By David Ponce

This isn’t exactly new, but now that I’ve seen it work in person, I think y’all should know about this technology. It’s called HyperSpace, and it’s made by Phoenix, the people behind the BIOS of a good chunk of the PCs out there. What it does, in a nutshell, is allow you to use your PC without having to wait for it to boot. You’re about to board a plane and only have two minutes to shoot off an email, waiting for Windows to go through its rigmarole can be a pain. HyperSpace steps in with near instant-on capability, immediately finds the strongest free WiFi around and allows you to launch a limited number of programs. Should you actually want to run Windows, you can press a button and properly launch it.

It accomplishes this through virtualization, and though the company insists on calling it an “alternate computing environment”, it’s really a stripped down OS that piggybacks on Windows and exists solely to help you bypass boot ups. It is quite useful… but it’s far from free. Here comes the negative.

It comes in two flavors, one of which is pretty much useless in my opinion. And it only works on a subscription type basis. The full HyperSpace Hybrid (the version that can virtualize) costs $60 a year, or $150 for three years. The HyperSpace Dual costs $40 a year… but is not as useful since it can only be used independently of Windows. Should you want to boot Windows, you have to restart and select Windows through a dual-boot menu, hence the name.

Full release after the jump.

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