MojoPac, the latest PC virtualization product

September 22, 2006 | Matt Marshall | Comments |

mojopac.jpgRingCube, a Mountain View start-up has developed a product called MojoPac that lets you carry around your PC contents in a tiny storage device, and then access it on any PC you plug the device into.

MojoPac is still in testing mode, but you can sign up for it here. RingCube said today it has received $4 million from New Enterprise Associates, a Silicon Valley firm. We talked with Kittu Kolluri, a serial entrepreneur who recently joined NEA, and who made the investment in two tranches.

He said MojoPac lets you run on a PC “any application” stored in a removable storage device, such as a USB drive, a micro drive (an iPod, for example) or flash drive. It also would work with networked storage, such as with Google’s GDrive, if we understand GDrive’s plans correctly.

It is the latest attempt to redefine mobile computer. Laptops are state of the art, but they are bulky. Smart phones and PDAs are mobile, but their user interface is challenging or, as Kittu puts it, “terrible.” We’re looking forward to trying this. “The MojoPac lets you encapsulate your application environment, plug it into any computer, and you’ve got your PC,” Kittu said.

Chief Executive Shan Appajodu approached Kittu late last year. They’d worked together at Healtheon, the boom-era company backed by Netscape co-founder Jim Clark. Kittu later scored a hit with Neoteris, building it during the downturn after 2000 and selling the VPN company to Netscreen. Kittu is of chairman of RingCube.

Update: The company isn’t saying much until after its launch at DEMO Monday, which is why we can’t provide more details about how it works. News of the funding was first reported today by VentureWire.

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • ano
    It is always a good idea to thank your sources in blogosphere.
  • minh
    This is like infoether's "Indi" that launched 4-5 months ago (in beta). http://getindi.com
  • Ano,

    Indeed, if you are referring to VentureWire story today, yes, that was my original source, and I cited it earlier this morning on the left-hand column. You know that i cite VentureWire consistenly, and they are a great resource. However, when I talked with Kittu on a previously planned call today, it turned out the VentureWire description RingCube technology was slightly misleading in today's piece -- and so I initially made the call not to confuse readers by referring them to the article. But upon further consideration of your comment, I have updated with the reference.
  • Quote:
    "It is the latest attempt to redefine mobile computer. Laptops are state of the art, but they are bulky. Smart phones and PDAs are mobile, but their user interface is challenging or, as Kittu puts it, “terrible.” We’re looking forward to trying this. “The MojoPac lets you encapsulate your application environment, plug it into any computer, and you‘ve got your PC,” Kittu said."


    If you were to take the information above and add to that the fact that in emerging markets of India, China, Brazil and the continent of Africa, mobiles are the mainstay of connectivity and communication, if not commerce, can you not see folks being able to carry their hard drive around with them and using any internet cafe to do business on a manageable scale? Already we have documented evidence of the microentreprenuerial development, along with social and economical, in the resource scarce operating conditions of the developing nations.
  • MojoPac looks very interesting and will definitely be of interest to users of my product, Surfulater. But they need to get their act together on their forums, as they are rapidly loosing early good will by a serious lack of presence.

    I've just tried installing it on a Corsair Flash Voyager USB stick without success as it doesn't have a serial number.
  • RingCube is already in trouble!

    After a major glitch in their software (making it impossible to install on some devices) MojoPac just shut down their forums, citing “an overwhelming number of requests from many of you who asked us to revamp our forums.”

    Read how RingCube VP of Business Development, Katya Falakshahi goes into the details of some problems that MojoPac has since they came out with a failing update that introduced a huge glitch in their software and defends their decision to shut down the forums.

    http://zion.demon.nl/archives/444-MojoPac-probl...
  • Mathew
    Any feedback on the problems, have Ringcube solved it? WSJ had an article on them- http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB116113166...
  • At the moment the free Moka5 (although you do need a Windows licence, so that pushes the costs right up) or solutions from U3, Ceedo or PortableApps.com are pretty much a better bet all round.
    MojoPac shows promise, but for the moment fails to delivery anything more than the majority of existing portable solutions for it's price
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    mabe you like it ,too.
    http://www.prayaya.com/eng/