14 DAY TRIAL // While Apple has the App Store and Google is working on the Android Market application store, Intel is also setting up its AppUp Center. As part of the Atom Developer Program, the company is putting together its own application center. Intel expects software developers to populate this store with both paid and free applications that will allow netbook and other MID owners to increase the functionality of their devices.
The Santa Clara-based IT company has published a blog post within which it describes eight of the applications that it plans to showcase during the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC). During the show, the company will be showcasing netbooks running pieces of software that enable movie viewing, listening to radio, streaming music and editing videos. The list includes programs such as Fring, PopCatcher, Fanomena, Fluoh, JayCut, PhotoFlow, Vagalume and EyeSight.
Intel hopes to make its Intel Atom platform even more popular on netbooks through this AppUp Center project and hopes to grab the attention of application developers by showing off the added functionality provided by such programs. Already, there are developers that have voiced their support for the application store. Of course, they also backed their words up by offering the aforementioned Fring, PopCatcher, Fanomena and Fluoh, which provide online communication, music streaming, singing-skill rating and multimedia playback, respectively.
The remaining four applications that Intel will be showcasing are meant to turn heads through offering both common and sophisticated capabilities to MIDs. The Vagalume acts as a Last.fm client, providing access to a variety of radio stations and a range of extra features, such as tagging artists and displaying album artwork. The JayCut is a video editor that allows end-users to “capture, edit and publish [their] mobile video clips to YouTube on-the-go.” PhotoFlow is a tool that enables a quick and easy image browsing, ordering and zooming. Finally, EyeSight uses the built-in camera to track the user's hand motions, allowing them to control the device and its applications through hand gestures. The utility does this through advanced, real-time image processing and machine vision algorithms.
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) will take place in Barcelona from February 15 to 18.