SmartQ today announced two big possible shake ups to their MID line up, not with new products, but with a change in the apparent firmware and UI. Firstly SmartQ has announced the development of a media player only UI dubbed Conola 2, which seems to be a UI dedicated for image, audio and video playback. Those who are familiar with the Q5 will know that the current firmware for the Q5/Q7 is very sluggish and riddled with issues, a lot of issues have to do with poor video and audio format support. Conola 2 seems to be fix to this issue. I guess SmartQ realize that fixing the Ubuntu ARM to work properly maybe to hard of a task and easier to make something like the Conola 2.

Edit: For those like me that don’t know, Conola 2 is a media application that was developed for Maemo - Should have figured that SmartQ wouldn’t have actually try to make something themselves some more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_(software)

The video interface looks very simple and clean.

Sorting, why yes and even playlist support - but just one playlist, but multiple and the UI is nicely laidout.

What has not been confirmed is if Conola 2 is just an app tha can be run after the Q5 boots up under the Ubuntu ARM or if it will be a second type of operating system that can be selected at boot up. I reallu hope that its a second OS and not just a dedicated media app.

The second big news and possible again apparent confirmation that SmartQ may nto be able to get the Ubuntu ARM to work better on their MID devices, is that Window CE will also be given as an optional bootable OS instead of the linux operating system. Some maybe wondering why SmartQ is looking to load the antichrist of mobile OS on their linux MID devices, well simply WinCE would probably run a lot better than the current ubuntu and may make the device a more popular buy than it currently is.

Anyways look out for more announcements as we get them about the new OS/UI for the Q5/Q7 MID players.

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