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We are beta testing Splashtop Remote desktop for Mac OS X. If you use a Mac with Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), you can get to your desktop from your iPhone or iPad, and fully experience Mac OS remotely - video, sound, and all. Lukeyy19 made a great YouTube video with the Mac OS beta, launching iMovie, iTunes, and even Photoshop remotely (thanks dude!). Check out the video:

Keep in mind that this is still in beta, and not all features have been implemented yet. But we’d love to get your comments on how it is working for ya.

For years now, we’ve been shipping Splashtop, the widely recognized leading instant-on computing platform, via an impressive array of PC OEMs, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, and Sony. And we’ve often heard from people - many would-be users - in our support and feedback forum that they wished Splashtop was available for download so they could take it for a spin without buying a brand new system with Splashtop pre-installed.

Well today, we’re taking the first step toward making all of that possible, and just in time for the holidays. We’ve just posted the first ever beta release of Splashtop OS (yes, our own branded offering), available free for download from here. For this introductory beta period, it is available for a limited number of computer models, with plans to add more as we work toward general availability in early 2011.

So what’s Splashtop OS all about?  In a word: the browser. It’s about getting you connected to whatever you want online, right away. No frills, no clutter, just instant-on, streamlined computing designed to get you to whatever you care about - fast. It boots into a search-centric splash page featuring Bing, our new default search provider thanks to a partnership with Microsoft (also announced today).

Within seconds of powering on, you’ll be typing a search query into the Bing-powered box or clicking a thumbnail from a recent browsing history. You’ll then be seamlessly transported to a familiar browser environment based on Chromium.  For this long time supporter of the Mozilla project, the move to Chromium is new too - and we think you’ll like it.

From here its up to you - Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Hulu, YouTube, your sister’s blog - whatever you want, right away.  The Flash plug-in is pre-installed so there’s nothing to configure or set-up. Splashtop OS imports key settings from Windows at the time of install. Language, date and time - check. Wifi settings - check. Bookmarks - check.

You can read more in the press release, or watch a short video first. But try it out and tell us what you think via our discussion board or Twitter.

iPad is great for watching videos, especially if you are in bed and do not want your laptop there. There are some limitations, though - no DVD drive, and no Flash or Silverlight support. Some web sites create their own free apps for the iPad to get around these issues. YouTube and Netflix have done that. But that's far from universal.

With Splashtop Remote on your iPad, of course, you are fully in control - whatever video site you can access in your PC's browser, you can also watch on your iPad remotely. To demonstrate that point, here is a video of Hulu video running on an iPad via Splashtop Remote:

Our team has put together the first ever demonstration of the MeeGo Touch Framework and handset UI running on the TI OMAP™ 4 processor, the newest in the line of processors that are widely used for mobile phones:

Some cool Aussie tried playing Runescape on an iPad using Splashtop Remote, and uploaded this video to YouTube:

I have not tried Runescape myself, so cannot vouch for the experience, but it seems to be very playable. If you tried Runescape or any other games using Splashtop Remote, please share your comments with us. Either leave a comment on this blog post, or send us a Tweet. We want Splashtop Remote to be the very best solution for remote gaming, so your thoughts - and especially videos - are very very valuable!

Cooliris is one of the coolest applications that I thought would be terrific with touch even before their iPad version came out. Now with an iPad running Splashtop Remote, I tried the Windows version of Cooliris over a remote connection:

On our Wifi network it works as well as the native app, and is very easy to control with normal iPad gestures. Awesome! Of course, the point here is not to replace the native iPad Cooliris app. It is that even a highly interactive Windows application like Cooliris works well remotely with Splashtop Remote.

2009 was a busy year for netbooks. According to Display Search worldwide shipments are expected to hit 33 million units, that is a 103% jump from 2008. Even the very definition of a netbook is jumping around with each manufacturer molding the netbook in its own way. LG, for example, is differentiating itself through software: The LG X-120, one of the first netbooks to boast 3G cellular connectivity, includes Smart ON that’s powered by Splashtop. Engadget did a great review of it and ended up calling Splashtop “LG’s biggest asset” – we were proud to say the least.

Thanks to AT&T and Radio Shack (The Shack), the X-120 is now available in the U.S. for the first time for $179.99 with a 2-year contract. For those not interested in a subsidized netbook, I picked mine up today for $399 off contract.

If you want to learn more about the X-120 you can take a virtual demo of it on LG’s site.  I’ll leave you with this video I took of Splashtop booting up for the first time on the X-120.

LG X-120 booting Splashtop

I have a tech job. And, like the throngs of other people in Silicon Valley we all have parents who don't even try to understand what we do because, you know...it's technical. "Oh he works in technology," my Mom would say to friends and family at holidays. No other details. She never tried to understand. Well all that changed last week when NBC came into the DeviceVM office to do an interview. I've tried to explain a thousand times what Splashtop does because I think it's easy enough to understand. But, my mother just says, "that sounds real nice honey." I know she doesn't get it.

Why is it, then, that when Scott Budman, NBC news correspondent, talks about Splashtop it suddenly makes sense? I guess that's why he's on TV and I write a blog. After this aired last week, my Mom called me excitedly, "Scott Budman says that Splashtop can get you online in seconds!" Thanks, Scott, for giving my Mom something to talk about at Maj Jong next week.

Here's a link to the article.

Here's the video...

CES allowed us to continue to demonstrate the power of our fast booting, web-centric operating environment. There were a couple videos that we wanted to share with you. The first is Sergei's incredible appearance on "Into Tomorrow" with Dave Graveline. Check it out...

Next, we have a "Death Match" between a bunch of Splashtop enabled machines hosted by GottaBeMobile, who stopped by our booth. As you'll see every Splashtop device runs very quickly. The difference is often the components used in the machines. You might expect a less expensive netbook to run a bit slower than a super high end, more expensive device. In my opinion, the real "death match" occurs between Splashtop and a traditional OS (check out the video on this NY Times article to see what I'm talking about). Here's a link to the full GottaBeMobile article.

We just picked this up off the wire. Here's a great demo of Splashtop (as the Voodoo IOS) given by HP CTO Rahul Sood. Not only does he give a great demo of the product, he also talks about why IOS is important. It's not a very long video because our system boots so fast! Check it out: