Migo Makes Favorites Portable

Once upon a time, a business trip meant Joey Smith would have to synchronize the files, email and other data in his laptop computer with that on his desktop, pack the computer and all his cables, and hope he found a comfortable place to plug in and work.

And what if Smith backed up the wrong files when leaving the office at day’s end? He’d burn selected files to CD-ROM to take home – hoping along the way that he didn’t forget any important files back at the office.

“That just wasn’t efficient for me,” he said.

Now, Smith pulls a thumb-sized disk drive from the USB port, stashes it in his pocket, and ambles carefree out the door.

What’s changed? Smith purchased a USB flash memory drive called Migo. The device, from Forward Solutions, copies selected folders, files and documents, stores the last 30 days of e-mail from Outlook, and captures a user’s preferences, favorite Web sites and settings. When Smith arrives at another location, he plugs Migo into any PC running on Windows 98, 2000 or XP, and the device commandeers the PC. His settings come up. Outlook loads his most recent e-mails. Even the image on his desktop at the office comes up on the host PC.

When he’s done, all the files are stored back on the Migo, and the only trace left behind is the name of any file he opened – but no access to the file itself.

“All my files are updated, so when I get home at night and plug it in, I’m real-time up to speed,” said Smith, managing partner with Capital City Partners Southeast, a Coral Gables investment banking firm.

Migo use flash memory storage technology that allows anywhere from 16 megabytes to almost a gigabyte of data to be stored on a USB device the size of an adult thumb. The difference is that where devices from Targus, M-Systems DiscOnKey and Trek will store data, Migo is powered by a microprocessor that allows the user to select, retrieve, store and upload settings and files to a host computer. Log on to the password protected Migo, and up pops your settings. Log off, and everything’s stored back on your Migo – and all the original settings are restored on the host PC.

For $200, Smith got a Migo with 256 megabytes of memory that allow him to recreate his Outlook (not Outlook Express) inbox and recent documents easily. Also, any files he needs to open, like Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, must have the application on the host PC. Migo carries no software applications.

“This just brings a whole new dimension to mobile computing,” said Tim Irving, president of Island Octopus Inc., a Migo dealer in Sanibel, Fla. Using his Migo, Irving will access files at a cyber café, a client office or the airport. “It goes beyond mobile devices. It replicates my complete computing environment. When I pull it out, that computer never knows I was there.”

And when he returns back to home office, Migo resynchronizes with Irving’s PC to update all his files, e-mail and settings.

Smith still may travel with his laptop computer. But Migo has made back-up and document portability much simpler, he said.

“The thought of having everything in this little keychain, plugging into a desktop computer and being able to get onto the net through Web mail just seems so much easier,” he said. www.4migo.com

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.

• by Jeff Zbar
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