Emblaze Mobile’s First Else mobile device was discontinued a long time ago, but its legacy lives on in the form of UIU. CEO Amir Kupervas founded UIU a year after the First Else project was dropped and his recent pitch at the MWC has attracted significant attention. Collaborating with Itay Levin, a UX strategist who also worked on the First Else project, Kupervas has developed an Android launcher with an accompanying cloud management platform that promises easy handling, especially for non-technology oriented users. Given the rapid increase in the number of smartphones in the US, new users are finding it confusing to adapt to a continuously changing ecosystem and Kupervas hopes that the UIU will help customers in tackling these problems.
UIU may not be the most interesting product for experienced mobile enthusiasts, but it can be branded as a unique attempt to tackle the first-time smartphone user segment. UIU is an Android launcher and features a set of horizontal scrolling slides with varying functionality. Home, Notice Board, Applications, Photo Wallet, Internet and UIU Settings are the different ‘slides’ available on the interface.
The Notice Board slide can be viewed as a substitute for the notification drawer on Android, which usually provides information pertaining to messages or updates. Although it is a substitute for the notification drawer, the latter is still available on UIU setup, in case the user is uncomfortable using the slide. Conceptually, UIU is a lot like HTC’s Sense UI.
UIU also includes a custom gallery with the camera app. The UIU gallery creates a backup on UIU’s cloud platform, which allows access from the desktop as well. However, desktop functionality goes beyond just offering access to pictures, it also allows the user to edit or rearrange the slides. For users switching to a new device, the cloud platform allows you to restore your previous settings. Other features include location tracking and status monitoring.
Like Windows Phone’s Find My Phone feature, UIU allows users to disable the silent mode when looking for a misplaced phone. Kupervas has stated that UIU will initially focus on markets where smartphone penetration is high and is showing signs of saturation i.e. the European and US markets. Kupervas also claims that the company has already collaborated with one carrier in the US and one in Israel.
