Splashtop
Software for Windows and Mac OS App for Android, iOS, HP webOS
Splashtop is the name of a product family with instant-on operating system and various remote desktop solutions of the software development company Splashtop Inc.
Founded as DeviceVM In 2006, the company brought out first a special Linux distribution, which to be particularly fast and protected against malicious software " Virtual Appliance Environment" (UAE ) could be integrated into the BIOS of their products of motherboards manufacturers.
Meanwhile, the company is however best known for " Splashtop Remote", a remote control software for the operating systems Windows and Mac OS, as clients also iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the Kindle Fire or Android devices or HP webOS allow.
Splashtop Remote technology
The newer product line of remote desktop software consists of the following applications
- Splashtop Remote Desktop allows you to connect via computer, smartphone or tablet to another computer, take control of and to stream the screen output
- Splashtop Remote Browser allowed on a remote-controlled computers to openable the default browser and display on smartphone, tablet or another computer.
- Splashtop Whiteboard turns an iPad or Android tablet into an interactive whiteboard
- Splashtop xDisplay allows the use of an iPad as an extended screen, can be transferred to the application window from another computer wirelessly.
- Splashtop Touchpad allows you to use an iPod Touch or iPhone to another computer as a remote control or wireless keyboard
Splashtop OS
Concept of the Virtual Appliance Environment
Splashtop was initially provided as an embedded solution for a permanent installation in hardware. Users can install one or more additional operating systems, but also without any installation already at startup an environment for various applications for surfing and phone calls over the Internet. Other advantages of the solution for maintenance and repair, for example for the removal of malicious software.
The system is ready for use in just about 5 seconds and is therefore marketed as "instant -on ".
Benefits of "instant -on" technology are:
- Very much faster booting of the operating system
- Higher readiness, the system in between off ( energy saving )
- As firmly implemented system software at all, or hardly changed and therefore well protected against attacks
- As a full operating system allows a diskless computer.
- A very slim solution with low hardware requirements
Disadvantages include:
- Drivers can not be added later, so that the user is limited in selection of additional hardware on a few devices, usually only the offer of the motherboard manufacturer. Particularly problematic when no Internet connection is possible because drivers for retrofitted wireless LAN components are missing.
More recent versions of major computer manufacturers in its own design and with its own brand name, as Insta -boot (Acer), Express Gate ( Asus ), Latitude ON ( Dell ), QuickWeb (HP ), Quick Start ( Lenovo ) Smart ON (LG ) and QuickWeb (Sony) sold.
Properties and Development
Splashtop already had in the beta version a graphical user interface, a Web browser based on Mozilla Firefox 3 with support for the Adobe Flash Player 10 and IP telephony with Skype. It used bootsplash, Squashfs, black box ( window manager ), SCIM and the Linux kernel 2.6.20. In January 2008 LinDVD, a software DVD player Corel Photo Manager, NTFS support for reading and writing to Windows partitions and Pidgin instant messaging were added. The next version 2.0 improved the handling of UMTS, allowing benutzerspeziefische adjustments to the desktop and could be steered for the first time via touch screen. The netbook Lenovo Ideapad S10 -3t with Quick Start, the Asus EeePC T91MT with Express Gate and other devices from Acer, LG and HP QuickWeb with were among the first that were shipped with Splashtop 2.0.
Splashtop first required its own 512 MB large flash memory on the motherboard, which is why he was reserved mainly premium boards, like the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe / WiFi-AP, on which it was first used. A proprietary core software starts with the BIOS and load a customized Linux distribution called Virtual Appliance Environment ( UAE) after. While these UAE running, the user can " Virtual Applications" (VA) start. For the lower price segment, the Linux files can be stored on the hard drive and loaded via the BIOS from there.
In February 2011 it was decided to change with Splashtop OS on the platform Meego and thus to open the possibility of being able to re-install applications on the Intel App Store. Shortly after the system was as a free download for end users to re-installation on the hard disk. In November, the conversion of the browser Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome and the default search from Google to Bing followed. Since the spring of 2012, this version of the Splashtop OS is not longer available.