AppUp
In existence in beta version for some time, the online AppUp platform took advantage of IDF to move up to its final version. To recap, it has been designed, like the Apple App Store, to put into place an ecosystem for applications designed and optimised for the Atom.
To convince developers, Intel has increased the activity surrounding AppUp and awarded various prizes to the best applications. The company has also announced that it is using its subsidiary, Havok, to make a physics engine available to registered developers free of charge.
Although some big American stores will install App Up on compatible netbooks, the manufacturers themselves still seem reticent. One of the reasons is that they want their slice of the cake too and, as Asus will soon be doing, aim to make their own platforms available.
The Atom on TV
At this IDF, Intel put a strong accent on “smart TVs”, TVs which give the user a richer experience through connection to the internet. Numerous media centers and even a few TVs equipped directly with an Atom CE4100, are ready to hit the market. While Google TV seems to be slightly in the lead, Windows 7 Embedded and MeeGo TV are also right in there.
Google TV is currently based on the Atom CE4100.As the current demos don’t go much further than the media center or the weather, we’ll have to wait for finished products to judge the value of these solutions as well as their reliability.
In the meanwhile, Intel was proud to show off its D-Link Boxee Box which has just moved over from the Tegra 2 chip to the Atom CE4100, explaining that the NVIDIA solution didn’t live up to its promise in terms of HD video performance… a hard hit for NVIDIA who were actually highlighting the video capabilities of its solution.
The D-Link Boxee Box.
