Litl OS ‘Channels’ feature detailed on video
November 26, 2009 at 10:17 am
We have already seen some elements of the Litl OS used in its Webbook device a couple of weeks ago. The company has now given a more detailed video demonstration of the ‘Channels’ feature within Litl OS.
As a quick reminder, Litl OS is a custom operating system that presents the interface as a stack of cards. These cards are classified in three channels: Blue denotes the “permanent” cards and includes settings. White denotes the web cards, such as Mozilla whilst the black cards are channel headers and can be thought of as widgets (clock, weather etc).
It is the Channel headers that is the focus of the video and shows you can add different ‘cards’, whether they are widget or website based. You can add web cards via the RSS feed of websites, where you are asked to “add (the) channel”. This displays the headline and news article, much like a sexier take on Google Reader.
You also see ‘Card Catalog’ that shows a selection of channel cards to add to your system. When placed in Easel Mode, these feed articles are shown off in full screen in large text that cycles through the latest news. Whilst it all looks nice, whether this simple & clean UI will be enough to entice users to part with $699 is another question.
November 30th, 2009 5:36 PM
Hi Jet
Thanks for posting about our channels video. I’ll draw your post to the attention of our channels team in case they want to comment – you should feel free to ping them.
Just on our price – what people tend to miss about litl is this: unlike cheap netbooks, our device is a designer device for the home and uses premium hardware components. In particular we use a very high quality best-in-class LCD – it’s very bright and has a huge viewing angle. You can view this screen in bright sunlight and almost anywhere in front of the plane of the screen. This screen is a substantial proportion of our bill of materials and that has to get reflected in our price. Similarly we use a high quality low travel scissor action keyboard. These components are not cheap and these help create a great user experience on our device. Unlike most netbooks, we have an hdmi output so you can plug your device into a big screen tv. This and other special engineering features were not cheap to implement As I’ve said elsewhere, you get what you pay for.
November 30th, 2009 6:30 PM
Thanks for the feedback Phil! 🙂