webbook video

Still confused about the Litl Easel webbook? It’s an internet and entertainment-centric laptop that doesn’t behave like a typical laptop, even though it looks an awful lot like a laptop. The folks at CrunchGear got to sit down with the developers recently and they’ve put together a 16 minute demo showing just what the device can do. You can check out the video after the page break.

In a nutshell, the thing that sets the Easel apart is the operating system. Litl OS is designed to behave more like a TV or internet appliance than a traditional computer operating system. There are no folders or desktop shortcuts. Instead you have a series of “cards” that you can flip through to perform different actions. And every program opens in full screen mode.

In other words, it’s a dumbed down internet appliance that has the guts of a fully functional netbook, but which is designed to do less… not more. And for that, Litl wants to charge $699, or about twice the price of a typical netbook.

Is it worth it? I guess that depends on how much you hate normal computers. If you’re reading this web site though, my guess is you’re more interested in the Litl Easel because you’re wondering if it can be hacked to run Ubuntu, OS X, or Windows XP. After all, it does have a few interesting hardware features such as a display which can be folded to a 178 degree angle to let you use the laptop in a sort of picture-frame mode and a GPU which can handle HD video and HDMI output.

You can find the CrunchGear video below.


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4 replies on “Litl Easel webbook gets video demo: Still not worth $699”

  1. Hi. I’m from litl. We feel that “dumbed down” misses the big picture with our device. We’re building a new platform for accessing the web and we’re beginning with our webbook. Simplicity, smarts and elegance are litl bywords. Not everybody wants or needs the vast array of options and settings that conventional OSs provide. Our webbook is primarily for leisure use around the home. If you’re looking for evidence of just how much people are hassled by maintenance issues and complexity, have a look at Nat Friedman’s article “Computer Frustration” https://nat.org/blog/2009/11/computer-frustration/

    Nat concludes: “People are so frustrated with computers that products and services that make things simpler and more reliable have a huge market.”

    To quote our own litl_guy: litl gives choice in the market.Right now, there are a lot of operating systems that let you do everything nine different ways. Those who crave customization are all set.However, there is a very large group of people out there who don’t care about every option and preference. These people say “Choose for me, don’t make me decide.” These people are not “old” or “ignorant” or “illiterate.” They choose to have other interests than computers. They probably already have a PC. But they need a machine for everyday utility. A machine to do what people spend 90% of their time doing – email, web browsing, and photos/videos.Litl represents a different option for people. Simplicity, ease of use, OS out of the way, yet full access to application controls.And frankly, though our initial target market won’t notice (nor do we want them to be bothered by this stuff), litl is among the most modern OSs out there. Our server-side OS services give us some nice advantages that you can’t get from a local processor based OS (sharing, syncing, backups.) Also, because we designed our UI for a spectrum of connected devices (not a particular device) we can deliver content ubiquity within the same experience.

  2. For what it does, I think $299 would be too much to pay for it. I think they should some major reducing in price if they really want to sell them.

  3. Come on! They can’t possibly think this is what the consumer wants. I would be a Nettop or better netbook for that price.

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