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Who did you buy a netbook from with Linux?

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm

Heard about this?

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

Supposedly they're shipping right now, but I'm waiting for someone to post a video review.

The 11.6" are an odd variety... of what I have seen so far. In the spring, they upgraded the 10" ones I was looking at from the N270 Atoms to the N280, which could handle HD video but the screens were usually at 1024x600. Just barely big enough for comfortable browsing. Now the Acer Aspire and a few others that I have seen have that 11.6" wide screen that have a really nice ~1300x768 resolution, but the chip is now a Z520, which reportedly stutters when handling HD video.

Now that Always Innovating's arm-based Tablet/Netbook is out, I'm almost tempted by that instead:
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm

But the resoluion is still the dreary 1024x600, although being able to take off the body/keyboard completely is the first well done tablet form factor I have seen.

Not far off are Arm's multiple core chips and I assume intel has something like that for atom in the works. Ah, the old upgrade-treadmill is really hitting netbooks bigtime, haven't really had this problem in desktops the last five years.

I was too lazy to add links but these guys do this

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

esentially an Arm based netbook tablet with the guts behind the screen and a plug in keyboard which sort of turns it back into a netbook again.
It looks like the keyboard is weighted down with a battery to make a stable netbook.

Pricing appears to be $300 for the tablet or $400 for the tablet + keyboard battery combo. I think they have used something like a wireless keyboard to get a unit which can work detached from the screen.

I'd like to introduce them to these guys

http://pixelqi.com/

who make these screens

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2009/06/hands-on-with-pixel-qis-new-epaper.html

Essentially its an LCD Screen which can turn off the backlight and run in a black and white mode at quite a low power.

PixelQI used one of the first screens to mod an aspire one.

speaking of mods heres a nice diy version of an aspire one tablet.
http://www.liliputing.com/2008/10/acer-aspire-one-retooled-as-a-tablet-style-umpc.html

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

# Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
# 8.9 inches 1024x600 A+ screen
# Main storage: 8GB SD card -- we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it
# Internal USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset
# Internal USB bluetooth class 2.1
# FCC, CE, UL-certified, 5V, 3.5A power adapter
# 8.9 inches pressure sensitive touch screen
# US Qwerty 24cm-large keyboard -- around 95% of the size of a standard keyboard
# Cirque Touchpad
# Two Owolff high-quality internal stereo speakers
# 3D accelerometer
# Two internal batteries 6000 and 12000 mAh -- it can be replaced with a screw driver
# 7 USB ports: three external, four internal, three of them may be reserved for wifi, bluetooth and keyboard
# Bi-color silver/black case -- see photos -- with a beautiful dark-red back cover (we decided to go only for red for the first batch as it really jumps out, you won't regret it).
# Secured attachment system of tablet into keyboard
# Independent magnet system for the tablet -- we don't want your Touch Book to un-magnetize all your credit cards while carrying it in your bag!

Looks interesting. This says the first batch is supposed to start shipping this month.

But this is already out (well beta-testing/first shipment) costs $400 ($300 without the keyboard)

might i recommend a touchbook with 2 batteries (both removable apparently) https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

Thats one of the things i love about this, the screen comes of entirely and i assume/hope that you can just flip it over entirely so there is no joint to break.

If you want power efficiency why use x86? This comes in cheaper ($299-$399), has a battery life of 10+hrs (3-5 for the cheap one)

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ 9.4" x 7" x 1.4" for 2 lbs (with keyboard) ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3 chip 1024x600 8.9'' screen Storage: 8GB SD card Wifi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3-dimensional accelerometer Speakers, micro and headphone 6 USB 2.0 (3 internal, 3 external) 10+ hours of battery life

Ah. Found it. "Initial Shipment expected in July 2009." http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/info.htm

You might try the Touchbook - it is also "to be released," but if they are on schedule, it should be released soon. You can buy just the screen part for $299 I believe (or the whole thing for $399). Either way, you could probably hold the screen portion quite easily. ARM processor gives it "10-15 hours" of battery life. Runs a full Linux distro optimized for that device, or you can put your own on there. http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm

I googled "tablet netbook". Notable results:

- http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/store/home.php ARM+ Linux, 1024x600 9" LCD, Screen-only tablet $300, $100 keyboard turns it into an almost regular netbook. Just coming out, so no reviews/experience.

- http://www.journaldugeek.com/2009/01/22/video-du-asus-eee-pc-t101h/ Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, NEC and others seem on the verge of introducing touchscreen 9-10" netbooks.

I'm still using a Palm TX for reading fiction. But these toys, or maybe the next generation, may replace it.

I'd love a "tablet netbook" with an e-ink display.

Not quite out yet, but this seems likely to be your best bet.
It's a laptop, but the keyboard portion is removable (and, infact, optional) turning it unto a tablet. Reportedly 10 or so hours of battery life.

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

I have pre-ordered a Touch Book from Always Innovating for just this kind of thing.

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

Runs Linux on:
Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
8.9 inches 1024x600 A+ ressure sensitive touch screen
Main storage: 8GB SD card (replaceable!)
USB: internal and external

Should be shipping this month!

How about making a detachable touch screen. Oh wait, these guys have done it.

I know I'd prefer to use a design more similar to Always Innovating, as:

• I can get the same usage from it as the CrunchPad, if I want
• I can use the keyboard if I keep the screen attached, and use it like a normal laptop (with a fully feature OS)

I do not own a Kindle DX and I never plan to buy one, either. I have pre-ordered an Always Innovating Touch Book: http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ Based on what I've read on their site it can do a whole bunch more of what I'm personally looking for. Philosophically, it appeals to me more because the software and hardware are open source. Technologically, it appeals to me because I plan to tinker with it. Also, I've downloaded a bunch of free books from the net to see how it works as an ebook reader. This is my opinion. YMMV.

how come this offers

an amazing 10 to 15 hours of battery life for less than 2 pounds.

?
powertop shows a differences of just 3watts between low brighness display and blacked out,
*plus smaller displays use less power anyway (could somebody explain why you cant just use an array of white LEDs to backlight your screen though, its the backlight that uses the power right?)
*the are low power usage wireless chips, but i thought the main reason wireless drains power is because it has to wake up the CPU (on lower power CPUs this is a non-issue)
*graphics chips (where choice of chip can save a great deal) and drivers could turn the card off when the screen is blanked
*HDD usage which can be solved in software (soft-fsyncs, etc)

The tech is there for lower power usage netbooks, when the price of the other low-power components (OLED, wireless "on-a-chip", etc) drops ARM will matter.

You might be interested in the Touch Book from Always Innovating. At this point they're only taking pre-orders, but it definitely looks pretty neat. The keyboard is optional and detachable, so its not really "built in", but it gives you a good compromise between netbook and tablet, and its ARM based and cheap. I'm sure people will have Android going on it within days of release, as its basically a Beagle Board (which Android already runs on) with a touchscreen.

Maybe you would be interested in this when it comes out. Or maybe you'll just be able to use the OS (95% sure it's linux based, hopefully they'll gpl thier additions)

Let me know when I can watch badly encoded Anime on an ARM and I'll buy one.

Always Innovating is taking pre-orders for it's convertible tablet/netbook PC powered by the ARM-based OMAP3 processor platform from Texas Instruments. It is capable of processing full-motion 720p MPEG4 compressed video. Something tells me that it could handle even the most terribly encoded lo-def anime (anime is shot on 2s and 3s--ie. 8 to 12 fps on film, 10 to 15 fps on video--you'd not notice most of the dropped frames, if any were dropped at all!)

The AI Touchbook is scheduled to ship in a matter of weeks.

Another alternative based on the same hardware is at openpandora.org and has also taken pre-orders for release in the same timeframe (hardware design is complete and being released to manufacture--distribution is pending FCC approval). Smaller form factor but same multimedia capabilities. Both devices should offer in excess of 10 hours of battery life during normal use.

Though not in netbook form factor and not running Linux, the Palm Pre smartphone is even closer to release and is also an OMAP3 device. I doubt is comes with a video-out port, but it'll have the horsepower to play your media files too.

A regular single core laptop can have problems doing this let alone a Atom or ARM.

You're assuming that you have to use your CPU to do all the decoding. Why does the CPU matter when the graphics chipsets generally do all the work of video decoding? Your Atom netbooks and single-core notebooks are equipped with relatively anaemic integrated video acceleration chipsets. The TI OMAP3 platform incorporates video acceleration technology that can match or surpass the performance of the graphics systems in low-end Intel machines.

Also keep in mind the bloated, inefficient Windows platform on certain netbooks (Yes I consider XP to be bloated). You could go with Windows Mobile to address this but multimedia support/performance in the mobile edition of Windows is inferior to what Linux has to offer.

It would also be great if they included a graphics chip (or gpu as part of a SoC system) that could handle h.264 decoding for the netbook.

The OMAP4 has a whole bunch of shit on the die including a graphics accelerator, multimedia decoder (capable of 1080p), an image processor, and two Arm Cortex-A9s runing at 720mhz or 1Ghz each, depending on the model.

http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12842&contentId=53247

Something like this seems like it could run a netbook fairly well. The touchbook is using an OMAP3 chip already and supposedly it's fairly fast because everything is optimized for it.

Well said, if perhaps a bit hopeful. This may be the spark that begins the first real race within' consumer markets, between ARM and x86. ARM has historically been 5 years behind on raw horse power, but with the Cortex-A9, they're going to be competing for MHz with the Atom, and AMD has no cards on the table. I'd love to see what happens to the note/subnote market, with a 1.5GHz ARM CPU in direct competition. Something like this, but rivaling the Atom for speed? http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ Hey, maybe this will trigger Microsoft to release some of this "Surface" "technology" "they" have developed, to the real world? har har.

This netbook and these development boards are based on the ARM architecture. You can also get ARM on a SODIMM form factor. And this little box looks nice.

IMHO, the iPod Touch is a terribly overrated device. It's too small, slow and buggy to be useful for anything more than light use as a web browsing device.

If you like the Movit, you might also consider the AI Touchbook.

How about a "Touch Pad" from Always innovating. They claim a 10 - 15 hour battery life. Can operate as a netbook style device or slide out the monitor from the keyboard for tablet style interaction. http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/pegatron-and-freescale-team-for-low-power-ultra-cheap-netbooks/

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

Or for something smaller than a netbook:
http://openpandora.org/

$300 is just for the tablet. "The whole package" costs $400, according to the pre-order page.

acording to their site
its $299 for the tablet (with 3 to 5 hours bat)
its $399 for the tablet + keyboard (with 10 to 15 houts bat)

if only i could get one this side of the pond.

They are taking preorders. The tablet part by itself costs 299$, the tablet + keyboard (netbook) is 399$. The shipping is supposedly included in the price.