Phoenix HyperSpace

Phoenix Advances The HyperSpace Experience to Include Instant-on Access to Photoshop.com

June 16, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Phoenix Technologies today announced that customers will now have instant access to Photoshop.com, the popular Adobe online photo-editing and sharing destination, along with Adobe AIR, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader, on the HyperSpace platform. Phoenix HyperSpace is an instant-on, always-connected, all-day computing environment for netbooks, smartbooks and laptops that simplifies and improves the mobile experience by enabling users to instantly launch applications that can run independently of Windows.

With HyperSpace, users can begin searching the Web, sending and receiving email, using other Web-based applications and working in important productivity applications within seconds of turning on their computer. With the addition of Photoshop.com to the HyperSpace computing environment, users can now access their photos at any time and organize, edit, store and share them in a more secure computing environment. HyperSpace also automatically connects your mobile computer to the best available network, while achieving new levels of uptime and security.

The HyperSpace platform provides a unique computing environment that PC designers, software developers and content providers can utilize to create always-available, instant-on applications that bring new convenience, connectivity, uptime and security to users. PC users will have access to a host of instant-on applications and content including multimedia applications, communications, Web 2.0 browsing, and more. Users will also enjoy the benefits of up to two hours of extra battery life on their HyperSpace-enabled laptops.

Phoenix To Integrate HyperSpace into NEC Notebooks

July 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Phoenix Technologies announced that NEC will be among the first PC manufacturers to integrate Phoenix HyperSpace, a virtualized operating environment that enables instant-on applications running independently and alongside Windows. NEC has signed an agreement with Phoenix which will allow it to deliver “unprecedented levels of security” for its notebook customers, enabled by HyperCore, Phoenix’s firmware-based hypervisor.

The Phoenix HyperSpace environment includes ManageSpace, which enables security applications to operate before, during and after Windows Vista boots up and shuts down. As a result, NEC notebooks will be secured before malware gets downloaded by Windows applications. This is possible because virus definition files are updated in ManageSpace while preventing Windows access to the network.

Microsoft Opened Up Virtualization For Vista Under Court Pressure

March 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Earlier this year, Microsoft surprisingly flip-flopped its earlier decision not to allow users to run Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium as guest operating systems on a virtual machine. According to Computerworld, court documents now prove MS did this because of a complaint filed with antitrust regulators.

According to a status report filed with U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Microsoft changed the end-user licensing agreements (EULA) of Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium under pressure from Phoenix Technologies Ltd. Phoenix, best known for the BIOS, or firmware, that it sells to PC makers, had filed a complaint with regulators sometime after early November 2007, arguing that Microsoft should open the less-expensive versions of Vista to virtualization.

Although the report didn’t name the Phoenix virtualization product, it was referring to HyperSpace, technology that the company unveiled in November 2007. HyperSpace embeds a Linux-based hypervisor in the computer’s BIOS that allows the computer to run open-source software without booting Windows. A little more than two months after Phoenix filed its complaint, Microsoft gave in. “After discussion with the Plaintiff States and the three-person technical committee that assists in monitoring Microsoft’s compliance, Microsoft agreed to remove the EULA restrictions, and has done so,” the status report said.

Unfortunately, Phoenix Technologies and Microsoft declined to comment about the complaint and the changes to virtualization in Vista.