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Leaked Pics of CrunchPad Elicit Progress Update

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the don't-etch-this-sketch dept.

TechCrunch has released a few more technical details, pictures, and general comments about their CrunchPad project as a recent accidental leak saw a new round of images posted to the web. It seems that the tablet has continued to grow and evolve with the help of an Intel Atom chip (as opposed to the Via chip previously used), new software from Fusion Garage, and a bottom-up Linux install. "I wanted something I couldn't buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined. The goal — a very thin and light touch screen computer, sans physical keyboard, that has no hard drive and boots directly to a browser to surf the web. The operating system exists solely to handle the hardware drivers and run the browser and associated applications. That's it."

18 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by mdm-adph · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.chumby.com/

    I like the philosophy behind the Chumby, but if the CrunchPad is cheaper, I'd get that.

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
    1. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      According to the article:

      Price? it can be built for less than $250, including packaging.

      I hope that means $250 retail and not $250 manufacturer's cost. If it sells for $250 retail, this could be an excellent satellite device for the home. Assuming it performs well enough, that is. The real failure of many "web surfing" devices has always been poor usability caused by poor performance. Many also shipped with sub-standard browsers, which presumably wouldn't be the case here.

      (As an aside, does anyone else think this looks like something Rodney McKay should be toting around? :-P)

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    2. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by davester666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For $250, this would make a great peripheral for a full-fledged computer. If the host computer could use it as an external display AND touch input device, I think that would make for some more interesting possibilities than a standalone device with an underpowered CPU and a mediocre OS/apps.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Given that it is running x86 linux, I suspect that making use of X11's remote capabilities would be quite trivial. For extra credit, synergy and DMX would be quite interesting in a touchscreen device.

      If what you actually want is just a desktop LCD with a touchscreen, than this isn't really the way to go. You can get those already, without the whole computer bit grafted on.

    4. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by SectoidRandom · · Score: 2, Informative

      Read a little further along the article for your answer;

      Price? it can be built for less than $250, including packaging. Add in fixed costs and other stuff you have to deal with (like returns), and you can sell it for $300 and probably not go out of business.

    5. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by agristin · · Score: 4, Informative

      Read a little further along the article for your answer;

      Price? it can be built for less than $250, including packaging. Add in fixed costs and other stuff you have to deal with (like returns), and you can sell it for $300 and probably not go out of business.

      I'd like to see that business plan. I suspect if you build it at 250$ the least you could sell it for and not go out of business is 500$. That might be normal.

      83% cost of manufacture? At a price point of a few hundred dollars, it is almost impossible to break even, much less turn a profit.

      You could survive 80%+ cost of manufacture if you had a very low price point (1$ or less), had no support or return costs, and very low advertising and could sell millions or billions of them. Even then you would want to get down to 50% or less.

    6. Re:Kinda reminds me of a Chumby by ConanG · · Score: 3, Informative

      The thing is, this isn't a normal business venture. He mostly wants it to be built because he wants one himself. He's not motivated by profit, but desire to realize the product. A lot of the initial work was done openly by volunteers which drastically cut engineering costs. I don't think there's going to be much of an advertising budget.

      My guess is that he's done the math and probably has a better idea of what he can sell it for and not go out of business. Note that: NOT GO OUT OF BUSINESS. Not become a millionaire. Not become a business tycoon. Simply stay afloat. I think that's all he really wants.

  2. wait... what? by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I seem to remember there being such things in the first web bubble... net appliances they were called, souped-down computers used for just browsing the web.

    I seem to recall the hackers and linux users working hard to get them to be MORE than just browsers and work more like a real computer. I also recall them failing miserably in the market.

    Sometimes I begin to think that people just don't know what they want.

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    1. Re:wait... what? by SectoidRandom · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ever heard of a NetBook?

      Circles I tell ya, it all goes around in circles.

    2. Re:wait... what? by Fallingcow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd love this thing if it could do a bit more than just browse. Hardware's beefy enough, just give it a few more apps--NFS/SMB file sharing support, a video and music player (surely it's already got a headphone jack), and an ebook/pdf reader.

      It's the first "netbook"-like thing that I've seen that I might actually be interested in. All the others were too much like laptops for my taste, while lacking the horsepower of a real laptop. It'd work great as a main interface for a computer-based home-theater setup. Play music remotely anywhere in the house, control your MythTV box from any room, take it to the bath to watch a movie while you soak (laptops are really inconvenient for that task), etc. Oh, VNC or similar would be nice, too.

      As just a "net appliance" it's every bit as stupid as the last generation of those (though at least it's not almost the size of a real PC, like a lot of those were) but as a "anything networked that doesn't require local storage or a real mouse+keyboard" appliance... holy shit, that's pretty cool, especially at that price.

    3. Re:wait... what? by QuincyDurant · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...net appliances they were called, souped-down computers...

      Yes, please.

      Real-world users don't need a fraction of the horsepower in today's laptops. What they need (or at least what I need) is a drastically reduced feature set and concomitantly less demand from the hardware.

      I use an Alphasmart Neo--700 hours of battery life on three 2As--that doesn't do enough to qualify as a Netbook, but it comes close.

      A full-blown Linux OS seems like overkill, and Windows Vista is asinine.

    4. Re:wait... what? by rickb928 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I had an iOpener, a V5 that I got a hard drive onto, split the keyboard connector for a mouse, added a low profile fan to keep it from smoking, and loaded XP (or was it 98, so long ago) to replace the custom QNX install. Explaing the pizza key got tired. A USB Ethernet dongle got me online. woot!

      But you could buy one for $99, 'forget' to use a credit card, and never log into the service that was supposed to subsidize the device. They show up on eBay sometimes now, but it ain't a touchscreen.

      I actually wish I still had one. But a CrunchPad sounds like what I would love to have. So long as it can handle Flash... grrr...

      Wish someone would come out with similar hardware that was subsidized by their service. Be fun to hack up again...

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    5. Re:wait... what? by Fallingcow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't want it to be smaller, though. The screen's the perfect size. The iPod is something for carrying around with you everywhere, while this seems to be something for carrying around your house (or office, I guess). I also have zero interest in the app store; existing, free apps could do everything I'd want on this device (I read somewhere down the comments that it's Linux based, so just take your pick of the applications that would do the things I mentioned)

      This'd be much better for toting around the house to watch movies or browse in odd places (bed, tub, etc.) than a laptop is. It could be a portable home media center control interface and media access device. I'd certainly much rather watch movies, browse, and read books on this thing than on an iPod or iPhone, though clearly those would be the better ultra-mobile choices for those tasks.

      In short, it's the first netbook-like device I've seen that is sufficiently different from a full-fledged laptop or a much more portable solution like the iPod Touch you mentioned to capture my interest. IMO, it looks like it might nicely fill a niche between those two.

  3. Getting closer... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's too big. Cut the size in half and add mobile broadband options in addition to wifi. Otherwise it should be good.

    It's essentially a PADD from Star Trek, and once someone figures out that copying that design will result in huge profits, we'll see some really cool gear.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    1. Re:Getting closer... by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think it's the perfect size. Big enough for "real" websites and a large-ish touchscreen keyboard. Big enough for 2 people to watch Hulu on without eye strain. Still small enough to tote around the house with ease.

      Half the size? Just buy an iPhone. Mobile broadband? C'mon, this thing isn't for watching movies in your car. Again, just buy an iPhone, or any number of other devices that already cater to that market.

      IMO, this is the best "netbook" concept I've seen yet. If it can do just a bit more than just browse (handle video streamed from a MythTV box, for instance, and display ebooks/PDFs) then I'd love to have one. All the other netbooks I've seen have utterly failed to hit the sweet-spot for what I want out of a device that size.

  4. Still not what I'm looking for by mikael_j · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For years I've been trying to find a fairly small (10-13" monitor) tablet which would essentially be a Wacom Cintiq with a built-in computer just fast enough to run apps like Sketchbook Pro, Painter or other "creative" applications, but apparently there are no machines like this.

    There have been a few tablets with a good stylus but these have generally been sold as "high-end" machines meaning they've been expensive, overpowered and too big, I'm looking for what could be described as a digital sketchbook, any performance-intensive image editing could be done on a regular laptop or desktop.

    I've tried to look for good tablets all over the place but apparently this particular kind of tablet isn't interesting in the eyes of manufacturers (even though I've seen way too many threads on various art/graphics/design forums where people have been looking for just this kind of machine).

    Oh well, the more tablets that are on the market the bigger the chances of me eventually finding what I'm looking for.

    /Mikael

    --
    Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
  5. I hereby copyright the name... by credd144az · · Score: 2, Funny

    iPad

    Now wish me luck against Apple's attorneys.

  6. Re:Cost $250 Retail for $300? by artor3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1 in 30 isn't all that uncommon in consumer electronics. The RRoD issue is more like 1 in 3.