It was bound to happen eventually. Some smart folks over at Phoronix Forums have hacked Splashtop. Well, it’s about time…

The fact that folks want to hack Splashtop is exciting and we want to be as supportive as possible. Just because something has been “hacked” doesn’t mean it’s less safe. We want to encourage folks to explore our product and help us to make it better.

We’ve been working hard trying to get Splashtop onto as many machines as possible over the last few months through proliferation programs. The development community has been promised an SDK from us for a while. We’re very glad to see some talented developers take matters into their own hands.

In fact, we’re inspired here at Splashtop HQ and will work to get the SDK out quickly. We have an early beta version ready now and will start working with selected developers to refine and deliver a polished version. Please e-mail us at developer@splashtop.com if you’re interested in helping out with the effort…and thanks to all of you for pulling us forward!

If you’re interested in some of the coverage on the Splashtop Jailbreak, here you go:

Phoronix
Engadget
Gizmodo

Those who read this blog probably know that I’m a fan of Twitter. If you’d like to read my overview of the microblogging service check out this post. As someone who is really into social media, like Twitter, I’m always excited to find a tool that lets me take advantage of the constant conversation that’s going on. I love to show this tool to people because for those who don’t use Twitter regularly, it is an amazing, magical thing.

If you go to search.twitter.com you will get an interface that looks like this:

This product was created by a company called Summize which was acquired by Twitter. This is useful information if you want to impress nerdy people at a party. So, here’s a real world use of this tool. I have a friend who just started as a Graphic Designer at Whole Foods. She works at their headquarters and is a great designer. She was told that she should “get on twitter” by those she works with as the marketing team was trying to stay up on new web trends (good for them). But, as a new user to Twitter, it’s sometimes hard to find an entry point or make Twitter relevant for you.

I instructed her to go to Search.Twitter and type in “Whole Foods.” Give it a shot. This is a real-time feed of people whose tweets have the words “whole” and “foods.” Amazing! Check out these results and make sure you note the times:

It’s a real time discussion of any subject. So, think of a subject, maybe your company or baby strollers or a movie you might want to see and watch the conversation!

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.

Our friends at Asus recently released their Eee Box (pictured above). It’s an Atom-powered nettop box that is the desktop cousin to the Eee PC netbook. The concept is that internet loving consumers need devices that are differently focused then the traditional bigger, faster, better model that PC manufacturers have provided over the last 15 years. What we need is simple, direct-to-web devices that get us what we need/want efficiently.

The Atom processor has been built specifically for this purpose. This is what the Intel website says,

“If you’re a prolific emailer, avid Web surfer or dedicated VoIP user, you may want a computer focused on getting you online. The Intel® Atom™ processor was specifically designed for simple, compact desktop devices—or nettops—that deliver affordable Internet experiences, making it a great choice for people who primarily want to engage in basic online activities.”

Does this sound familiar to you? If you’re a reader of this blog then you probably know that with the text above, Intel has described Splashtop perfectly. Simple, fast, secure, eco-friendly Splashtop gets you just what you want/need.

It’s exciting that the entire PC industry is developing around the web. That statement sounds simple enough and you might be thinking, “obviously.” But it’s not as obvious as you might think. Not long ago the web browser was a new piece of software, not the centerpiece of the computing experience. The Mac I grew up with didn’t have a modem. Windows 95 was launched without a browser. Now, we have entire processors dedicated to devices whose main focus is to access web applications.

It’s the beginning of an enormous sea change. Think about how devices are now conceived, designed and produced. If you were to design an inexpensive device built for every day usage, what would it do? Access the web. Fast, efficient, secure and eco-friendly. Again a perfect fit for Splashtop.