NComputing U170 USB Virtual Desktop

Ask a parent with two kids about the ideal solution for sharing computer time, and watch as they sprout another grey hair! The NComputing U170 USB Virtual Desktop is a rather elegant solution to this problem, although it can as easily be extended to suit small business or a school set-up.

The premise is simple — modern day PCs are so powerful that most people only use a small fraction of their PC processor’s capacity, and the U170 taps this unused resource so that a computer can be simultaneously shared by many users.

All you have to do is plug the U170 into your PC via USB, connect your second set of monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers into it and install the program on your host PC, and the second fully-functional independent PC is ready to go. Need more PCs? All you have to do is add more U170s (upto 9 maximum) to the host PC. In our use, the U170 was easy to set-up, and as long as the host PC wasn’t encoding a movie or other processor/disk intensive tasks, you wouldn’t miss the second box! The benefits are compelling — it draws only about 2 watts of power, far less than an independent PC, and it works out cheaper than buying a second PC and there’s one less PC to maintain with anti-virus updates, Windows updates etc.

• Rating: 9/10 lPrice: Rs 5,000
• URL: http://www.ncomputing.com/Products/USeriesUSBconnected.aspx

Strontium Swift Solid State Drive

They’ve been a long (and expensive) time coming, but Solid State Drives are finally making an entry into high-end computing. With no moving parts like conventional hard disks, SSDs offer far faster read/write speeds while consuming less power and being far more rugged than standard hard disks. The Strontium Swift Series of SSDs lead the charge with some relatively affordable offerings, and the performance benefit to laptops has to be seen to be believed!

With data transfer speeds averaging well over 100 megabytes per second, this translates into faster boot-up, shutdown, and faster-everything-else-in-between! At Rs 9,500 for the 64GB version, the most appr-opriate use for these is to install your applications and programs, and keep all your media (photos/music/ videos) on regular hard disks. Of course, going by cost-per-gigabyte, hard disks still steal a march on these babies (and will continue to do so for a while), but when you want to build the ultimate machine, these should be given serious consideration.

• Rating: 8/10 lPrice: Strontium Swift 64GB SSD - Rs 9500; 128GB - Rs 14900
• URL: http://www.strontium.biz/products/SSD.htm' http://www.strontium.biz/products/SSD.htm

Garmin Asus M10

With Windows Phone 7 due year end, the current crop of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones just seem so ho-hum. The Garmin Asus M10 nearly got the same treatment — it features a 3.5-in WVGA display, 512 RAM and 512 ROM, 4GB of flash memory, a 5 megapixel camera, a 1500mAh battery and the usual connectivity options. Bog-standard stuff, really. Where the M10 excels is the secret to many a restaurateur’s success — location, location, location! The strong association with Garmin has meant that this phone is built with location at its core, with navigation functions linked to commonly used applications such as the contacts, email and the browser. Map Data is powered by Navteq, and the M10 is ready to use with pre-installed map data and turn-by-turn voice guided navigation for 62 of the country’s largest cities.

As with a location-focused device, you get advanced navigation features, commonly found on stand-alone GPS devices, such as lane assist which tells you which lane to switch to for a turn etc. There’s also has highway mode which lets you plan ahead so you don’t miss that critical turn-off. Other than this, the M10 is a dream to use in the car, as the sales kit includes everything you would need to use the device in a car, including a powered cradle and windshield mount.

I only wish that the screen was more finger friendly — a capacitive display would have helped — and one wouldn’t have to pull out the stylus every now and then to use the device. That said, if you’re looking for a location-oriented phone and don’t want to wait for Windows Phone 7, this could be the device for you.

• Rating: 7/10 lPrice: Rs 19,990
• URL: http://www.garminasus.com/en_GB/phones/nuvifone-m10/