Happy New Year and welcome to the new Jolicloud!

I am very excited to introduce the new Jolicloud which has been in development since last summer. With the new Jolicloud we are still pursuing the same idea: to combine the infinite power of the cloud with the most simple and elegant user interface.

With Joli OS, we’ve already made 750 000 low cost computers look cooler and better connected to the cloud. With Jolicloud we introduced the first consumer platform designed for the cloud, with a portable desktop and more than 1500 free webapps.

But with the success of mobile devices and the increasing amount of data we produce in the cloud, there was an opportunity to create the perfect platform to manage your digital life.

The new Jolicloud wants to be the home for your most precious content and help you decide what matters and who can access your online content. Because we are platform and service agnostic we can provide the best and most useful experience for the user. The new Jolicloud will keep all the features that you loved from the previous version: quick access to your favorite apps, access to Dropbox and Google Docs.

Here are the new features available:

Discover what you own.

Jolicloud automatically finds and organizes your content from Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa and Twitter and more than 80 other types of services, to create your personal cloud.

Keep what you love.

Collections are the best way to save and quickly access what matters.

As you can see the desktop user interface has been entirely redesigned. It’s gorgeous and more powerful than ever. Everything is there: your apps, your content, your collections. In short everything that matters.

Share what you want.

As you will discover, Jolicloud is the easiest way to share anything from any service with your close friends. From Web to mobile, iPhone to Android, just focus on what you want to share.

The transition plan to the new Jolicloud

We will migrate Web users first and push the new interface to Joli OS users when we leave the beta stage. In the meantime, there will be a quick access to the new user interface in the Joli OS desktop.

At the same time we will introduce the iPhone and Android apps to bring the Jolicloud experience to all of your devices.

We can’t wait to hear your feedback and suggestions about the new product.
With the number of requests to test the beta exceeding 70 000 people, we ask you to forgive us if you are not upgraded right away. We want to provide the best quality of service to everyone.

2012 is the year of the cloud. Let’s make it easy and fun for everyone!
Oh, and if you haven’t already registered for our beta, please sign up here.
Enjoy!

Update: Thanks everyone for your huge interest! We are closing this post but don’t worry, we continue to roll out the beta and stay tuned on Twitter for another chance to get an instant invite!

After announcing the new Jolicloud, we started sending out invites some weeks ago. We are still rolling out to the thousands of you who signed up but if you can’t wait any longer leave us your Jolicloud username in the comments section of this blog post. Don’t forget you need to have signed up on beta.jolicloud.com first.

Thank you for your patience!

My name is Martin Karasek and I am the lead designer here at Jolicloud.

At Jolicloud we have a great passion for design. We love simplicity and elegant interfaces. Through our design we strive to make complex stuff simple and beautiful. From the beginning of our project we have worked with world class designers like Jon Hicks, Benjamin de Cock, Cat Oshiro, Ian Hart, Simon Rohrbach, Michael Villar and William Wilkinson in order to bring the best design to our products. Here is a sample of some of our favorite works.

If you like what we do please nominate Jolicloud for the Best Design 2011 Crunchie!

Thanks for your help!

Dear Joliclouders,

This summer we announced that we were working on a new product and more than 35 000 people registered for the beta without knowing the details. We’ve been amazed and humbled by such a response. Today we want to offer more details about what we have been working on over the last months: the new Jolicloud platform.

With the first Jolicloud platform, we wanted to give anyone access to the cloud. We created a very simple OS and the first Web app store with access to the coolest applications online. 600 000 users and more than 15 million apps installed later, we decided to reinvent Jolicloud to give you the possibility to access your entire personal cloud.

4 months ago, we started building an entire new platform that makes it easy to access from one place, all the things you care about, we call it the personal cloud.

With Jolicloud, you will be able to access your personal cloud from your iPhone, your Android phone, your tablet, your computer and pretty much any connected device with our API. Joli OS, our own operating system used in many schools and public service as a free way to recycle old computers to connect them to the cloud, has been open sourced and is now available to the community. All our existing OS users will benefit from our new platform.

Be the first to try our exciting new product, register for the private beta at beta.jolicloud.com, we will start rolling out invites soon!

It’s been a while since you’ve had an update from us but we’ve been working hard on something big. We will tell you a bit about that very soon! In the meantime, we have some updates for you on Joli OS.

Joli OS Updates

We’re happy to announce that Firefox is back in the App Center and it’s Firefox 5! Remember like all the apps in the Jolicloud App Center, it will be automatically synchronized on all your devices.

Some other native apps have also been upgraded including:

• Adobe AIR 2.6.0
• Banshee 2.0.1
• Dropbox Client 0.6.8
• Gimp 2.6.8
• Hulu Desktop 0.9.8
• Skype 2.2.0.35
• Thunderbird 3.1.10
• Transmission 2.31
• ZumoDrive 0.989

You’ll get a notification on your desktop or you can just go to the settings tab to see if you have updates available. Also, on the browser front we will have an upgrade to Chromium 13 for you by the end of the month.

Jolicloud Desktop

In addition to the native apps listed above, many new Web apps have been added to the App Center. Some of these include 500px, Podio, Google+, Angry Birds, Google Music, Amazon Cloud Player or Pica Pic. Don’t forget you can add your own Web apps from the App Center and share them with your friends by clicking on the star icon.

Stay tuned… More coming soon!

Following the Dropbox integration, we have integrated Google Docs so you can access and edit documents directly from the Jolicloud File Browser.

The feature is available now. If you don’t see it, just refresh your Jolicloud Desktop.

How to setup Google Docs

Just go to the File Browser and click “Google Docs” in the left sidebar. Then click “Link to my Google Docs” and on the next screen, log into Google and grant Jolicloud access to Google Docs.

Link your Google Docs account to your Jolicloud page

Browse and edit your documents

Access your Google Docs in the File Browser

Your Google Docs will appear in your File Browser. You can also browse not only documents, but also all the files uploaded to your Google Docs. To instantly preview any document, just click the file name or the Preview button.

Preview documents quickly in Jolicloud

You can quickly view and edit files within Jolicloud.

Edit documents quickly in Jolicloud

As with the Dropbox integration this connection is persistent. So now anytime you log into your Jolicloud either via a browser or Joli OS, your Google Docs and Dropbox files will appear automatically inside your desktop.

We have lots of services in mind for future releases but we would love to hear your ideas too.

We want Jolicloud to become your new homepage, the place where you can conveniently access and organize all the things your care about in the cloud!

If you are using Chrome, install our Chrome App or set my.jolicloud.com as your browser’s homepage on Firefox 4 and Safari 5.

Happy Joliclouding!

We recently integrated Dropbox into our Jolicloud Desktop and we are delighted to see that so many of you are enjoying it!

How to set up your Dropbox

First you need to link your Dropbox to your Jolicloud. Just click “Link to my Dropbox” as you see on the screenshot below and then “Add” the Dropbox service. You will be redirected to the Dropbox website in order to authorize the Jolicloud app. Log into your Dropbox account or create one and get 2GB of free online storage. Once the connection is granted, you are redirected back to Jolicloud.

Dropbox Integration in Jolicloud

Access your Dropbox files

As soon as you are connected to Dropbox, your files will appear in the File Browser. You can browse documents, check their details and launch them directly from your Jolicloud Desktop. For more advanced features like file renaming, we facilitate the access to the Dropbox website.

Access all your Dropbox folders from Jolicloud

Preview Dropbox documents

Some media files like music, photos and videos can be accessed directly inside Jolicloud. This feature depends on the HTML5 audio and video codecs installed in your browser. If you are using Joli OS, make sure to install the HTML5 Video add-on to preview media files.

Playing a Dropbox video on your Jolicloud

We hope you will enjoy the easy access to your Dropbox content from the Jolicloud Desktop. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback on how we could improve this integration and what services should be added next. Stay tuned for more announcements on this!

Using Chrome? Don’t forget you can install the Jolicloud app from the Chrome Web Store!

Happy Joliclouding!

Check out some of the latest additions to our Jolicloud App Center:

MoodShare — Selling ideas just got easier.

MoodShare is an intuitive moodboard editor designed for creatives and planners on a deadline. The app lets you set up one or several moodboards within a project page, and capture media from Google, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter or your desktop using the lightbox at the bottom of the screen. Simply drag and drop items to create your board. Once it is done you can invite colleagues or clients into the creative process.

Min.us — Share simply.

Min.us provides a dead-simple way to share your images and files online with a drag and drop interface. Simply drag you file from your desktop and folders directly to your browser and it will automatically start uploading the content. Once the upload is complete, you can easily share the image or file online using the link provided by Minus.

LendInk — An easy way to borrow Kindle and Nook eBooks.

LendInk connects eBook lenders and borrowers by letting users post their Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook Books to loan and find new books to borrow. Simply browse the new and notable section, or search for the book you want. After checking it’s being offered in the format of your choice you put in a request and the lender has 48 hours to respond.

Knifetank: The Hauntening — Choose your path.

KnifeTank: The Hauntening is an indie point-an-click adventure game built in HTML5 that sees you start out as a child on a broken down school bus. Naturally, there is a haunted mansion down the street which you decide to go and check out. Keep an eye for the text that pops up as you make your way throughout the mansion. You need to click around to collect items and find the keys – and knives – to success, but beware, the game occasionally kills you unexpectedly.

Dashed — Just draw!

Not quite a game but a playful app, Dashed lets you draw on an endless canvas with other users in real time. It was made by Steffen Konerow, who also created an HTML5 tank demo called NetTank. Additional features may be added in the future.

Know some great applications that are not yet in the App Center? Don’t forget you can now add your Web apps to the Jolicloud desktop and share them with your friends! From the App Center, just click on the “Add New App” to add them to your Launcher.

Happy Joliclouding!

Following up on our previous blog posts on the new direction for Jolicloud and the Joli OS 1.2 feature list, we’d like to share with you some of the features that are available in the new Jolicloud desktop and Joli OS 1.2. Both of which are now available.

The fastest way to try the Jolicloud desktop is to install the Jolicloud Chrome App now!

A Whole New Design

We enhanced the design and fine tuned the user interface. Features like app sharing (the little star) can now be found more easily. We have included lots of cool new wallpapers like the one below.

The New Launcher

Create Your Own Apps

Now you can easily create your own apps in seconds! Just type in the URL of your favorite site and Jolicloud will add it as an app to your Launcher. You can even share your creations with friends.

Instant App Creation Wizard

Seamless Dropbox Integration

Link your Dropbox account to your Jolicloud, access to your files from any instance of your Jolicloud desktop (including the one of your Joli OS device). We will include other cloud services soon, so stay tuned!

Dropbox Integrated In Jolicloud

Jolicloud Public Page

All Jolicloud users have a public page to share web apps and services with friends and colleagues. Any apps you star will be on your public page. Of course if you don’t want one, it’s easy to disable it in your settings.

If you are a Joli OS user, you’ll get a special Recycler badge added to your profile.

Jolicloud Public Page with the Recycler Badge

Don’t forget try out the new Jolicloud Chrome App and let us know what you think!

Happy Joliclouding!

Following up on our blog post yesterday, we’d like to share with you some of the features which will be available in the new Joli OS 1.2 later this week. Tomorrow, we’ll show you screenshots of the next version of the Jolicloud Desktop, our online product.

New Startup Experience

We’ve redesigned the boot and login screens.

New boot screen

New login screen (built with HTML5 technologies)

Guest Mode

We have introduced a Guest Mode to let your friends safely borrow your computer: they browse the Web in guest mode, and their files and settings are saved in a disposable file system that is swept away once they’re done. If they already have a Jolicloud account, they can automatically retrieve their Jolicloud personal desktop.

New Guest Mode to lend your Joli computer to your friends

New File Browser

In Joli OS 1.2, we have integrated the local file system inside the Jolicloud desktop. You can browse your local and external files (USB keys, SD cards, hard drives), preview documents and see how much disk space you have available.

File Browser

File Preview

Continuous Desktop Experience

All Joli OS users can access their personal desktop from any HTML5 capable browser. The goal is to offer a continuous desktop experience on multiple devices. If you own multiple computers running Joli OS they will be automatically synchronized.

If you’re using Chrome, we recommend you install the Jolicloud app from the Chrome Web Store.

Jolicloud Desktop on Joli OS, Chrome Windows and Chrome Mac

Auto-Login

One of the much requested features was the ability to automatically log into your session on start-up.

One-Click Auto-Login

Performance Improvements

We have improved the update management process. Your updates will now download automatically in the background and if you want, you can choose to delay them until you’ve finished your session.

Joli OS 1.2 users will also enjoy the latest Chromium 10 browser and the most recent update of Flash 10.2. The OS runs faster on older machines.

In addition, we’ve made lots of other optimizations to the OS, which will enhance your overall experience of Joli OS. In particular, you’ll notice that your Web apps now install and sync in a flash.

All users will be automatically upgraded to 1.2. As usual, our support team is here to help you if you need.

Stay tuned for more details about the upcoming new Jolicloud desktop.

Happy Joliclouding!