The litl webbook is a

webbook Webbooks (a portmanteau of World Wide Web, web and notebook computer) are a class of laptop computers such as the litl, Elonex and Coxion webbook computers. The word may also refer to books that are available in HTML on the World Wide Web, web. an ...

developed, marketed, and sold by litl LLC. It features the ability to stand upright in an inverted-V position (referred to as "easel mode") and a cloud-based operating system called litl OS.

Origins

Litl's CEO John Chuang, also co-founder of

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, has said that the origins of the litl webbook lay in his observation that while his family was increasingly using web applications, their home computer was based on pre-web.

Engineering partners

The industrial design of the Litl webbook was by

Fuseproject Fuseproject is an industrial design and branding firm. Founded in 1999 by designer Yves Béhar, the company works across an array of industries including beauty and fashion, furniture and technology and is based in San Francisco and New York City. ...

with engineering design by MOTO Development Group. FIC manufactures the device.

Operating system

Litl OS is the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

-oriented

operating environment In computer software, an operating environment or integrated applications environment is the environment in which users run application software. The environment consists of a user interface provided by an applications manager and usually an app ...

of the Litl webbook.

User interface philosophy

The litl OS interface removes several conventional elements of general-purpose

desktop environments In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

. Litl state that a set of principles were developed to guide the design of the interface, including using a rule that any computer task that had the word "management" next to it was removed.

User interface structure

Litl OS's user interface utilizes graphic elements called "cards" to organize browsing sessions and content instead of the tabs and menus found on conventional desktops: Flicking through cards in Easel mode (when the screen is flipped back on itself causing the webbook to be in an A-frame position) is done using a blue-colored click-wheel (called the "litl wheel") on the litl webbook or remote control. The card concept, easel mode and general usage of the interface are demonstrated in Litl's videos. The interfaces to some web content are also customized by Litl or third parties to integrate with Litl OS and are referred to as litl channels. (Litl OS's optional display method for RSS feeds is also referred to as a "litl channel"). Customizations and settings are minimal in keeping with the design goals of simplicity and ease of use.

Designers

User interface concepts were first mapped out by

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

working closely with Litl.

Personas A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatri ...

and detailed interaction design were by Cooper Consulting in consultation with Litl's internal design team. Fort Franklin also contributed to some design elements.

Software details

The underlying

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

is a mobile/embedded distribution of

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...

provided by

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

. The user interface is written largely in Mozilla's dialect of Javascript using the gjs binding to access

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

and

Clutter Clutter and its derivations may refer to any of the following: Excessive physical disorder * Clutter, a confusing, or disorderly, state or collection, and possible symptom of compulsive hoarding * Clutter (marketing), numerous advertisements, a ...

UI elements. Litl automatically performs nightly software updates, and the OS stores browser cards, web channels, settings, and contacts online at

Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its e- ...

using a web service running on Google's App Engine and the Django framework. Open source components of the operating system's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

can be obtained on DVD from Litl.

Specifications

References

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