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Second Prototype of the $200 Open Source Tablet
holy_calamity writes "TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington decided last year to invent a new class of low-cost internet tablet using open source hardware and software. The second prototype has been unveiled, sporting a 12-inch touchscreen powered by a Via Nano processor, 1 GB of ram and a 4 GB flash drive. It runs a browser and nothing else on top of a custom Linux build. 'Resolution is 1024×768, which means the vast majority of websites are viewed in full width without scrolling. The device also has wifi, an accelerometer (so when you turn the screen on its side you can view more of a web page), a camera and a four cell battery.'"
I'm wondering if the Lego desktop stand comes with the device or is an optional item??
How are these guys figuring that price?
So its going to look great on paper, and will be fine for the first hour, but sooner or later the thing will lock solid because Via have cut some corners in the drivers or not fully implemented a standard.
Previous owner of a kt133 (usb lockups), current owner of a CN400 (video lockups).
**TODO** Steal someone elses sig.
put an ARM in that thing. VIA is a turd.
It seems that the OS on this tablet is a derivative of Ninnle Linux, complete with a simplified version of NinWM and Ninnle Office. They've been working in cooperation with Ninnle Labs for some time on this project. A full release is expected shortly.
skips resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on the browser?
skips resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on the browser?
skips resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on the browser?
What alternate reality is this guy writing from!
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Today it should be a lot easier, given that they can rely on much cheaper off the shelf components and don't have to squeeze everything into minimal amounts of RAM and flash (for the first version we were working with Opera to get it running with a custom GUI in 16MB or 32MB of RAM total, and about the same amount of flash)...
Hope they make it - I want one.
I guess since it's not using billgs OS, the tech press will have to rubbish it ..
davecb5620@gmail.com
Excuse me if this is a stupid question, I've not played with such toys.
It runs a browser and nothing else on top of a custom Linux build.
When it ways "and nothing else" does it mean "nothing else except the linux build, fully featured and usable to do whatever you need including changing the browser, upgrading using the toy to read documents in whatever format you download readers for, etc."?
not going to pay $300 for a device just to surf the web. But it's a cool piece of equipment. I see it's running a full installation of Ubuntu. That's cool. I'd like to be able to open an ssh client and use the on-screen keyboard and maybe a notepad of some sort. It doesn't have to be a full blown computer, but something other than just surfing the web should be included. Imagine the business use of this type of open source hardware and software device. Add some kind of notepad software you can write notes quick and immediately send it out to another device/computer. I can't see many people just buying it for a web browser when notebooks are so readily available that can use email client software, not just web mail. And have other usable apps. Remember the web devices that were around in the past? There used to a white one that Staples sold, I don't remember the name, but they didn't hit off to well.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
Is it just me or does this look at lot like a TV Tray?
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
An accelerometer? That'll be great for support.
"So your tablet just stopped working?"
"Yes."
"You didn't drop it or anything like that did you?"
"No."
"Well that's not what the accelerometer says."
"Doh!"
an accelerometer (so when you turn the screen on its side you can view more of a web page)
I need a larger screen too. Must get myself one of them accelerometers.
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
While it does look interesting, I do wonder whether the core idea, that a browser is enough, really is solid. I knew it was Netscape's dream once, but did it work out?
When I think about what I do, certainly Firefox gets a lot of time. However, there's a lot of PDF content out there that I want to view and/or print - does this device do that? That's not an unusual usage scenario, btw. - when you book online tickets, or buy stuff online, very often you get the ticket and/or receipt in .pdf format.
Then there's the whole "download" scenario. Does it do that? Lots of people come across cool stuff they want to download. It doesn't have to launch Keynote, sorry OpenOffice or whatever the external App is, but at least ''saving'' something to an external shared device would be a requirement.
Then there's mail. There are still people around who don't use webmail, you know?
So, I quite like the idea, but I do wonder whether '''just''' the browser isn't a little too little.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Why go with X86 if you want low BOM cost ? Any ARM/MIPS/PowerPC SoC with decent Mhz will do it better for lower bill of materials. Try TI OMAP35xx line for instance, one with Cortex ARM and PowerVR graphics all in one chip. Works out way cheaper than anything x86-based. Getting a Beagleboard is a good way to start.
And now with Canonical throwing official support for ARM-based Ubuntu, you have got your opsys covered as well.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
oh wait. thats Fall. same thing. :)
What reasons are there to put an x86 processor in a device like this? The Nano is not exactly low power, with an ARM based solution (Nvidia Tegra would seem pretty great for this for example) you could have many days of standby power without needing to reboot it all the time. Only reason for x86 I can think of is that it could run Windows, but is that really needed for this type of device?
go get an eee. I'm running opera, thunderbird, WoW, and SQL server right now.
I have never seen these things in the wild except at a very high end doctor's office (read: cardiology care center @ HMO flagship regional hospital). I'm quite certain that, except for a few nerds and a few boutique users out there everyone will look down their noses at the cheaper alternatives.
Is that cool lego stand included? I need some more blocks!
I'm just utterly amazed it's taken this long for somebody to have a serious stab at a device like this. I've been asking for one for years. I got a Nokia Internet Tablet, but it's just too small. When Asus brought out the Eee and then everybody copied them within months I though they'd get the hint a build web tablets with the same kind of kit. But they haven't. Weird. This is exactly the kind of thing I want for browsing the web around the house and they will sell even faster than netbooks have, just as soon as somebody vaguely credible brings a reasonable quality one to market.
As to all the people wondering what else it will be able to do other than run a browser: It's an x86 box running Linux. It'll do whatever the hell you want it to do. Yes to PDFs, yes to ssh, yes to media player, yes to OpenOffice, yes to IM, yes to blowjobs on the beach, yes to absofuckinglutely everything you can do on any other Linux box. It's just a keyboard-less tablet netbook (not that that's not awesome).
(I lied about the blowjobs)
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
the audience this is designed for then. Seriously, go get a laptop.
I use Lego rather than Duplo. Compatibility with my existing devices may be a problem.
[Insert distro "build" pun here]
Meta will eat itself
the article says
But let me tell you something: the difference between $199 and $299 is worlds. There is no LAPTOP near $199. but $299? You are now competing with full laptops. It is now a luxury item, since it would be like asking someone to buy two laptops - one that does almost nothing except surf the web. DONT MAKE PEOPLE MAKE THAT CHOICE.
This is what I think you should do:
Batteries dont matter as much as you think, because it's okay to leave the thing plugged in, like digital picture frames. In fact, that's how I read in bed: with an old LCD monitor connected to the desktop next to me, in my hands, with the power and VGA cables going off to the side. (I scroll with the mouse, in my other hand). I am your real target market. If you need to have a $199 version that has a 1-hour battery do it. If you can't, do it without a battery, so it only works while plugged in (like a digital picture frame). Do whatever it takes. You need to get this thing down to $199, no matter what.
I can spend that much for it just to read my bookz (scanned books from the net) - it's the price of 10 hardcover books. But $299 and I can't justify it.
And you don't need RAM. You need video RAM. I know, because I use a 500 mhz desktop with 128 MB of RAM all day - with a video card that has more RAM than it does. Flawless web use - flawless youtube etc. I'm waiting to upgrade until I drop about $2000, which I'm not doing in this economy. Meanwhile I get flawless web use out of this old POS.
Lower your standards until you can squeeze this thing out for $200. Have a $199 version with a sucky battetry (or none at all if you must), no camera, or accelerometer. And then a $299 version with all that, if you want to.
Do you want to know what will happen if you price this thing at $299? All your customers will settle on something smaller for $229.
Just my 2 cents.
it looks like a large-screen version of an iPod Touch. But with fewer features.
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
"Barely boots" ... What? What does this mean? Either it boots or it doesn't. It's like being 'a little bit preggers'.
As for the screen size, you don't want a massive screen on a little tablet PC. I have a 12" tablet right now and other than weight, it's about perfect.
$300 is an okay price. HP has a $350 8.9" laptop with 1.6Ghz processor. If they can afford to do that for a 'real' laptop, I think $300 is a bit on the high side for a laptop that can only run a web browser.
Having said that, I paid $1200 for my tablet and felt I got a really good deal at the time. Previous tablets I looked at were in the $2500 range.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Flash.
Explaining a little:
YouTube.
An experience that is _similar_ to IE/Firefox under Windows.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Hint: there's no sustainable market for an internet webpad like this.
An awful lot of people are using the iPod Touch (and iPhone, aside from the phone part) for exactly that. AFAIK, music/video is actually a relatively small part of its common use, with the dominant "killer app" being "internet webpad". Personally I've largely abandoned my ultraportable laptop in favor of surfing & email via the iPod Touch; music playing is nice, but the right-now pocket email/net access is almost life-changing. A larger version would be even more "killer app".
The market for such an internet webpad may not be huge, but it's certainly sustainable.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
I would love a device like this with pen input, so I can use it to take notes in class.
Notebook computers are great for textual classes, because I can type like a demon.
But much of my engineering curriculum is math, and keyboards don't lend themselves well to that.
I would ABSOLUTELY JUMP for a $300 tablet computer that let me write on it like digital notebook paper.
I paid about this much for my first engineering calculator (HP32S).
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
I worked on a touchscreen system used on airplanes built by Panasonic Avionics and this thing seems years ahead of what their latest hardware was doing... ie: it was a POS compared to what I'm seeing here. On top of that, the Panasonic hardware didn't do much more. It's two big advantages was that it could be updated remotely from a server, (big whoop) and had a Texas Instruments DaVinci chipset in it for handling Video and Audio streaming and could play emulated games (SNES, etc).
I imagine this thing could do the same using Flash player with a Red5 rtsp server available for H.264 and MP4... and the game emulator would be nothing on that CPU either....
I'm pretty sure they said each unit was around 10k ;-p
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Michael Arrington already speculated that Apple will be releasing a large iPod touch this year. I guess he's expecting it to be much more expensive (but multi-touch would be cool!).
I think the first thing everyone will want for this will be an external keyboard (seeing as the on-screen one obscures half the screen), and as soon as you do that, you could argue that you might as well be using a laptop or EEE notebook.
On-screen keyboard means either putting it down while typing ("ouch, my back!") or typing with one hand (hmmm... maybe that has some merits). I'd worry about the cost of the device creeping up as the final finish comes around - nice case, bluetooth (?), power supply etc. If it tips over $300 then it's into the same arena as notebooks.
Though if they manage to solve the keyboard problem, and keep the price down then maybe they can succeed where tablet PCs have failed.
... which means the vast majority of websites are viewed in full width without scrolling"
Slashdot not included.
If so ill take 2!
Seriously tho, if they can do this at about 200, i'm sure it will sell well. I do hope they give the option of a card reader for those that want a little more then 4g ( who knows what tomorrow holds...) and not having to use a external USB device.
If it starts to approach 300, it will have to compete with the big guys and wont survive.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
but this is *nice*. If they manage the $200 price they'll sell them by the millions.
Honestly, this thing looks SOOO ridicuously similar to an epod / epods one that I'm tempted to write it off - and even if it's not, the device itself costs 8x the going rate of an epods one from ebay.
It is called browser plugin.
Awesome stuff man, really awesome and cutting edge.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Why would I buy this thing and not and iPod Touch?
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
but does it run windows?
My Etch-A-Sketch has knobs.
http://dealnews.com/Dell-Outlet-coupon-20-off-refurbished-Latitude-XT-convertible-laptops/273498.html You'll get a full featured PC with tablet features for just a couple hundred more.
I could see it being handy for some applications like people in warehouse checking the stock, etc.
Well, I know that by posting this I officially brand myself as a corporate shill, but here's a device that runs Linux, has a touch screen, has an open API, and already exists and can be yours for $239:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/digital-photo-frames/b425/
And you can use it as a picture frame out of the box. =)
Looks like my next "toy", assuming it really hits the market.
That looks like the perfect "living room" tablet computer, something to keep handy while watching TV.
No matter where you go... there you are.
Seriously it kinda looks like a giant iphone. except a giant iphone would be way sweeter, and probably cheaper since all the development work has already been done.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
How can this thing not have bluetooth? Bluetooth is incredibly cheap to add and it would open a lot of applications, such as adding a keyboard and tethering to your phone.
The user could plug a USB bluetooth dongle into a port on the device, but that is much less convenient and it sticks out.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Exactly, how is this different from an iPhone, other than screen size (and of course, allowed software)?
looking at the pictures of him holding it I half experted him to shake the unit upside down to refresh the browser page... :-)
Also, it needs a red frame.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Batman ninnles YOU!
Mike is going to need a bigger purse to tote that thing around.
ReactOS would allow gaming too.
Ninnle is the most bleeding edge, secure, robust Linux distro there is. ...and it's not just Ninnle Linux, there's also NinnleBSD, NinWM and Ninnle Office too.
Join the Ninnle revolution so you can start in with the advocacy in earnest, just as I have.
Shut the fuck up and put an end to your criticism, you wanker. It's a fucking open source tablet, do you really think it wont be possible to install ReactOS on it?
...people these days. *shrug*
Oh yeah, and it's the 2nd prototype. Now, what does that word tell you? That it's all finished and ready for hitting the market? No?
A proud member of the Onion-in-Hand alliance
Looks like a giant iPhone that can play flash. Other than that it looks way less portable and generally useful than the iPhone.
I may be thinking in the box, but I can't think of many situations where this would be useful.
1) it relies on wifi (so unlike the iphone you have to be in a hotspot to do anything)
2) It's big (unlike the iphone you have to use two arms to hold it/control it, and you can't carry it in your pocket)
3) it doesn't seem like it could be used to take notes in any efficient way (unless you want to use an on screen keyboard)
4) you have to hold it, so you can't comfortably watch movies or shows
5) you have to hold it so it's useless for looking at pr0n
Aside from reading ebooks I don't see how this is really going to be useful for anyone
Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation
Now that I think of it, I really don't want one. Why pay $300 for a crippled device? I'd rather pay a little more and get something with a real keyboard, and real extendability. I think such a thing at $100 would be nice, but that's not going to happen. Or, a device that had amazing battery life, such as a week of use, but that's not going to happen either. The OLPC XO looks like a much better product, that's something I might actually use, if the keyboard was larger.
...use the word "invent". Please oh please. Do not help spread patent idealism any more than it already is.
Promote true freedom - support standards and interoperability.
The only way to justify that 300$ price point is if they call it a laptop. If you're just calling it a touchscreen that can browse the web, sorry, it's not going to sell for 300$; a DS costs 130$, and you can add an extra 30$ for a browser kit.
I don't think they'll save much money by dropping the RAM or the camera; maybe the battery. It would be interesting to have a battery-less version for us, those who like to read at night and have power outlets not too far away. If it can drop that price by 50$, it'd be worth it. The screen is a big cost, too...
I wonder what the price breakup is like? They should definately try and knock this down to 199$ if it means dropping some of the luxury features (camera, accel., etc) but not if it means knocking quality. There's only so far you can go.
Can you stop using actual facts, please? This is Sparta, erm, /.
By the way, I am waiting for my Pandora, as well. Same as you seem to be.
Because _everything_ should run Tux Paint, especially if it's easy to draw on (e.g., touchscreen).
Best explanation of why ARM is good for this sort of stuff that I've found.
Isn't there a core on there that can do Flash-related stuff? Like a SVG core, or is that the DSP/GPU? And what about the mx.i515 or whatever, the one they want to use for a 200$ ubuntu netbook? How do they stack up together?
This stuff is cool. I had a project I was thinking about using an OMAP for. How exactly would I build a board though? Are we talking fab/engineer-level, or is it cheap enough to get a design made, or use a pre-existing design?
I don't think that's what I'm after. CellWriter looks like a handwriting recognition module. I'm not really looking for handwriting recognition. I'm just looking for a digital "notebook", with "notebook" meaning the old-school 3-ring binder with paper sort of thing. I just want to write on the digital paper, then click on a forward or backwards arrow to move forwards or backwards through the pages. Steve
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.