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Second Prototype of the $200 Open Source Tablet

Posted by Soulskill on from the bringing-the-tubes-to-every-coffee-table dept.

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.'"

3 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Hope the market is ready... by vidarh · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I worked on a similar product ten years ago (it was covered on Slashdot twice in '99 or '00) which unfortunately stranded because of perpetual delays (I left at the end of '99) and lack of commitment from distributors and customers, and several rounds of re-engineering everything.

    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.

  2. ur doing it wrong by savuporo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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  3. iGala Already Exists -- $239 by Beltway+Prophet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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. =)