Stardock Releases Multiplicity

Combine multiple computers together into a single computing platform

Published on February 28, 2005 By Stardock Central In WinCustomize News

LIVONIA, MI (February 28, 2005) - Software developer Stardock Corporation released Multiplicity today. Multiplicity is a program that enables users to control multiple local computers with a single keyboard and mouse.

Multiplicity works by having a primary computer with a keyboard, mouse and monitor connected to it and multiple local secondary computers that still have a monitor connected to them but no keyboard or mouse. When the user moves their mouse cursor from the primary computer to one of the monitors connected to a secondary computer, the user is then controlling that secondary computer. Multiplicity then ties them all together with a single universal clipboard enabling the user to seamlessly work with multiple computers at the same time. Multiplicity talks to the other computers through the user’s network connection.

For users, it’s a similar experience to a multiple monitor set up on a single personal computer except in this case, each monitor is connected to its own computer. This enables users to take advantage of the power and resources of an entirely separate computer but with the same convenience and usability as the traditional multiple monitor set up.

“It’s totally seamless,” said Brad Wardell, Product Manager of Multiplicity. “I can be playing a full screen game on one screen and have an instant messaging conversation going on the other computer. I just move my mouse over to the other monitor to type a response and then move it back to continue controlling my character in the game I’m playing.”

Because Multiplicity provides a universal clipboard between computers, users can copy images or text from one machine, move their mouse over to another monitor, and paste it. The Multiplicity Pro adds the ability for users to also copy and paste files and entire directories between machines.

Stardock plans to target engineering firms, testing centers, power users, gamers, hardware OEMs, and other markets that tend to have people that may have multiple computers.

“If you’ve ever sent yourself an email in order to move a file or piece of data from one computer to then you need Multiplicity,” said Wardell. “If you are currently in an office where there’s keyboard and mice taking over your desk or table, you need Multiplicity.”

Multiplicity is designed to be very easy to set up. Stardock hopes to make the program convenient and intuitive enough to attract a very wide audience.

“With an increasing number of individuals and businesses upgrading their machines to the latest hardware but finding that their ‘old’ machines are still useful, Multiplicity is ideal,” said Wardell. “Now those computers can be used together to increase the user’s productivity. It is also extremely valuable for users looking to migrate their programs and data to a new machine since they can migrate to the new computer at their leisure with Multiplicity – use both computers and slowly move things over to the newer computer as needed.”

Multiplicity comes in two forms, standard and professional. Multiplicity standard version lists for $39.95 and supports controlling two computers. Multiplicity Pro lists for $69.95 which supports controlling up to six secondary computers as well as supporting copying files and folders between machines.

A demo version of Multiplicity is available on its home page. Its website is http://www.multiplicity.net.

Versions:
Multiplicity Standard: $39.95
Multiplicity Pro: $69.95

Requires:
• Windows XP, 2000, or 2003 (MacOS and Linux versions in development).
• At least two computers with at least 1 monitor on each computer.
• A TCP/IP network connection between the machines

Developer:
Stardock Corp. (www.stardock.com).
17292 Farmington Rd.
Livonia MI 48152

# # #
About Stardock:
Stardock is a Midwestern Windows software development company. It is best known for creating software that extends and enhances to functionality of Microsoft Windows. Its principle product is a suite of desktop enhancements called Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) which includes its popular utilities WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, SkinStudio, RightClick, Keyboard LaunchPad, and much more.

It also runs the worlds most popular desktop customization website called WinCustomize.com (www.wincustomize.com) which receives over 3 million unique visitors each month.

Stardock has also developed popular PC strategy games such as the award winning Galactic Civilizations (www.galciv.com) and The Political Machine (www.politicalmachine.com). Its game software is available at retail as well as through its innovative electronic distribution network TotalGaming.net (www.totalgaming.net).

Comments

qrayg

on Feb 28, 2005

I'm confused... how is this different or better than the FREE built in Windows Remote Desktop?

Omeganon

on Feb 28, 2005

This isn't really a new idea. I've been using synergy2 for years. Not only does it do most of the things this app does, it supports multiple computers, it's cross-platform and it's free.

--
Omeganon

Frogboy

on Feb 28, 2005

Guys, would it kill you to at least try the program for coming on and opening your mouth with something like that?

Remote desktop is (as the name implies) a REMOTE control program for controlling an external computer on your local desktop.

Omeganon, great for you that you think Synergy is neat. I'm sure there are people who swear by The Gimp too but most people will choose Photoshop.

Perhaps you could download and try the program before arguing how something else does the same thing.

Island Dog

on Feb 28, 2005

Here we go again.

Omeganon

on Feb 28, 2005

I'm sorry I offended you Brad but you do appear to be awfully touchy about it. My only point was that this is not new 'whiz-bang-wow' technology as the article seems to imply. You also came down pretty hard on the first guy because he simply didn't understand the difference between the two. I thought it was a perfectly valid question myself (for someone who hadn't used a similar application before). I have long been a Stardock user and will certainly give it a try.

Frogboy

on Feb 28, 2005

Omeganon,

It didn't look to me that grayg had read the actual release. He just appears to me (IMO) that he read the first paragraph and responded. I don't see how one could think it was comparable to remote desktop if one had read it.

As for Synergy, it's just something we keep getting people saying without having tried it. The press release doesn't imply that this is a revolutionary idea. Or that it's even new.

iTunes wasn't a revolutionary idea or a new one either. But people, I suspect, prefer to use something like iTunes to play their music than some command line program for playing music. Having used Synergy, a lot, I really have a hard time understanding how you can say you have been using it for the past 2 years. On a daily basis? It loses connections regularly, it's flakey, it's incredibly hard to set up, it doesn't have reliable clipboard support, it doesn't have file copying support. It's more like a tech demo.

On paper, console mode email clients can probably do much the same thing as MS Outlook. Does that mean Outlook should be free? If something costs $40 or $70 it seems to imply that there is something pretty significant about it over something that is free.

Island Dog

on Feb 28, 2005

It was released on Betanews and the "free" people are starting there rants.

Link

culverSE

on Feb 28, 2005

I downloaded the trial and YOU KICK SYNERGY's butt without question. I have used Synergy and feel I am a moderately skilled computer user and programmer and I even had trouble with it. There is no way say, my dad, would ever get it to work. But Multiplicity has the missing part....the user interface. Multiplicity, you can tell, was built to help people who may not know that much about this stuff and I LOVE IT.

But one burning question I have ..... WHEN oh WHEN is the timeframe for the Mac OSX version. Do you even have a proposed time (weeks, months, a year...please no). Once you get this there is nothing anyone can say about Synergy or anything else (and the PRO version will be mine

)

I can't wait to see what else you guys are cooking up for ThinkDesk

qrayg

on Mar 01, 2005

Frogboy,

First off, my username is qrayg.

Second I read the whole before I posted my question. I don't see how this is supposed to be better than Remote Desktop. RD is not just a remote control. It actually lets you log in and use your computer... not through a remote control... the actual computer, interface and all.

I would love to download and try it out but I'm afraid of what it might install on my machine. I've noticed that all Stardock software adds startup registry settings and little misc files that are nearly impossible to remove. I prefer software that is self running and does not need external libraries that are dropped in random places on boot drive.

It took me a few days to fully clean out the Iconpackager and Objectdock installs since the uninstaller leaves all of this extra garbage all over the OS. Some might consider that spyware.

I'm probably part of a very small percentage of computer users that wants a clean computer. I have an OS drive that only has the OS. Then I have a drive that has all of my applications installed. That way I can reformat my OS whenever I want and my apps are ready to go with all of my settings intact. Stardock apps don't work with this setup. That's why I switched to YzDock and Iphile.

Frogboy

on Mar 01, 2005

Qrayg, whatever.

WolfwoodX

on Mar 02, 2005

Stardock charges too much for my wallet.

DustyRoad

on Mar 04, 2005

Downloaded it , Installed it , Configured it , Quick and Easy , Works Great!

ZubaZ

on Mar 04, 2005

Dusty, what are you using it for? I heard that the original design was targeted at gamers www.mobmaster.net.Link

I'm not a gamer, I use it as an extended desktop to my tabletPC.

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