litl’s SDK plans, revisited by Xconomy
Chuck Freedman, litl's developer evangelist, demonstrates the BakeSpace recipes channel on the litl webbook.
We shared our plans last week to release our first-ever software development kit (SDK). It’s pretty exciting news: starting this summer, hundreds of thousands of developers will be able to build custom applications or “channels” for the litl webbook. Better yet, these developers will be using Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, the newest version of the ubiquitous web platform.
Our channels make the web—especially fun content like photos, music, games, video, recipes, and even news headlines—more useful and entertaining. Check out our Facebook Status channel, for example, to see how our users can already keep up with their social circle from across a kitchen or bedroom (or even on a large-screen television). Our BakeSpace recipe and NPR podcasting channels are worth a look, too.
Over time, we expect the new SDK will lead to many new channels for the litl webbook ... and many new ways for our users to enjoy the web. As they say, that’s a good thing!
Wade Roush from Xconomy sat down this week with litl's James Gardner, head of marketing, and Chuck Freedman, chief developer evangelist, to learn more about the SDK and its potential significance. He writes:
“The company announced last week that it’s getting ready to release a software development kit (SDK) that will enable Web and software developers to create their own custom channels for the Webbook. These channels are all built on Flash, the lingua franca of Web animation and the one type of content that doesn’t work on the iPhone or the iPad.
That’s good news for Litl customers, and it could also benefit developers. “By putting another screen, another kind of experience into homes, we’re bringing a unique audience into the market and giving independent and agency developers another audience to build for,” says Chuck Freedman, Litl’s chief developer evangelist.”
Read the rest of Roush’s article here. If you’re a developer and want to learn more, visit our developer resources website here.
Thanks, Wade, for your interest in litl. We appreciate it.
Photo courtesy of Wade Roush and Xconomy. Trademarks and copyrights referenced are the property of their respective owners. No endorsement is implied or intended.
A winning pair
Last month, in the run-up to our BakeSpace recipe channel launch, we held a “Give a litl Love” contest in which we gave away a pair of litl webbooks — one to keep and one to share. Hundreds of cooks and bakers entered through Twitter and BakeSpace, and we had a blast reading through what each of you planned to do with the extra litl. We wish we could put a litl in all of your kitchens, but, alas, we could only pick one of you!
Our lucky winner is Michelle Lashbrook from Murphy, Texas, and we wanted to share her entry with you:
“Oh *WOW* what a fantastic giveaway!! I'd absolutely LOVE to win these!! I'd share one with my beautiful new daughter-in-law so she, too, could enjoy having one on the kitchen counter while cooking up scrumptious new recipes from BakeSpace!! YUMMY!! 
I hope we win!!”
Congratulations, Michelle! We hope you and your daughter-in-law cook many a recipe with the help of your new litls. And thanks again to BakeSpace for its help with the promo.
litl webbook with big news
We announced some really exciting news this morning!
In a few short weeks, litl will be releasing our first-ever software development kit (SDK). The SDK — a set of tools for software developers — will enable developers outside of our team to create their own custom applications for the litl webbook. Better yet, the SDK will fully support Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, the newest and most powerful version of this popular web platform. Developers can learn more at our resources website and then attend the SDK's official launch on May 14.
If you're not a developer, why is this news important to you?
The litl webbook is amazingly versatile. It goes online like a a conventional laptop and helps you visit your favorite websites with its modern browser. However, it can also stand upright like an easel when its screen and keyboard are flipped around its hinge. In this new mode, users can access web content through custom applications or “channels”. Check out litl’s fun Facebook Status channel as an example. With the SDK’s release, users will benefit from a much larger selection of free and paid channels created by independent developers.
Our planned upgrade to Flash Player 10.1 is also important. Adobe's Flash is a software platform that's popular for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. The web isn't much fun without it! The new version will use the litl's processors more efficiently and will ensure your favorite websites run faster than ever — especially the ones with games and videos. When it's released on the litl, we expect to see improved performance everywhere from Club Penguin and Farmville to Hulu and Miniclip.
And, as always, upgrades like this are done automatically and at no cost to litl's webbook owners.
Let us know what you think — here, by email, or on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you.
litl: sdk & flash player 10.1 on Vimeo
litl: sdk & flash player 10.1 on YouTube
Celebrating design with Design Museum Boston
Thanks to Design Museum Boston for inviting litl to participate in their launch celebration last night! They’re an exciting new group that’s coming together to “educate the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy.”
We love great design and were happy to both attend and donate a litl webbook for their silent auction. If you also appreciate design, they’d like to hear from you.
Listen up, NPR fans!
Do you organize your weekends so you don’t miss “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!”? Have your family’s music lessons taken on a new energy because of “From The Top”? Is “Morning Edition” as important to your morning as your first cup of coffee?
If you’re one of NPR’s 26.4 million weekly listeners, you know the special place their news, talk, and entertainment programming occupies in many people’s hearts and minds. Much of it is gold, pure gold.
And yet, who hasn’t missed a favorite show due to an overly busy schedule? Or wished they could schedule a “can't miss” program for when they had a few moments of downtime? Or wanted to listen to multiple episodes of a favorite show back-to-back?
We’re excited to introduce the latest channel for the litl webbook: NPR Anytime. The channel, available immediately for free to litl webbook owners, provides easy “on demand” access to more than 800 of NPR’s podcasted shows. Users can enjoy shows missed during their live broadcast, create their own custom programming schedule, and, more generally, listen to their NPR favorites when, where, and how they choose.
“Our family has always been fans of public radio, but we used to miss a lot of our favorite shows because we were so busy. Now, if we miss a show, we just use our litl to get caught up. I can also pick and choose what I listen to while I’m working in my home office, cleaning up in the kitchen, or just relaxing around the house,” says blogger and mom Mia Wenjen. “The NPR channel makes our litl even more useful for me and my family.”
Marsha Collier, author and media personality, adds, “I’m drawn to the litl because of its versatility. It does regular web browsing, but I like it just as much when it’s perched upright on my kitchen counter or night table. It’s not just a computer now, it’s also a clock, a web TV, a photo frame, a radio, a Facebook viewer, and even an NPR podcast player.”
What do you think? Will “on demand” access to NPR's shows help make the litl webbook the ideal kitchen computer for your family? Let us know—here, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
The litl webbook operates in 2 modes for maximum versatility. In its unique "easel" mode, users enjoy web content ranging from NPR's podcasts and online photos to web video and news headlines.
Even from across a room, the NPR Anytime channel quickly communicates what show is being enjoyed. By way of the litl webbook's on-hinge scroll wheel or optional remote control, users can pause playback, jump forward or backward, or browse other episodes.
Most of NPR's podcasted shows have multiple episodes available for "on demand" listening. Users can read a description of each show, review what episodes are available, and make their listening selection.
Photo courtesy of frants / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Trademarks and copyrights referenced are the property of their respective owners. No endorsement is implied or intended.
Hands-on review in the Star-Ledger
“I have seriously considered tossing my computer out the window,” writes the Newark Star-Ledger's Allan Hoffman at the start of his review of the litl webbook. “Though miraculous in their capabilities, today’s personal computers can be a chore to operate and maintain, especially when we’re using them for everyday activities like checking e-mail, surfing the web and sorting through photos.”
We couldn’t agree more. So when it came time to design the litl, we had two options:
- Build a computer that could withstand defenestration, or
- Start from scratch to build a home computer without the “computer-y” stuff.
We went with the latter.
Hoffman goes on to talk about several of the improvements litl has made in home computing, including easel mode, which “genuinely transforms the litl into something other than personal computer.”
There may be no greater compliment than that.
The full review is a testament to the breakthroughs in simplicity we have achieved with the litl webbook. Read the full review at NJ.com.
Thanks to Allan for his interest in the litl webbook.
Conversation with Marsha Collier and Marc Cohen
Marsha Collier and Marc Cohen, well-known hosts of the “Computer and Technology Radio” show interviewed litl’s head of marketing, James Gardner, over the weekend. The interview was broadcast live on KTRB San Francisco and worldwide on the Internet.
Marsha shared her first-hand experience with the litl webbook and then the group discussed some of the computer’s more unique capabilities. Babette Pepaj, CEO and founder of BakeSpace, joined the call midstream to talk about the litl webbook’s recently launched BakeSpace Recipes channel. The new channel offers litl webbook users easy access to the website’s more than 50,000 member-submitted recipes.
Listen to Marsha, Marc, James, and Babette discuss the litl webbook:
Thanks to Marsha and Marc for their interest in the litl webbook! We appreciated the opportunity to join the weekend’s show.
Download interview MP3: Marsha Collier and Marc Cohen - litl webbook interview 03-2010
Getting better all the time
Because the litl updates its software automatically, we are constantly making improvements to the litl's performance. Today, we released a new batch of updates that will make the litl's photo and video experience faster and easier to use.
First, we redesigned our signature channel, Mediawall. In particular, we improved speed and made navigation more intuitive when looking through your timeline and albums.
