“Critical Utility” is a phrase that I’ve heard a good deal around Exbiblio. Last time I was in the office, I asked for a definition of this phrase in relation to Exbiblio’s first product, the oPen pocket scanner. Here were two tests that I was told it had to pass:

• If you are reading a book at night, and your oPen is downstares on your desk, will you get out of bed to fetch it?
• If you leave home in the morning, and realise that you don’t have your oPen with you, will you go back into the house to get it?

There are certainly some things I can’t leave the house without – my wallet, my credit card, my specticals, my keys, my mobile. Some people might add their MP3 player to the list. The oPen will be in elite company if it work its way into the exclusive club of the can’t-do-withouts.

Yesterday, the Exbiblio team had our first working demo of the assembled “Falstaff” prototype!

All the standard disclaimers apply here, there is much optimization to be done and several more months of hardware and software improvements before we are ready for our public beta, but it is actually coming together!

By the end of the week, we hope to have the new prototype integrated into our Exbiblio software application prototypes, so stay tuned for more news soon.

Check out the video: