Intel presents MeeGo tablet prototype

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Intel MeeGo tablet

Intel launched a developer preview of its MeeGo Linux distribution for tablets on Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Unlike the netbook version of MeeGo, the tablet variant is based on dynamic panels rather than a traditional grid view of applications. The company says this is to make the user interface (UI) more user focused than application focused.

The OS is shown here running on a prototype tablet. Intel said it expects real devices to hit the shelves later in 2011.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo tablet picture viewer

The tablet version of MeeGo has a picture-viewer application that makes good use of the large amount of screen space on offer.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo video player

MeeGo's video player worked well in the demonstration shown to ZDNet UK.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo tablet menu options

One notable feature of the tablet version of MeeGo is the ability to call up a menu of contextual options for most elements of the UI.

In this case, a long press on a photo results in a range of options including sharing the photo or setting it as the desktop background.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo tablet browser

The browser demonstrated on the MeeGo prototype tablet was Flash capable.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo tablet Gmail client

One of the applications shown in the MeeGo demonstration was a simple Gmail client, which looked much more cut down than the equivalent client on the iPad or new Android tablets.

Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer
MeeGo portrait view

Although Intel was keen on showing off the more tablet-optimised panel interface, it is easy to switch back to the traditional application grid view if desired.

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Published: February 15, 2011 -- 12:59 GMT (04:59 PST)
Photo by: David Meyer

Caption by: David Meyer