{"id":953,"date":"2009-11-14T19:40:34","date_gmt":"2009-11-14T19:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/?p=953"},"modified":"2009-11-14T19:40:34","modified_gmt":"2009-11-14T19:40:34","slug":"litl-the-explictly-social-webbook-for-the-living-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/14\/litl-the-explictly-social-webbook-for-the-living-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Litl, the explictly social webbook, for the living room"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/litl.com\/\">litl<\/a> is a $695 &#8216;webbook&#8217; with a 2-year money-back guarantee. via <a href=\"http:\/\/flashmobile.scottjanousek.com\/\">Scott Janousek<\/a> ((Scott is a Boston-based flash developer I first discovered when <a href=\"http:\/\/chumbylover.wordpress.com\/\">following<\/a> the <a href=\"http:\/\/chumby.com\/\">chumby<\/a>. Scott has started <a href=\"http:\/\/litl.scottjanousek.com\/\">his own blog devoted to the litl<\/a>, which, like the chumby, uses widgets. More <a href=\"http:\/\/flashmobile.scottjanousek.com\/2009\/11\/11\/my-new-litl-blog-litl-scottjanousek-com\/\">details<\/a> from his <a href=\"http:\/\/flashmobile.scottjanousek.com\/2009\/11\/04\/litl-launches-its-new-social-and-cloud-computing-based-webbook\/\">regular<\/a> blog.))<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"litl_product_05\" href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/4077444437\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2710\/4077444437_2a0b8ec0dd.jpg\" \/><\/a><br \/><small><a title=\"litl_product_05\" href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/4077444437\/\">cc licensed flickr photo<\/a> shared by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/people\/litl\/\">litl<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>The company is selling the litl as the no-fuss way to get online at home. It reminds me of the olpc more than anything I&#8217;ve seen:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;practically sunlight readable&#8221; screen<\/li>\n<li>explicitly social (more <a href=\"#social\">below<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>has a handle<\/li>\n<li>converts to an easel<\/li>\n<li>its own new, linux-based Litl OS<\/li>\n<li>keyboard changes and simplification: &#8220;We\u2019ve eliminated the inscrutable function keys and buttons with weird symbols. We also took out the cap locks key, which everyone uses only by mistake.&#8221; They&#8217;ve also added a &#8216;Litl button&#8217; to get back to the home screen.<\/li>\n<li>everything is always full screen ((well, except that you get 12 widgets on the homescreen))<\/li>\n<li>3 pounds<\/li>\n<li>sturdy: only moving part is a small fan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s also something of an ambient information device, with focus on viewing rather than typing, and &#8216;distracted interaction&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Like the chumby, litl is<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/4070778235\/\"> invites others to build widgets<\/a><\/li>\n<li>advertises itself as a clock<\/li>\n<li>has channels (which can be synced with the other lidls)<\/li>\n<li>unusual navigation (in litl&#8217;s case: a roller-wheel and remote control)<\/li>\n<li>has upgraded packaging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Marketing is snazzy, with a lot of thought into packaging, including card illustrations by David Macaulay<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/sets\/72157622598987539\/\"> (flickr)<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.litl.com\/2009\/11\/04\/the-way-litl-works-by-david-macaulay\/\">company blog post<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"litl_philosophy.cards_13\" href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/4071541884\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2664\/4071541884_28e1d41be2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small><a title=\"litl_philosophy.cards_13\" href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/litl\/4071541884\/\">cc licensed flickr photo<\/a> shared by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/people\/litl\/\">litl<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>Litl has a strong social media presence. For instance, they advertise their minimalist packaging with a company-made unboxing video:<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7543988&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=99cccc&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" src=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7543988&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=99cccc&amp;fullscreen=1\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/7543988\">litl webbook unboxing<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/litl\">litl<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the company website, the most detailed information is from <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/wroush\">Wade Roush<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/boston\/2009\/11\/04\/the-litl-computer-that-could-boston-startup-tries-a-new-take-on-the-home-internet-appliance\/\">xconomy Boston review<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In place of a desktop, the Webbook has a home screen that displays up to 12 boxes that Chuang calls \u201cWeb cards.\u201d Some represent Web pages, others represent RSS feeds, and still others represent widgets or \u201cchannels\u201d that are the Webbook\u2019s closest thing to native applications\u2014for example, there\u2019s an egg timer widget for use in the kitchen and a Weather Channel widget that shows the temperature outdoors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a name=\"social\"><\/a>The litl is explicitly social: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.litl.com\/more-fun\/sharing.htm\">&#8220;By linking multiple litls, you can synchronize channels automatically.&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nA &#8216;share&#8217; button also pushes the current content to another Litl.<\/p>\n<p>Convenience features<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> cloud-computing\n<ul>\n<li>synch multiple litls (whole machine or only certain channels)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> pulls in images (e.g. from flickr and Shutterfly)<\/li>\n<li> TV-integration: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.litl.com\/more-fun\/channels.htm\">\u201cWhat if we could combine the limitless amount of content on the web with the \u2018lean back\u2019 experience of the TV?&#8221;<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>HDMI port<\/li>\n<li>has an optional remote control<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The litl is a $695 &#8216;webbook&#8217; with a 2-year money-back guarantee. via Scott Janousek ((Scott is a Boston-based flash developer I first discovered when following the chumby. Scott has started his own blog devoted to the litl, which, like the chumby, uses widgets. More details from his regular blog.)) cc licensed flickr photo shared by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[195,192,191,194,196,193],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts","tag-ambient-information","tag-chumby","tag-hardware","tag-litl","tag-netbooks","tag-olpc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodischneider.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}