Litl Easel: 12.1” netbook with custom OS outed

I’ve never come across Litl before, but it looks as if the company has been beavering away behind the scenes to ‘reinvent’ the way we use our PCs. It doesn’t look like they were ready to reveal what they were working on, but Engadget managed to come across the machine from an FCC filing.

We’ll come to the hardware in a minute, as it’s the software that’s unique. It will be loaded with a custom Litl OS that presents the interface similarly to a stack of cards. These cards are classified in three cards (channels): Blue denotes the “permanent” cards and includes settings. White denotes the web cards, such as Mozilla whilst the black cards can be thought of as widgets (clock, weather etc). It even has a dedicated blue “Litl” key that works as a home page.

The hardware is a mixed bag. You get a 12.1-inch (1280 x 800) display powered by a 1.86GHz Z540 Atom CPU. However this powerful processor is married with just 1GB RAM storage and a paltry 2GB of flash storage. Other features include HDMI, Wi-Fi (b/g), webcam, a solitary USB port and 2,600mAh battery. Interestingly, there is also an IR receiver that is meant to be used with a Litl remote. The whole thing weighs 1.53kg (3.38lbs).

There’s no word on launch date right now, but a teaser is already up on the official website right now, which hopefully means it won’t be too much longer before we learn more from this intriguing project. The company certainly is making bold claims of the device, here’s what’s on the website right now:

“Ready to hit the reset button on personal computing? litl is. Grounded in the needs of families like our own, we’re busy rethinking tomorrow’s personal computer and its role in our homes. Every day, we’re working hard to bring the world our vision of simple, functional technology.”