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Sriram Sharma

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Posted on 26-11-2009

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An Israeli Design house called Else Ltd, formerly known Emblaze Mobile announced their first device – called First ELSE in London yesterday. It claims a tightly integrated user experience, and is based on the open source Access Linux Platform 3.0, a next-gen version of the Palm OS.

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The website: firstelse.com, promises the second coming – “a user-experience-centric philosophy designed to enhance man-machine capabilities through pre-integration services and a revolutionary one-click interface.”  

Man-machine capabilities…, Street Hawk? The flash website has an emulation of the interface which is pretty unconvincing on a netbook, but there’s a video out on YouTube, which looks freakin’ sweet. The phone is expected sometime in first quarter 2010.

Engadget, which has the story mentions a proprietary graphics engine and has the CEO Amir Kupervas calling the sPlay interface “the death of the main menu”. Pocketlint.com, which has an exclusive first look has him saying that the inspiration was from the movies Fifth Element and Minority Report. Not to be outdone, they have made their own comparisons of the interface to the HUD in The Terminator.

Simplicity has been the guiding design mantra for most devices that don’t suffer from legacy of a bygone era. Device makers try and reduce the number of clicks or taps, but with First ELSE, one just slides the finger, letting the menu options fan out. The highlighted item gets selected once you lift your finger.

Unfortunately for left handers, the phone only works with the right hand. A flip capacity is planned for a future update.

Specs wise, this phone has a 3.5 inch capacitive LCD touch screen capable of 854x480 resolution, storage up to 32 GB, and has the same processor as the one found on the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre.

It has a 5-megapixel camera, UMTS/HSDPA, GSM, EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, microUSB and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

There will also be an SDK out, so that developers can add their own apps, but this is where First Else will be last, considering their unique interface won’t easily blend in with other third party apps.