙链驱动器(keychain drive)的新型电脑存储器。这些只有口袋大小的新型存储器带有存储晶片，能存放电脑文件。 许多人早就在使用价格大大低于Migo的钥匙链驱动器在不同的电脑之间移动重要文件。但Migo有重大改进，在它的硬件里包含了同步软件，以及能保护文件的内置安全系统。 如果采用普通的钥匙链驱动器，你要费很大的力气才能像Migo那样复制原先电脑里的信息，如电子邮件、书签和墙纸等。而有了Migo，你只需轻点鼠标就可以完成这些工作了。 根据默认设置，Migo将拷贝Outlook收件箱里过去30天内的电子邮件、在过去30天里修改过的桌面文件、电脑墙纸以及网络浏览器里的收藏夹。一个简单的界面就可进行个性化设置。你可以选择拷贝多于30天的电子邮件，或Outlook里其他文件夹的电子邮件。你还可以选择特定的文件或文件夹、或某种类型的文件进行复制。 Migo还监控你想拷贝的内容总量，并在内容超出其容量限制时发出警告。目前，Migo有两种型号：一种的容量为128兆，售价为150美元；另一种的容量为256兆，售价为200美元。Forward Solutions打算在今年年底前推出容量为512兆的新型号，并在明年推出更多的容量大于一千兆的新型号。 在对容量为256兆的Migo的测试中，我发现我能存放大量的电子邮件和重要文件。Migo会把所有内容存入内置的安全领域，还需通过密码才能进入（如果你为它设制密码的话）。 当你把Migo插入另一台电脑时，荧幕上端会出现一个小标记，这是一个指甲大小的上一台电脑的桌面图象。你只要点击该图象，上一台电脑的内容就转换进来了。你甚至还可以把多台电脑的重要内容存储到Migo上，然后放在其他电脑里。 你可以从该公司的网站上购买Migo，网址为 www.4migo.com，你也可以从该网站上登出的各大零售商那里购买。 不过，Migo也有一些局限和不足。对于任何其他放置转换内容的电脑而言，它必须有Outlook和Microsoft Office等各种被转移的文件所采用的软件。 此外，Migo还把你的工作内容和一些文件的蛛丝马迹留在这些电脑里，即使那些文件只存储在Migo里。例如，这些电脑的Word文件里可能会列出你最近使用的文件名称，虽然你无法在电脑上打开这些文件。Migo的制造商已承诺将很快推出完全不留上述痕迹的新型Migo。 另外，我在移动Migo时还遭遇了两次死机。Forward Solutions称，公司正在研究改进的方法。 但总而言之，Migo是一种非常棒的新产品，它使生活变得更简单。
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