This article begins a three part series of a review of the Aigo Mobile Internet Device and it’s presence in the mobile device and software development community. The Aigo MID is based on the Intel Atom CPU architecture. This device presents a new era in device types of powerful, low power usage mobile devices that can run full-featured operating systems. The Aigo ships with the Midinux Linux Distribution, which is not the same operating system that ships with the Moblin platform, Intel’s open source platform and SDK for mobile devices. We found that at first touch, the keyboard was a bit difficutl to use in it’s current layout, and the features of Midinux to be a bit lackluster. Which is why in this series we will load the Moblin platform onto the device to demonstrate the Aigo and Atom CPU’s true nature, and except for the user experience perspective,  give a better overview of what this devices is truly capable of using technological analysis.

Currently, the Aigo is not available in the United States and is only being shipped in Asia and Australia, but these type of devices can soon to be expected to enter the market towards the end of the year to mid-2010. The Bitsource received an Aigo from Hong Kong for purposes of writing a review from the end-user perspective, as well as the mobile software development perspective. The series will be broken up into 3 main parts:

Part 1 – First Look: First Look: Fresh From Hong Kong, The Aigo Mobile Internet Device (MID). Photos and Video.

The Aigo MID

Part 2 – Field Test: Traveling with the Aigo MID
This part of the review will demonstrate using the Aigo MID from the perspective of the consumer, and be used in travel, highlighting its features and capabilities as a mobile computing device, and comparing it to a conventional laptop.

Part 3 – Hacking the Aigo MID
The third and final part of the series will cover developing for the Atom architecture using the latest Intel Moblin software development kit for Atom CPU architectures.

Engadget has already written a few articles on the Aigo MID which can be read here:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/08/hands-on-with-aigos-iphone-ripping-menlow-based-mid/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/12/video-aigos-mid-gets-windows-xp-relabeled-a-umpc/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3-j6sHJ1Ac