* What Phoenix can offer mobile travelers
It’s hard to get too excited about pre-OS software, but once you get past that you might want to check out some of the offerings from Phoenix Technologies.
I recently tried its FirstWare Assistant package, which connects to a user’s Outlook data in “pre-OS” mode. This means that you can access data from Outlook without having to load up the Windows operating system. If you are traveling and need to check for a contact’s name, a calendar item or grab something from an e-mail, it’s much easier to use the FirstWare Assistant application than to wait (and wait and wait) for Windows to boot up.
The company mainly sells its applications to OEMs and other system builders, but I was able to get a copy of the software and try it out. The FirstWare Assistant 2004 software is part of the Phoenix Core Managed Environment (CME), providing access to the Outlook PIM data and e-mail.
When the software is installed, an end user just turns on their computer and presses a key (default was the ‘F’ key) before the operating system loads (you have to pay attention or it goes away quickly). When loaded, the FirstWare Assistant provides access to calendar, contacts, tasks and e-mail data from Outlook without having the operating system loaded (very cool).
I found that I could also reply to e-mail, but that e-mail doesn’t get sent. It gets stored in the Draft folder and won’t get sent until after full network connectivity is achieved (as well as Windows loading up completely).
Phoenix also announced a big deal last week – the company said Averatec would be pre-installing Phoenix’ FirstWare Recover Pro software (secure recovery application) on every notebook PC that Averatec ships inn North America.
The Recover Pro software gives PC users protection and recovery from viruses and intrusions, and lets administrators bring PCs back to a “pre-attack” state in the same pre-OS environment, the company says. This means that additional CDs, DVDs or a separate USB device won’t be needed to get users’ notebooks back up and running. After an attack, users access the Phoenix CME Console to help restore the PC back to its pre-attack condition.
Both applications are pretty neat, and can help mobile travelers stay up and running while they roam around the world. More details on the Phoenix software is available at the company’s Web site (http://www.phoenix.com).
