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.

Everyone’s been talking about Splashtop on the new Asus Eee Box but we’re not allowed to say anything until it’s all “official-like.” It drives me crazy - I always have the scoop on this stuff and I’m not allowed to say anything!

I have to say that I’ve been playing with the Eee Box in the office and it’s a sweet machine. I’m really excited that we’re on it because we’re a perfect match for it. The Eee Box is really focused on getting you on the web. Splashtop is, as you know, the fastest and most efficient way to go from a cold boot to a fully functional web browser. What a great match for the new Atom Processor that Intel is releasing on this device.

When CNET reviewed the Eee Box, they said:

We also like the Eee Box’s start-up software layer, called ExpressGate. Approximately 7 seconds after you power the system, ExpressGate presents you with a pre-Windows operating system with applications for browsing the Web, instant messaging, looking at photos, and making VoIP calls with Skype. The ExpressGate screen gives you a button to load Windows XP if you need to go into the more robust operating system, and if you do nothing once ExpressGate loads, it will move on directly to XP as well. This software is so handy we’d like to see it on every PC.

That’s high praise from CNET. It seems like Asus has again defined a new category with this nettop box. They’re so handy, inexpensive and useful I can see these flying off the shelves. They even include a mounting bracket so that you can mount it to the back of your monitor. How smart is that! Cheers to our friends at Asus and congratulations everyone on another incredible integration of Splashtop.

If you’d like to see the actual press release (you never know), you can find it here.

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

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.

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.

Great news this morning! Our partner, Asus, will be putting Splashtop (branded as Express Gate) on several of their notebooks. This announcement, in advance of Computex, makes this the first official release of the Splashtop environment on notebooks. This is great news for us here at DeviceVM as we have been working hard to proliferate our instant web experience. In addition to our web browser, this version of Splashtop will also include chat, skype, photo management and even online gaming.

This announcement on the heels of our last big news, which projects that Splashtop will be embedded on 1,000,000 Asus motherboards per month, makes May a great month for DeviceVM. Everyone who has been working nights and weekends to make the promise of an instant web experience a reality has reason to be proud. Congratulations!

Here’s some early press coverage:

Engadget

Geek.com

Slashgear

Gizmoden

Techworld

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.

As usual, there’s all kinds of stuff going on over at DeviceVM. We’ve got business people traveling, engineers coding and bloggers blogging. Everyone is heads down working hard. This is a quick roundup of all things Splashtop.

Earth Day

As per my last post, we’re doing our part for that big blue and green planet we live on. We’d like you to do your part by checking out our challenge on Carbon Rally. I know I’m being a bit repetitive but I think that some of these facts are incredible considering how many of us leave our computers on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. By turning off your PC each night, you will reduce your CO2 emissions by a total of 51lbs for the month. That’s 51lbs of CO2! That amounts to $200/year in savings.

It’s being covered by some notable press. Check out the article here on Geek.com.

Matt Cutts gives Splashtop a Shout Out!

No we didn’t pay him ten bucks. And, he isn’t my cousin. He’s Matt Cutts and he’s an important dude to us geeks out there. First of all, he’s in charge of Spam for Google. Not creating Spam but preventing it. He’s also widely known as a technical visionary at Google. That’s why we were pretty stoked when Matt gave us a little shout out when asked, “What’s the most important, cool, scary, or useful product or technology (not made by your company) that’s recently arrived or on the horizon?”

He said us…Splashtop. Check it out…

“I like Splashtop, which uses a tiny version of Linux that can be built into motherboards. The result is an instant-boot operating system that comes for free when you buy (say) an ASUS motherboard. Lots of people know about virtualization and lightweight computers such as OLPC and the Asus EEE machine, but Splashtop strikes me as something different. Someone has to do the initial work to modify Linux to work as a built-in motherboard. But after that initial engineering effort, you get a product where paying for an operating system (OS) is entirely optional. A perfectly fine OS is built right into your motherboard when you buy it.”

Don’t believe me? Read it here.
Thanks Matt!

Web 2.0

This brings us to my last item on the roundup. I’m going to be around those halls at the Moscone this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday hanging out at Web 2.0. If you’re going to be there, please ping me - sol[at]devicevm[dot]com. I’ll have a Splashtop demo unit there if you’d like to try out the Operating System that puts the web at your fingertips!

As reported this morning by Venture Beat, among others, DeviceVM has new partners in Merus Capital, an awesome venture firm that was started by some ex-Google and Microsoft executives. It’s especially cool because we’re the first company that Merus has invested in! Here’s what Venture Beat says:

“The investment is notable because it is the first investment the firm, founded by Salman Ullah, the recently departed vice president of business development at Google, Sean Dempsey, former Principal of Corporate Development at Google, and Peter Hsing, former Managing Director of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft (our coverage of Ullah’s new fund, here).”

Also, we’re really excited that Larry Augustin, founder of SourceForge, has joined our board of directors. Larry is a really nice guy with lots of insight as to how we can make our software more accessible to the larger community.

Personally, I’m enthused that such quality individuals see the vision of DeviceVM and want to help shape it. The ability to access your favorite web applications seconds after you hit the power button is a simple concept, but making sure that such important technology reaches every consumer will take a team of dedicated employees, investors and advisers. Welcome to the team Merus Capital and Larry Augustin!

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!