Grid OS, Like Tron Grid?

So I had to show you guys this wacky new thing that is going to hit the market. A company called Fusion Garage (they made the Joo Joo) is producing a tablet called Grid 10 and a smartphone called Grid 4. The numbers are nothing special, that's how many inches the screens are diagonally. I am going to give you my impressions of this odd new OS.

Thanks Engadget for the nice vid

Wow, that was weird right? I felt like someone just put a blue filter on everything and the smurfs are now creating weird new operating systems for our tablets. Let me say that part of the odd coloring was due to poor lighting and the camera used to film. Generally from a better angle and up close it is very normal looking lots of grey and blue highlights. Sound familiar Apple fanboys? I digress, let's get to what I thought about the Fusion Garage's new OS for all the hipsters out there.

First up to bat is the home screen. OK, I give big props for going way out of the box on this thing. I love the way the icons collapse into a folder and expand again. I understand the grid and it was easy to grasp, but just make it more transparent. Big hint, don't show the grid until I touch the screen. I want to see my background and I really don't understand why the clock and dates need to take up half the screen.  Speaking of screen what is the resolution on this thing 480x800? No, in fact it is 1366 x 768 much like the iPad; so why does it look so cheap? Anytime you have to put a PIP to let the user know where they are on the screen, HUGE fail. 

Let's get a little into the hardware of this freak of tech nature. Screen resolution was mentioned earlier and note it does have a 4 point capacitive touchscreen. To the la men that means you and 3 friends can use 1 finger each and do nothing special. Most users will never use more than 2 fingers at a time, but there are some uses for 4 points of touch like playing an onscreen piano or making really bad finger paintings much quicker.

For the social peeps you do get a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, but no rear facing. Wouldn't want you looking stupid outside trying to catch the best sunset ever.

Now for the boring specs:
1.2 GHz dual-core Tegra II processor
GPS
Gyroscope
Accelerometer
Ambient Light Sensor
512 MB RAM (yeah I know, ouch)
Wi-fi b/g/n
16GB memory
3.5" headphone jack
Stereo speakers .5 watts (bust out those lame Kenny G mp3's people no bass here)
Bluetooth 2.1
microSD slot
Dock with HDMI/charging point/USB

One last spec I want to note is the price that I think is a little high. $499 for the wi-fi only version and $599 for the GSM version. No CDMA/LTE versions so don't even think of using this on Verizon or Sprint's network. I don't expect these price points to stay due to the fact they will not sell a lot. I'm a realist people.

Now some of you may be asking what apps are loaded on this OS? Sorry to keep you waiting. This is built on an Android kernel so expect Android's market to be downloadable. To those that develop for Android say it with me now, frag-men-ta-tion. I knew that you could.

As for the UI itself I will let you decide. Yes, I felt it very laggy as well. I hate the way they use gestures. Did you notice he performed one from the left, the right, and from the top? This was confusing to me. Add the obvious lag and I see myself using the gesture 2 or 3 times before I perform the task I want. Did I mention lag? Look at the time it took to get back to the homescreen from any app. 2-3 seconds is not acceptable from a dual-core processor.

Although there are many negatives with the UI I still feel they did some really great things. For instance, all the menus are shown as wheels and typically near the far ends of the screen. This was awesome because now you can use your thumbs for everything and never have to move your hands. Other tablets tend to use this, but not nearly as much. A great example of the wheel menu is in the browser. In the bottom left corner you see your history in a wheel display with tiny screenshots. However, when you use the video player the UI puts the controls in the center of the video completely negating the effectiveness of the wheel menus. Make the controls more consistent and I might put their UI on the top of Android tablets.

Is there a market for this alien like Android device? Yes, most definitely. Today there is a small market for anyone wanting to be different. A lot of consumers hate Apple and want an alternative, but might be bored with what Android has been spitting out the last year. To this I say wait for a price drop and think about snatching a Grid 10. Make sure you load your 720p version of Tron and watch the audio drag behind just like it did in the video above.

Hope you enjoyed the post everybody, feel free to check out the link below for more videos and how-to's about the Grid 10.
http://www.fusiongarage.com/grid-10/guided-tours