iConsole: Yeah, it's a MeeGo Gaming Console

About a year ago, a little startup called MechaWorks released a little project called iConsole. iConsole emerged as a Home Theater OS built atop Ubuntu.

It failed… miserably.

Market traction didn't happen, and the alpha builds drew about zero response. So, rather than give up, we went back to the drawing board.

This presentation will talk about how iConsole has evolved over the past year, how it has embraced MeeGo, and how both MeeGo and iConsole will change conventional wisdom about home theater and gaming respectively.

This is not a demo session of a phantom console. While we will be showing screenshots, iConsole is in active development (with alpha builds available). Ideally it will be shipping by the next MeeGo conference, which makes it a great time to start touting what our goals and target platforms are.

Also touched on during this talk will be the challenges, difficulties, and issues that MeeGo as a platform is facing in the home theater, as well as constructive criticism regarding particular MeeGo hurdles that MechaWorks has found in (re)developing iConsole atop MeeGo. All of these will underscore both the challenges and opportunities that startups face with the MeeGo ecosystem.

The talk will also be interspersed with a range of interesting issues from startup development, building ambitious projects, as well as navigating legal issues in emerging technology.

Attendees will walk away with knowing what iConsole is aiming to do, as well as a better understanding of how MeeGo can fit into the home theater from a competitive advantage standpoint.