Redefining "netbook" with anonymous OS, "TV-like" UI, reliance on Web services
This week at CES, Boston startup litl hopes to make a splash with an innovative laptop-style computer that it calls a “webbook.”
It’s been catching attention since late October, and our Cool Tools Editor, Keith Shaw, did a brief assessment in December. The CES debut, and in-depth reviews from the likes of the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, mark the coming-out party for litl.
At first glance, the litl looks like a slightly bigger-screened netbook, which themselves have become pretty much JUST small, cheap Windows notebooks.
But litl has its own “utility” OS, a radically simplified user interface that discards folders and conventional file management in favor of a search box and a built-in, always on Web browser, a redesigned simple keyboard (no “cap locks” key, for example), and it relies entirely on Web-based applications and services while offering new ways to present them on the device.
Applications or services are displayed as cards, selecting anyone creates a full-screen display. The company reaches back to analog TV for its organizing metaphor: each card represents a separate “channel” of content, and you turn a light-blue-colored wheel on the device or its companion remote to move from one channel to another.
The hinge folds back so the litl can be set up as an “easel” to show photos, a clock, or a video. The 12-inch screen is bright and, strikingly, has what the company says is a 178-degree “viewing cone,” which means you can see clearly what’s displayed from almost any angle. There’s a built-in HDMI port to connect the webbook to any HDMI-compatible flat panel display.
It’s powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, and runs a separate graphics chip. There’s a camera, microphone, two speakers, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 2 gigs of flash memory, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, headphone jack, USB 2.0 and two infrared ports.
Both Shaw and Mossberg are intrigued by the entire approach, and the with boldnes with which litl jettisons PC conventions.
“Because many of us only use computers for things such as e-mail, photo sharing, social networking and other Internet-based activities, the litl can be utilized instead of having to boot up a notebook,” Shaw writes.
“Some of the bold concepts behind the machine are refreshing, including the cloud-computing idea and the very simple interface and operating system, which demand much less work and attention from the user than a traditional PC does,” Mossberg writes.
But both have big reservations. Shaw notes the price tag, nearly $700, is nearly twice what some netbooks cost, and about the same or slightly more than low-end full-fledge notebook PCs. And the device sometimes froze up during his use of it.
Mossberg notes that the simplified UI begins to become cumbersome the more cards or channels you have: there’s no way to quickly move from one application to another, except by turning the litl’s wheel. (Even a TV set top box lets you key in the channel to jump from Fox News to SyFy without having to press ‘+’ repeatedly.)
In easel mode, if you see a news headline you’re interested in, there’s not way to click on a link and see the whole story, he says. And the battery life is “awful.” The battery is rated for 2.5 hours, but Mossberg says he got less than one hour of use. [UPDATE: litl in an email pointed out that Mossberg didn’t say “one hour.” They’re right: somehow I misread that or confused it with an entirely unrelated topic. Mossberg wrote: “The battery life is awful. The company claims 2.5 hours. In my tests, it conked out in less time.”]
The company’s response: it’s meant to be plugged in. Which is pretty lame, especially given the fact that I couldn’t find a SINGLE picture on the litl website that shows the device plugged into an outlet.
Yet the approach is intriguing, and reminds me somewhat of Palm’s thinking with regard to its webOS for the Palm Pre and Pixi. The idea is to connect the user to and integrate with the web. If you take that step, you can use Web standards to further and more fully liberate the mobile UI from the Windows PC (and more generally, all desktop computing) conventions.
