"Sharpcast Photos is based on the premise that sync works best when it’s completely transparent and you don’t have to think about it.”

That is a very good premise.

One that should appeal to the vast majority of mobile users, especially those who have grappled with syncing problems via ActiveSync and other leading mobile-to-PC sync software.

Sharpcast – one of the Web 2.0 Dazzling Dozen startups from the recent Supernova event – has launched their Sharpcast Photos Beta, the first of what will be a series of products that will establish them as a "pioneer in personal media synchronization and management".

Some more highlights from their announcement and web-site:

• The product stands out among contemporary offerings for its effortless sharing, offline access to photos from anywhere, transparent syncing to and from mobile phones, automatic back-up, and ultra-simple recovery, duplication or migration of an entire photo collection to a brand new PC with its organization fully intact.
• Sharpcast is pioneering the concept of applying synchronization as the single answer to several problems – managing multiple photo collections on PCs and the web, tedious web uploads and downloads, sharing and protecting photos, getting photos off your mobile phone, and accessing photos remotely …
• There’s also an Alpha version of the Sharpcast Photos mobile edition, optimized in the U.S. for the Motorola Q, the Palm Treo 700w, the Sprint PPC-6700 and the Verizon XV 6700.
• They’ve got plans to bring out a client for other Windows Mobile device later this summer.
• Oh, and apparently they’ve got a glowing review from Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal

Would love to hear any initial impressions from anyone who has a chance to try this on a Treo 700w, a Q, or an Apache (check the FAQ and Known Issues on their site before downloading the Alpha).

For more info and free downloads:

Sharpcast Photos Beta press release

Downloads – for XP, Web, Mobiles