Let’s face it: we all have a folder full of digital photos that never get viewed, shared, or worst of all - never backed-up. Local apps that manage photos never quite get the job done and typically only accomplish one thing - moving that digital shoe box into a fancy user interface where photos never get viewed, shared, or backed-up. Granted you could probably accomplish those task individually with multiple local apps, but as the complexity increases our desire to follow through with an action diminishes. Fortunately, there’s a plethora of photo web apps that act as an all-in-one solution.

Facebook is a social networking platform, or so they say. Over 70 percent of monthly Facebook visitors spend their time viewing or uploading photos. And with over 21 billion photos uploaded, Facebook has undoubtedly become the de-facto standard for photo sharing on the Web. The team over at Facebook have done a phenomenal job in making the experience as simple as possible.

Flickr is another popular photo web app, and it’s the app of choice for many pro and pro-consumer photographers. Flickr offers a compelling set of features - simple but powerful editing tools, geotagging for photos, and versatile sharing tools. But the biggest draw for Flickr is it’s large community of users. It’s an amazing arena to share and showcase photographs to friends, family, and other photographers. And of course, with unlimited storage it’s a quick and easy way to do back-ups for your photos.

Fotki was built with a similar premise as Flickr. What started as a photo sharing site for a close circle of friends has blossomed into a photo printing, selling, and blogging site. The interface is slick and streamlined and makes browsing public photos fun.

SmugMug offers unlimited photos, unlimited storage, no ads, easy uploads, and sharing - it’s easy to see why it’s an up and coming web app. There’s an option for a Pro account where users can even sell photos as stock art.

I borrowed the headline from Technologizer, where Harry McCracken is running a poll to see how quickly people get online in the morning. At the time I voted and saw the results, 43% of respondents claimed to get online before they actually got up - they keep their computers or phones by the bed. For a full 78% of respondents, going online competes with or comes before getting breakfast or walking their dog. Despite millions of unhappy pooches, NY Times reports that waking up to check e-mail and Facebook or Twitter accounts is the new reality of the American morning.

As an enabler of instant-on web browsing, we love these trends. We think that everyone should be able to just turn on their PC and start browsing without waiting. And having the PC illuminating the room at night with its blinking lights is lame - it really should be completely off. With Splashtop, you can turn it on instantly any time you need it.

We also observe that browsing is no longer just one of the things you do on a computer. It is The thing that gets people up, it is the reason why the PC is by the bed, and why the dog gets less walking time. Most of the time, browsing is the only thing people do on a PC. With Splashtop, we turn the PC into an awesome browsing appliance that will be ready for you when… you are finally awake.

The singular goal of DeviceVM and the Splashtop technology is to get you to whatever you’re looking for, quickly and efficiently. We’re the inventors of this space and continually think of ways to innovate. Sometimes we innovate by solving large technical problems like getting your machine up and functional in a matter of seconds. Other times, we observe how people are using technology and attempt to make interface changes that improve the experience of using Splashtop.

Sometimes a small shift in an interface can create a revolution and open up a world of possibilities. That’s why our adding instant search to our list of features is a huge step for Splashtop. Here’s an understatement: people do a lot of searching. We all know this but we didn’t realize how many people use search as a tool for navigating the web. Many of us open a browser check our email, news and Facebook. But a lot of people put the word “Facebook” in a search box and click on the result. Are you one of those people?

Whether or not you use search as a tool for navigating the web, instant search is something we can all appreciate. Where was that restaurant? What was the name of the guy in that movie? What time does the hardware store close? Answers to these questions and more are now seconds away from your inquiring mind.

Our first partners on instant search are very exciting too! Yahoo, Baidu and Yandex have all jumped on board. When we set out to provide this feature it was important that we didn’t let one search engine be the only dominant player. We really wanted to give people a choice as search can be very regional. That’s why we picked partners who had incredible regional relevance. Splashtop users also have a choice as you can switch up the default Search Engine to whatever you prefer. Everyone wins with Instant Search!

Check out some great coverage:

BBC News - Push for ‘instant-on’ web search
CNET - Instant search comes to Splashtop
ComputerWorld - Eyeing Google, Splashtop partners with Yahoo for instant-on web search
Ubergizmo - (Yahoo) Search becomes a priority in Splashtop
VentureBeat - DeviceVM brings search to its ‘instant-on’ Splashtop software
jkOnTheRun - Splashtop Gains Instant Search on Netbooks, Notebooks — Expects User Base of 130m

In its corporate blog post, Google outlined the vision for the Google Chrome OS. This is an exciting development, and validates and reflects what we have been seeing with Splashtop - people want instant-on computing; an easy-to-use interface; and a secure environment with no worries about malware or viruses. Here is how Google explains the motivation behind Chrome OS:

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them.

We could not have said it better! Of course, the market has been moving towards instant-on computing for a while now, and DeviceVM has already seen tremendous success in the space: tens of millions of PCs already shipped with Splashtop, and our announced and shipping customers include HP, Acer, Sony, Lenovo, ASUS, and LG. By the end of 2010,  Splashtop will be in the hands of more than 150M desktop, nettop, notebook, and netbook users.
 
Instant-on became possible because of the web. In the past, computing was all about heavy native applications. Today, most of what we do is in the browser, and “applications” are things like webmail, Twitter, listening to Pandora or watching YouTube. By focusing first on the web, unlike traditional operating systems, Splashtop gets you started in seconds. This also appears to be the direction Google is taking with Chrome OS: “For application developers, the web is the platform.”

The world of web content and apps is diverse. Most popular services in China, for example, are quite different from those in the US (check out http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/CN - Google.cn is in fourth place there). To that end, we have been working with a number of leading regional brands to bring more relevant web services to Splashtop users around the world. Stay tuned for more to come on that!

Updated July 9, 2009

By now I’m sure you’re aware of Google Chrome, a new web browser launched by Google. At DeviceVM, we are keenly aware of everything that happens in the Browser space, because for our lightning fast environment, the browser is the killer application. Just as an FYI, our current browser, called the Splashtop Browser, is based on Mozilla’s browser (Firefox) and optimized to run super fast and limit security risks in the Splashtop environment.

Now, I could go into all the amazing features of Google Chrome because there are many. But, I’m going to let the experts at PCWorld take care of that. To quote PCWorld:

Chrome’s design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called “cloud computing.” At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what’s online and what’s inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page.

This is certainly the beginning of something monumental. This is where we’ll see a shift in the marketplace. It’s no secret that Google believes the future of most, if not all, computing resides in the browser. What the PCWorld quote above is referring to is something called an SSB or Site Specific Browser. The basic idea is to turn a website (or web application like Flickr or Facebook) into something that behaves more like a traditional application. This means that Google believes more and more you’ll be accessing your main applications via web browser.

Check out this quote by Sergei Brin (Google Co-Founder):

“We (Web users) want a very lightweight, fast engine for running applications.”‘

That’s where DeviceVM’s Splashtop comes in. CNET’s Dave Rosenberg noted this the other day:

A very interesting use case would be to integrate Chrome with something like DeviceVM, which provides an “instant-on” application set to bypass the operating system to get users up and running with a subset of applications immediately.

Splashtop and Google Chrome is the future of computing. Get to your favorite web applications seconds after hitting the power button. We don’t burden your system with lots of legacy applications - we take a fresh approach to your computing experience. With Splashtop you get just what you need (and what you want) - web applications running quickly and efficiently, optimized for safety and power conservation. We have a team that focuses on nothing but making sure the “fast engine for running applications” is available. The way we compute will change forever when Splashtop and Google Chrome collide.

Here’s an interesting post by Techcrunch yesterday, July 21st. Michael Arrington suggests boldly that we should all collaborate and create a web tablet. As you can see from the image above, it’s really pretty. At least the industrial designer did a nice job imagining what it might look like. It looked so cool, in fact, that it caught my eye as I was doing my regular scouring of the tech presses.

“Here’s the basic idea: The machine is as thin as possible, runs low end hardware and has a single button for powering it on and off, headphone jacks, a built in camera for video, low end speakers, and a microphone. It will have Wifi, maybe one USB port, a built in battery, half a Gigabyte of RAM, a 4-Gigabyte solid state hard drive. Data input is primarily through an iPhone-like touch screen keyboard. It runs on linux and Firefox. It would be great to have it be built entirely on open source hardware, but including Skype for VOIP and video calls may be a nice touch, too.”

I thought to myself, “wow, that OS sounds a lot like Splashtop.” I also wondered how interesting that would be to others. Would people want one? Clearly we all have computers that do what he is describing and this doesn’t seem like a device for developing countries or children. Well, as I write this there are 668 comments on that post. Most of those who joined the conversation thought it was an amazing idea, some debated how possible it would be and others thought that the EeePC already did what Arrington was asking for. In the 3 years (is that possible?) that I’ve been reading Techcrunch, I have never seen 668 comments on a single post. It makes the post almost unusable as the load time and scrolling is slow.

A couple of us commented that Splashtop was a good idea for this project but ultimately I have no idea if it’s the right fit or if that device will ever actually be created. The point, I think, is that the most commented post in the history of one of the most influential tech and web oriented blogs hypothesized a super lightweight OS whose main function was Firefox and Skype. This is Splashtop.

We all know how influential Apple can be. In the first weekend of the 3G iPhone release over one million units were sold. When I was in line for the first iPhone last year, I was standing in line with super-blogger, Robert Scoble. Here’s a post he shot off while we waited in line together. I think Robert Scoble is a pretty smart dude. I asked him how important the iPhone launch was in terms of milestones in technology. I remember exactly what he said (even a year later), “these only come around once in a while - this is as important as the Windows 95 launch.” At the time, I didn’t realize it. But, he was right. The iPhone launch was a big deal not just in terms of gadgetry but in terms of bringing the web, the REAL web to your pocket. The effect of the iPhone isn’t just felt by iPhone owners, it’s also felt by nearly every new mobile phone purchaser. Whether you have the new Samsung Instinct or the Blackberry Bold there are elements that that are uniquely iPhone.

So, last Friday morning I woke up at 5am. My wife looked at me like I was totally insane (and with the loving patience that spouses of gadget freaks must endure) and I set out to the mall to hit up an AT&T store. I arrived and realized I was number 30 in line. Everyone was excited. There were an equal number of existing iPhone owners and new iPhone candidates. I thought that the 3G iPhone wouldn’t be as big of a deal as the original - after all, it’s not that different than the original iPhone. I was incorrect. Hundreds of people filed into the mall. Most of them didn’t get iPhones. I didn’t stick around to experience the disappointment. I got mine. It’s white 16GB and named Snowball. I won’t go through the activation problems I had - suffice to say I was without a phone for about 4 hours (which is unimaginable - I’m jittery just thinking about it).

My iPhone did finally activate and I was in love all over again. The most remarkable change was the new firmware which included the app store. There were over 500 applications. Some seemed better than others. But, there were some real quality apps. A post on ReadWriteWeb really describes this iPhone release - it’s about the apps. Sure, you can have those apps on your first generation iphone, but many of the location-based apps won’t be as fulfilling. Also, the 3G network really adds value to many of the apps.

My favorite app right now is the Pandora app. Pandora allows you to stream music over the web given individual music channels that you create. So, if you really like Elvis Costello you can create an Elvis Costello channel and Pandora will play Elvis Costello and artists like him. They do a great job of playing music you’ll like. I set up the Pandora app on my iPhone 3G, plugged it in to my car stereo and started streaming channels in my car. I drove all over the place, streaming music to my iPhone and listening to it on my car stereo.

I was so excited about it. Pandora streaming to my phone while driving. It’s another one of those moments when I realized that the future is about Web Application delivered to your devices. Always slightly ahead of the curve, Apple is pushing the envelope. It makes me think that Splashtop is really in the right place at the right time. Our emphasis on Web Applications as the core of our lightning fast environment is the right bet. If any of our readers have an iPhone or use iTunes, I’d be really interested in which apps you find exciting.

Just for fun, here’s an episode of “Will It Blend?” featuring the new iPhone 3G:

update: Techcrunch wrote an article today that similarly praised Pandora.

In a recent GigaOm article, Om Malik talks about his experiences using a Netbook. “Netbook” has become the popular term for devices such as the Asus EeePC, the MSI Wind or the HP miniNote. Om tries to use a Netbook for while and has a less than satisfactory experience. He cites some problems with the weight of the device, battery life and heat.

Interestingly, he also mentions boot time:

“It runs Windows XP and no surprise, takes too long to boot up. (There is a Linux version, but I didn’t try that.)”

Recognizing that this is a nascent industry, Om lists 10 things that Netbooks should do. On the top of his list is Instant On. Clearly we agree. If you take into consideration the “use-case” for a Netbook Instant On becomes essential. Netbooks are travelers. They’re going to be turned on and off constantly. The use is not unlike a mobile phone. “I have to get online real quick to get that map” or “what’s my next appointment, again?”

Another of Om’s points really applies to Splashtop:

“7. The primary function of the computer should be cloud-based activities that can include everything from listening to live music, reading blogs and watching videos. Writing research reports or cranking out spreadsheets isn’t the primary purpose of these machines.”

Splashtop is completely geared towards cloud-based activities. Our main application is the Splashtop Browser. More often we recognize internally that getting people online to their web applications quickly and efficiently is our key value proposition. You really can’t underestimate the importance of speed and convenience.

Brad Linder from Liliputing writes a response to Om’s article. While he disagrees with Om on many points, he does give a nod to the suggestion of an Instant On environment in Netbooks. In fact, he goes on to say that he sees the importance of both an Instant On environment and a full-blown OS living side-by-side.

“Not that I wouldn’t love an instant-on machine. But Asus and other PC makers are addressing this by adding “SplashTop” and other feature that let you boot into a Linux-based OS in a matter of seconds and browse the web, use Skype, and do a few other basic tasks. When you need the full operating system, though, it’s nice to know that it’s available.”

At Splashtop, we really believe in this positioning. As I explained in this post, we see ourselves as the perfect OS companion. This is even more true for a Netbook which is ultra-portable, generally has a smaller battery and needs to be constantly turned on and off.

Thanks Om and Brad for a great discussion.

image credit: geek.com

Well, this morning we have a BIG announcement. Thanks to our growing partnership with Asus, Splashtop is going to be shipping on over a million motherboards a month.

“In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month,” says Joe Hsieh, General Manager, ASUS Motherboard Business Unit. “Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible.”
Note that Express Gate is what Asus calls Splashtop.

This is obviously a big deal to us and everyone involved in DeviceVM. An incredible amount of hard work, patience and perseverance is paying off. To think that 1 million motherboard purchasers a month are going to get our environment is thrilling. Millions of people getting to their favorite web applications seconds after hitting the power button. This is what the team has worked so hard to provide.

Congratulations, everyone! This is just the beginning.

Rafe Needleman at Webware has already covered it here.

Sal Cangeloso over at Geek.com has covered it here.

Thanks Michael Larabel at Phoronix for covering it here.

Nice! We’re on slashdot here. Thanks Timothy.

Rob over at TECHGAGE did a very complete writeup here.

Check our press section for more stories about Splashtop and developments related to this announcement.

Things were certainly busy at the Asus booth where Splashtop was given a small, but effective, enclave. We were visited by interested consumers, potential business parters and members of the press. The press were curious how Splashtop could provide access to your favorite web applications seconds after you hit the power button. Was it true? Was it really that fast? Some press even took out their stopwatches to time it.

One of the cooler press experiences was when Robert Scoble came over to do a live streaming webcast of David giving a demo of Splashtop running on an Asus F8SA Notebook. He was using a Nokia N95 camera to live stream the whole thing to the web. I stood behind Robert and watched the screen as he was filming. I was amazed that comments and questions were popping up on the screen in real time from the audience who were watching the live webcast. It’s amazing how “instant” the back and forth of Robert and the audience was. The technology that makes that happen is incredible.

Webcast below from Qik:

Here are a few other articles that featured Splashtop:

David did a good job being interviewed by Gottabemobile. Click here to watch that video.

Check us out on Techgage.

Or, read about us on Phoronix.

MIT Technology Review had some good stuff to say, click here for that.

Finally, the folks at Engadget stirred up some controversy with this article. I should probably mention that there are no definite plans of putting Splashtop on the EeePC. We just thought it would make giving demos easy and portable.

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Asus booth! Can’t wait for CES 2009!