Pocket Desktop Protects Your Files, Privacy When Using PCs
It's a customized Linux OS on a bootable drive so that you can surf the internet without leaving a trace on the host PC.
Pocket Desktop launched on Friday its flagship product which allows users to surf the Internet and manage files on anyone's desktop or laptop without compromising the privacy and security of both the user and the host PC. Called Pocket Desktop, it's a USB drive with a bootable Linux-based OS that combines web privacy, file security, virus protection, file backup and file recovery all on one pocket-sized device.
“As technologies became smaller in size, we set out to create an all-in-one solution to enable people to load not just their individual files onto a drive, but their entire computer, complete with the most sophisticated privacy, security, protection and recovery software available," said David Hayek, technology officer for Pocket Desktop. "The second task was to offer this all-in-one solution for the same price as an old-fashioned storage drive."
According to the company, the user simply plugs the device into any computer's USB port and restarts the machine. If the PC is configured to use a USB stick as a bootable option, it will load up the built-in Linux-based Pocket Desktop OS. There users have access to more than 40 popular pre-installed apps like Skype, Open Office and Firefox.
"From this point, the user can perform any routine function on their computer – from word processing to web surfing, chat and more – all with complete privacy, security and back-up ability," the company said on Friday. "The Pocket Desktop is platform-agnostic and works with both Apple and Windows machines."
The tech specs reveal that the USB drive uses 256-bit encryption to protect all files that are created and saved on the device. The core of the Linux-based Pocket Desktop OS is supposedly read-only, preventing viruses and malware from loading. However the device comes with an anti-virus solution pre-installed so that the user can scan and clean the host computer.
Pocket Desktop said on Friday that external files can be backed up to the device as well, and an additional file recovery app can repair and retrieve corrupt files from any computer. Everything that resides on the USB-based pocket PC and cannot be accessed unless the host PC is rebooted into the Pocket Desktop OS.
Pricing for Pocket Desktop is $19.95 for the 4 GB version, $39.95 for the 8 GB model, and $59.99 for the 16 GB model. For more information, check out what Pocket Desktop has to offer here. Now the question is this: will anyone actually let you reboot their desktop or laptop to use this PC-in-a-pocket?
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
-
sykozis I'd be willing to try it, if I could order from a trusted vendor as opposed to a website I've never seen or heard of before.Reply -
el33t What? Isn't bootable linux USBs capable of all those features mentioned something old? Why is this news?Reply -
weierstrass Installing Linux on an USB stick is also pretty easy and will cost you only 10$ for a 16GB one.Reply -
shoelessinsight el33tWhat? Isn't bootable linux USBs capable of all those features mentioned something old? Why is this news?It doesn't sound like they're doing anything that hasn't been doable for the last decade. But for anyone that's not tech savvy enough to set up their own bootable Linux USB drive, there's value in the service of having someone else set it up. So I guess this is new in the sense that a company is now selling that service.Reply -
jhansonxi turbotongWait... if the USB is read-only, then why are the different sizes necessary?Probably using U3 or similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3Reply -
mman74 You can start a business doing this kind of shit? Wow I am going to sell air in a bottle. True you can get your own air readily available anywhere, but I am going to market my air as being more secure, private and free from viruses.Reply -
stickmansam Hmm I wonder if any private info can be grabbed from the ram.Reply
I assume the host computer has a HDD itself and something there can save/copy the ram data from the portable OS session.
Would the encryption prevent that since I think data written to ram is decrypted for use. Does the read only effect this?