Intel Prepares to Demo Netbook Apps At Mobile World Congress
The Mobile World Congress runs from February 15-18 this year, and Intel has announced it plans to display several applications specifically developed for netbooks and mobile devices. Intel first announced its plans to debut an App Store for Atom, aka AppUp at CES in January. The company's plans have drawn inevitable comparisons to Apple's App Store, but the presentations at MWC will be a useful first look at what Intel's application developer partners have in mind in terms of customized netbook software. According to an Intel blog post, the following applications will be on display:
Companies, like Boxee, already have beta versions of their applications on Intel AppUp
While Intel's AppUp will undoubtedly be evaluated in terms of total downloads and revenue generation, the more interesting question is whether or not Intel can use its netbook nexus to drive platform and software innovation. Microsoft shows no sign of actually doing anything interesting with Windows 7 in the mobile/touch-based arena—hopefully Intel's involvement with Moblin and the collective efforts of a wide array of software engineers can kickstart development in MID/netbook-specific software.
If you want more information on Intel's app store, the website and beta client are available here, with the CES PR details over here.
- Jaycut: Billed as the first complete video editor for MIDs, Jaycut supposedly allows users to edit and upload clips to YouTube on-the-fly.
- Photoflow: Photo-browsing, rapid search, editing capabilities, and more.
- Fanomena: Rates your singing skills. Sadly does not come with gag for silencing obnoxious friends during karaoke night.
- Fluendo: DVD player with support for subtitles, multiple angles, and encrypted discs.
- PopCatcher: Saves streaming music from Internet radio stations. Guaranteed to annoy content providers who want all music distributed via the aforementioned encrypted discs.
- Fring: I quote Intel on this one: "lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile devices: audio and video call, chat, share experiences." I think there's already a popular add for that. Starts with 'F', ends in 'acebook.' And while we're on the topic, if you have to use the word "experiences" twice in your app definition, you've got a focus problem.
- EyeSight: An app that uses your webcam "along with advanced real-time image processing and machine vision algorithms" to track hand motions and control mobile devices. Sounds interesting—if it works.
;)
Companies, like Boxee, already have beta versions of their applications on Intel AppUp
While Intel's AppUp will undoubtedly be evaluated in terms of total downloads and revenue generation, the more interesting question is whether or not Intel can use its netbook nexus to drive platform and software innovation. Microsoft shows no sign of actually doing anything interesting with Windows 7 in the mobile/touch-based arena—hopefully Intel's involvement with Moblin and the collective efforts of a wide array of software engineers can kickstart development in MID/netbook-specific software.
If you want more information on Intel's app store, the website and beta client are available here, with the CES PR details over here.
