When news of the Litl Webbook broke out on Wednesday, I was pleased to learn that the company is located here in Boston, since there aren’t nearly as many people in this area making actual hardware devices, as opposed to software and web companies.
I got a chance to sit down with CEO John Chuang for a thorough overview of the Webbook, so check out the above video for some information about the design philosophy and user interface behind the $699 transforming internet computer.
As for the machine itself, it’s a 12-inch laptop-style device with a screen that folds over into an “easel mode” for viewing full screen web channels. The screen has a 178-degree viewing angle and there’s a built-in HDMI output for quick connection to TVs.
The computer stores very little actual data on its 2GB flash drive, instead connecting to existing services and web sites. As such, user settings are constantly synched between multiple Litl machines and there’s no need to worry about losing data, viruses, or any of that stuff. Updates are pushed out silently to machines during the night and you can even pre-customize the “web cards” that will appear on your desktop before ordering. Litl owners in different households can send photos and videos directly to each others’ machines as well.
Most existing web sites can be turned into web cards to be viewed in easel mode and to appear with the other cards on the home screen, although the company has also tapped into various services’ APIs already to create custom interfaces (Weather Channel, Photos, etc.). Easel mode can be controlled with a scroll wheel that’s built into the side of the computer or with an optional $19 remote control.
Litl is priced at $699 and includes “a free two-year unconditional ‘satisfaction guaranteed or your money refunded’ warranty.” See the initial coverage and press release here.
Litl [litl.com]
Sorry $699 is to much. $399 would be the sweet spot
I don’t understand A) How this is worth $699 and B) What’s better about this than compared to, say, a netbook such as the 1005HA?
It’s all about the ease of use. It’s aimed towards a market that want little to do with technical support and capacity building, and more to do with easily accessing information and internet media. People will pay for this stuff. Great product. I can see my parents using this.
Juan, your parents can buy a netbook for $300, so why would they buy this for $700?
Juan – ‘But mom, everything is done in the cloud, it’s worth the extra $400′
Mom – WTF is the cloud? STFU
Interesting idea for my mom or sister, maybe. They can’t handle much more and I’m tired of XP reinstalls.
Price doesn’t matter much w/ free two-year unconditional ‘satisfaction guaranteed or your money refunded’ warranty.
Auto-updating could be sweet too.
Why did they make it look so much like a laptop? If they changed the form factor it would be worth $700. This isn’t a device for techies, but I would buy something like this for members of my family that don’t really use a computer as much as they should – but this isn’t what it could be…
litl’s thinking on price can be found here:
http://litl.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/thinking-of-a-netbook-id-rather-buy-a-litl-let-me-explain/
Really do not care what litl’s thinking on price is.
They are going get to get slaughtered by by cheap netbooks and laptops. $400 maybe a price this could sell at.
“litl provides services you don’t get with current netbooks. We’re maintenance free. You never need to worry about viruses, updates, downloads, plug-ins, security patches, etc.”
Sorry Microsoft updates + live essentials does this for free.
“litl provides all server side OS services for free. Most netbooks don’t have server side OS services. Server side OS services solve, among other things, the syncing problem. You can link litls and automatically share content. That means photos and channels are available on any litl: in your bedroom, kitchen, on your TV, or in your mom’s house across the country. Content is automatically updated and displayed”
BLAH Blah! google, face book, yahoo etc provide all this crap for free. Sure you have to upload the photos, but seriously $700!!! wtf, most people buying this wont even have more than this computer so syncing doesn’t matter.
So I figured out how to solve your $700 problem.
Sell the netbook at $300 and then offer them your cloud OS crap for $100 year (like mobile me does)
You shouldn’t have to buy the cloud OS stuff if you don’t want it. But lets let the market decide.
I bet i will see used litl webbook on ebay for $100 in less than a year
Good idea but not for everyday computing…I think this would be best for a paid computer both, like phone both…Or they could sell this item to hotels, coffee shop, bus stop, taxi cabb etc.
I wouldnt buy it for $100, even if I get it for free I would sell it.
Web Cards for Web Tards.
Looks sweet for $299. 699 LOLZ never.
I really don’t see the point of this at all. For 700 bucks you can buy a range of netbooks or other such gizmos that do way more. The crunchpad concept of a webtop device makes way more sense then this odd looking expensive device…
Great design toward simplicity applying the wisdom of the ages. Enough with the complications of “computer PCs”. This product shows how much computers are still in the era of “Popular Electronics” where we all still have to be professional hobbyists just to keep them working properly.
fancy stuff.. it wont be part of future gadgets..
likes it!
I hate it when companies offer unconditional “no question asked” refunds. When companies are so eager to refund me, I feel bad and end up not returning the item even if I don’t really like it.
Happens to me all the time at Lowe’s…
I guess it is the idea behind no questions asked refunds…
I wonder if I am the only one who is stupid like that…
This is definitely the direction Microsoft and Apple should be heading. Todays mainstream OS’s are ridiculously cumbersome and bloated. If they don’t wake up, one of these ‘litl’ guys are going to surprise the crap out of them and become the next iPod of the the PC world.
It’s called OS X. :p
No really though, OS X is a much simpler and easy to use operating system. The only problem is that it’s pretty much a Mac only type of deal and Mac’s are pretty expensive. Although, you do get fairly top notch performance with a Mac. Apple software is only ever bloated when being used on a Windows machine.
This is too simple though. People aren’t complete and utter fools like they used to be, it’s become far too mainstream. So in my eyes, this device is a niche type of device that is becoming even more of a niche as time goes by.
Take Windows 7 for example. It’s not bloated at all, it’s running just fine on my 5 year old laptop and it’s not exactly super confusing or anything.
Interesting device. Just don’t ever let this guy demo it again. Awful. Awful. Very nice guy I’m sure, but don’t put him in front of customers ever again. Awful.
Sorry to say, but this product is doomed.
$699, seriously? Cool idea, but get it down to $200.
No joke. I mean if you can buy a nice netbook for $300, which you can, are you really going to tell me this is worth $700?? Sure, the screen is a nicer screen and thus more expensive, but c’mon, who are you kidding here? $400 should be the maximum for this product.
Then again, this isn’t for nerds. This is for computer illiterate people. My aunt and uncle spent like a grand on their system and all they do is browse the web lightly and do email stuff. That’s pretty typical last I checked, so this thing sadly has a chance thanks purely to human ignorance.
I wouldn’t call it ignorance. Some people rather spend their time on things other than technology. They would rather be experts on other things in life.
For example. I can’t cook. I spend no time trying to learn how to cook. But I want to eat good food once in a while so I spend bucks going to restaurants,
My friends who cook well, thinks I am wasting money. But I’d rather spend a little more on a restaurant than learn something I don’t want to do.
Some people don’t want to spend time on technology. These folks want to buy easy to use computers with a lot of services built in. They are not “ignorant” or “illiterate.” They just rather spend their time elsewhere.
Google, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Freescale, Nokia, Wondermedi, Anyka are the major companies behind development of smartbooks
Why is TechCrunch/Crunch Gear great at reporting about things that have occured or events happening in real-time, but HORRIBLE, A TOTAL DISASTER at reporting on tech that is coming down the pipeline? –
Smartbooks — look it up — learn it . live it. love it –
fancy but expensive
trying again fancy but expensive
I would like to buy it for $200.
Call it a JitterBox and problem solved ;)
You sir, have just won 2 Internets! Spend them wisely. :p
a bunch of design students got big fundings and thought it would be cool to build a $700 system for computer dummies.
sorry about this but this platform won’t sell at all, cause there is no market for it.
i wonder who invested in them…
This isn’t a $700 system, not by a long shot. It’s just advertised as $700, which is insanely ridiculous. …For people like you and me.
Do you know how much the average computer illiterate adult spends on a PC when all they do is light web browsing and email? When you think of it that way, this is right in that price range.
This is a product that feeds off of sheer ignorance as well as the computer illiterate. I’m not sure if I’m okay with that to be honest, so I kind of hope it fails. Unless they drop the price down to a much much more reasonable number. $400 at MOST and only because that is a pretty nice display they’re using.
yes, the average computer illiterate adult spends around $300 for a device to browse the web.
Netbooks are the solution and they won’t even open a niche for this litl webbook.
I really liked the idea of a webbook I may not prefer this but may be suite a person who requires a easy device to stay connected Device is over priced too
http://www.gizmoji.com/2009/11/litl-unveiled-its-webbook-computer-and.html
Please take a look at 10:30 how quick he is getting out of the fullscreen mode while doing a NON-HD youtube playback. ouch!
Looks like an overgrown Chumby
Nice to see actual innovation and design! Very cool.
If this cost $300, I am sure it would sell like hotcakes. At $700… it’s going to be hard to find a big market. But then the iPhone also started out very expensive. So the next iteration will be interesting to see.
For a *first* iteration, from a *new* company – this is very impressive.
Hardly. Even your asterisks don’t convince me.
Thanks thought. All PC OS’s are individual processor based though today’s computing is moving towards shared processing. Litl wanted to build an OS based on shared processing. We’re going to be really different from everything else out there but our differences should lead to some real advantages. At the end of the day, the consumer is going to get a choice they don’t have now. We think that’s good.
Thanks for appreciating a company willing to try something different.
I agree that shared processing is a very cool idea and I think the Litl has real potential, but its way too expensive considering how limited it is compared to cheaper Netbooks and other devices on the market today. However I also agree that more consumer choices is also a good thing. Definitely a good gift for those who are not so great with computers, but personally I can’t see myself buying one.
Interesting product but why do you use a remote control and/or a wheel? Much better would be a touchscreen.
Easel mode is meant to be totally passive like watching a TV. There is nothing to touch. In fact, the interaction is meant to be recreated on a TV through hdmi. Since arms aren’t that long, remote is a better solution. Flip it over to laptop mode to get full interaction.
Also, most web sites aren’t designed for touch so we thought a trackpad and keyboard would be better in laptop mode.
Looks like wannabe Apple Design…
Nope. Apple is meant to be seen. litl is meant to get out of the way. For example, we try to disappear totally in easel mode. Don’t see us, just your content.
Did you see how choppy it plays youtube video?
I can bet the spects inside of this, ahem, little are… little? you get very little for not so little…
waste
Well the price is just too much…. The price needs to be reduced
$700 my ass. i can write software that will do pretty much same on any netbook and sell it for $100 and it would probably be a better business model then this device.
$700?! That’s gotta be a hoax. Any manufacturer could tailor a netbook with a touchscreen and a Moblin-or-similar operating system for HALF that cost. Hell, I could mod my Lenovo S10 with a touchscreen from eBay and still have spent less than that. This doesn’t even look like it matches up to the $300 netbooks already on the market.
Pretty obviously based on Linux. Where can I download the source?
This could easily be delivered as software to any computer. I don’t see how $700 is justified here? And, as another commenter pointed out, it’s probably based on Linux meaning the source will most likely be available any way.
they should give it a dvd drive 4 movies and stuff and a SD slot 4 pics… facebook degrades the quality of the pictures so they aren’t really big, so they load faster. and hai, what about people who don’t facebook, twitter, myspace, ect.?
I dont do ny of this, and i want pictures.
So, they make a $250 – maybe $300 – computer but selling their “custom” linux-based OS for $400. That’s quite a markup for an operating system (that was FREELY used — did they give anything back?) and even more expensive by a 2X factor over any other major OS (Mac/Win). The litl people already mentioned they had no plans on making the OS available.
The OS seems to be designed for a touchscreen, yet it doesn’t have it.
Some people commented on how slow the video plays. Who cares? You’re not bringing the LAPTOP with you to play any video because you’re not going to stream video onto your LAPTOP when you’re on a plane…and there’s no local storage either.
You might as well have a Chumby (and their new ones run just over $100 so you can buy like 6 of them to sprinkle them around the house).
The concept is perfect for a “touch” web tablet, but no way in a false netbook.
uh, uuuuh, uh, uh, uuuuuuuhm, u, eeee, uhhhm, uh uh, uhhm.
Why didn’t the guy tell his girl friend to do the demo, who presumably would be able to multitask by showing what the device can do without that interfering with the speech center of the brain… I feel bad for the guy, he seemed to be suffering. I have the same problem with uh’s, that’s why I’m not doing any demos.
This is stupid on so many levels.
Please tell me that this is a joke.
Easel Mode? Are you kidding me?
Heard of a tablet PC?
Does the volume control go to 11?
I like some aspects of this such as the “easel” mode, that is kinda cool, but at this price point, I just dont see it selling – laptops and netbooks are cheaper!
I do see a market for this kind of thing, perhaps at internet cafes etc, and places where cloud computing etc make sense, but for the average home user, I am not so sure, especially at that price. If it were say, $100 or so, just a cheap gizmo, I may consider it for my living room when I want to check something online quickly, and dont need my full notebook…
I also agree with some of the comments, make it more distinct looking – looks like most other laptops…
I have a $1300 17″ Laptop that is anything but portable. I told my husband when we bought it a year ago that it was not the one that I wanted–I want a portable computer that I can keep in my kitchen to listen to my Playlist songs on or tune into a Classic TV show while I am cooking. My cats would run all over the keyboard. My 17″ Laptop is not workin’ for me. Yes, is is good for other things, but the Litl machine—I swear I think it was made just for me!!! Hubby knows that is ALL I want for Christmas this year. It is EXACTLY what I have been looking for–portability and an easel mode for my kitchen counter. No more kitties running over the keyboard?! BRILLIANT!!! I can’t wait to get my machine!! (For half the price of my current Laptop). It will become my “Litl Buddy,” that’s for sure!!!! :)
This is NOT what you want to listen to your music, as you would have to upload all you music onto litl servers (?!?!? how much storage do they supply, do they guarantee it? security? privacy?). After you spend all tat time uploading it, you then would need to down,oad it in order to play because it store any of it on the machine. Meanwhile, your ISP is saying you’re over-allocated your data use for the month and doesn’t let you download any more. But that’s okay because the music industry is slapping you with a lawsuit for uploading music files which somehow are getting shared everywhere.
Why the hell are your cat on the kitchen counter? They belong on the floor! Remind me to not eat at your house.