Click through for an early UME test and a recent test of Linpus Lite.
I think it’s fair to say that a huge amount of work is going into user interface development for UMPCs right now. As the market matures and more products become available, especially in the consumer market, the UI will be incredibly important. Its the element that connects the user and it can make or break the first ten minutes of user experience. It will also be used as a key differentiator between similar devices. The Gigabyte, Aigo and A-Bit UMPC are good examples. All look very much the same on paper but have a very different look and feel. I have a video to post later that shows the Gigabyte interface in a bit more detail but for now, take a look at these links to community members who are working on UI projects right now.
First, there’s Dan, the Linux man, who’s just bought a Q1 Ultra so that he can install and test Ubuntu Mobile from Canonical, one of the companies that will be using Moblin to build a UMPC and MID-focused Linux distribution. He’s already installed a beta image so keep an eye on his blog for more info. The last time I tested it on a UMPC, it had a long way to go but I’m happy to say that it looks pretty slick on the MID demonstrators we was at CeBIT. Planned launch for Ubuntu Mobile is end of April and its the resason that I haven’t sold my Q1 Ultra yet.
The other thing to check out is Eee PC news forums (German) where Kai-HH has put together an ‘easy mode’ interface for XP on the Eee PC complete with skins.
