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Arrington's Web Tablet Nearly Ready For Launch?
narramissic writes "The 'dead simple and dirt cheap' touchscreen Web tablet that Michael Arrington of TechCrunch set out to build last July seems to be nearing completion, writes blogger Peter Smith. 'The CrunchPad is a Linux-based touchscreen tablet using a browser-based UI. When you turn the unit on, it boots right into the webkit-based browser. There's a pop-up virtual keyboard for entering URLs and such (you wouldn't want to do any significant typing on it) and scrolling is via swiping the screen. When Arrington first visualized the project he was shooting for a $200 price point, then discovered that a $299 price was more realistic.'"
I would have got a first post, but I was typing on a web tablet.
whether there'll be a last.fm client for it.
Gotta say that the mockups look fairly nice. But based on those pics, it looks like it will have a ridiculously high-res display. I'm guessing the final product will have a resolution that's about 1/3 of what they show there.
Gartner has projected that in the next 5 years about half of all internet bloggers will paper launch their own internet tablets, because it's the next logical step.
A cursory glance through TFA and the main post it links to do not reveal the specs of the device.
What's the platform? What sort of connectivity does it have?
a webbased OS sitting on a homebrew touchscreen - sounds rock solid to me!
Just buy a Nokia N8x0. I am willing to bet you can pick up an n800 for well under $200. The N810 is a bit more but has a slideout qwerty keypad. Its a nice web browser, or portable video screen with great battery life.
Lets stop reinventing the wheel and use what hardware and software is already out there!
I don't see what is compelling or really even interesting about this product. A netbook for the same money is a far more capable device.
-Lod
Don't get me wrong: I love the simplicity of the idea. However, if for $300 I am only able to surf the web, I would go for a netbook instead. Sure, netbooks lack the style and aesthetic appeal of a big touchscreen, but you have a real keyboard, a real OS, and you can use it for many different tasks (as much as you can with a tiny screen and keyboard anyway).
However, I may have been sold if the price had stayed at $200.
At that price point why not just get an iPhone which has webkit based web browsing and also has cellular data connectivity so you can use it anywhere?
After reading some of this story this device sounds like a large Ipod Touch without all the fancy Apple applications. I agree with the previous poster that a netbook would make a far better choice for this price. When they make a netbook around 190 bucks that is versatile enough I may get one. With most projects he wanted to keep the cost down but that is easier said then done.
It needs a stylus for writing notes, if possible, directly onto a webpage. :-)
I hope a PDF viewer is included. Being able to write on the PDF file would be A++++ awesome.
Just like some simple program that stores what I'm writing into a JPG file, and it gets associated to the file or page I'm viewing. So it gets overlaid on the document.
If it replaces a notepad, while allowing me to surf the net, I'm sold.
When I first saw the project, I thought that it was entirely too klunky
Eary Image
Where it's at now, however...
Current Prototype
Is looking much more impressive.
Reality bumped the price by $100. :)
Wow, I am hoping to see this sometime soon as my 10" ViewSonic AirPanel SmartDisplay is getting a little long in the tooth. Still running 902.11B standard! It's slow with today's web but it is the most convenient item in my stable to browse the web away from my office-chair. I can watch TV, read/mod posts on slashdot -or- news on the web -or- read books & tweak my network from the comfort of my couch.
Yeah, it runs Windows CE but everything isn't perfect. Still it's very light, doesn't need a stylus to click on a link or button (though has one). The only way it could be the browser tool even better would be an external Home, Forward and Back buttons in a convenient place on the frame somewhere.
I recently got a Dell Mini10 as a present and a netbook will never replace a small tablet for the way I use the airpanel.
God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
People have 52 inch screens in the living room, 19 to 24 inch computer screens and you want them to read on a small screen the size of a gum pack?
Take your touch and shove it where it dont shine.... thats one place where the small screen size will actually be of benefit.
You need a 10-12 inch screen to be able to comfortably read something.
As for getting a netbook, no you dont. I bought an Acer One for 269$ and it wasnt the 50-60$ over the magical 200 bucks that was going to change my mind.
You on the other hand will have no problem paying 5 times the price as long as the logo is fruity.
The second link from the slashdot summary, describing the current product, is extremely short, and is essentially the same text as the slashdot summary. A longer and better article is here. This page has technical specs: 12-inch touchscreen (1024x768 4:3), via nano, 1 GB ram, 4 GB flash, wifi, accelerometer, camera, 3 lb, currently running ubuntu.
Sorry, but $300 is not "dirt cheap," IMO. Zareason.com or system76.com will routinely sell you a full-featured desktop system for $300. WalMart and Sears have sold desktop machines like the Everex gPC as cheap as $200. Target has had the eeePC for $280. This is not even something you'd want to use as a full-function computer, so I'd say $300 is actually pretty expensive. Of course some people may be willing to pay for style or convenience. But as far as convenience, I'm not convinced I'd want something portable like this that didn't have a lid to protect the screen.
"Dirt cheap" is going to be ARM-based computers retailing for $50-100, which we'll probably have within a few years.
Find free books.
Why did they go with such a small profile? I bet that's most of the cost problem, if not the hugeness of the display. I'd totally deal with it being a little clunky if it was cheap and effective.
One use I'd deploy right now is a scheduling kiosk for our fleet. We have a fleet of vehicles and we use pen and paper to schedule their use. I'd love to install one of these next to the key box and have a networked scheduling web app running on it. That way if you're at the key box you can schedule or you could do it from your workstation. Or I could put one next to a common space phone and set it to browse our intranet. Or use it as a wall mounted closed circuit tv monitor. All kinds of uses...
what I could really use is a clamshell computer (think Samsung Alias 2) strapped to my forearm. (Like Turanga Leela, but real.)
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I just checked out the newest presentation video of this thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-0Nce5oTQ , and it is quite an interesting product.
Of course the application as a browser only thing is a bit too little.
For the folks who asked what the underlying OS is: Linux + webkit
Specs: no idea, not much.
Now what would be really great: a sane interface API for this thing and the possibility to write apps for it + wlan + bluetooth. Then it would be quite a viable niche product (for cool people only) who for instance could program applications that would allow them to dim the light in their rooms on this thing or monitor a remote server.
Frankly, after the whole techcrunch/last.fm thing, I need some more concrete evidence from Mr. Arrington before I start taking anything he says seriously.
I'm legally blind, so this is something I've been waiting for, for ages.
If I can stick Ubuntu, or anything with a customizable UI on, with a browser / pdf reader that lets me put large, white text on a black background.. surf and read ebooks.. I'm sold.
Oh, wait, it does. Maybe, just maybe, there will be hacks that make it worth $300, if not more? Nah, never happen.
If the CrunchPad can build services and have the hardware cost subsidized (like cell phones) then the price could be reduced or even possible free.
- Mobile phone companies can offer it with built in 3G
- Partner with E-Schoolbook, E-Magazine, E-Newspaper companies - Google may be interested now that they have thrown their hat into the E-Book arena
- Look at Hospitals, Schools, Government agencies to use this for data entry - imagine going to a doctors appointment and being handed the CrunchPad to update medical records, views records, check on prescriptions all while waiting for the appointment. With the push to modernize records to reduce costs this device could take advantage of web apps to streamline processes.
- Newspapers are in a crunch to find new ways to profit. This device can be linked into a subscription with advertising being dynamically assigned by content.
Just a few possible ways to reduce the hardware cost while still building a profit model.
or, gee, you could take 10 minutes and write a perl script with a web interface that is hosted on your magical 'remote server'. even simpler.
Think of it as a mobile platform for mostly-output applications. eBook reader. Web browser. PowerPoint. TV and movies. Maps. Things where input is minimal.
That's the proper positioning for this - as a content delivery platform with a screen big enough to be useful. There's a market for that.
If the CrunchPad can build services and have the hardware cost subsidized (like cell phones) then the price could be reduced or even possible free. - Mobile phone companies can offer it with built in 3G - Partner with E-Schoolbook, E-Magazine, E-Newspaper companies - Google may be interested now that they have thrown their hat into the E-Book arena - Look at Hospitals, Schools, Government agencies to use this for data entry - imagine going to a doctors appointment and being handed the CrunchPad to update medical records, views records, check on prescriptions all while waiting for the appointment. With the push to modernize records to reduce costs this device could take advantage of web apps to streamline processes. - Newspapers are in a crunch to find new ways to profit. This device can be linked into a subscription with advertising being dynamically assigned by content. Just a few possible ways to reduce the hardware cost while still building a profit model.
"When Arrington first visualized the project he was shooting for a $200 price point, then discovered that a $299 price was more realistic"
Why do so many people make this same mistake? I think it is hubris - the idea that "I'm smarter than everyone else in the industry, and I have ideas that none of them do". One of the worst PR moves is to drastically raise your estimated price, in this case by 50%. And in the end, the promised price point of 200 dollars was necessary; for 300 dollars, I can get a fully-featured netbook or iPod touch.
And I'd like to add that there are several examples of companies promising a great price, and then actually delivering on it (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano)
As long as you brought up being legally blind, I wonder if you have tried the various flavors of text to speech and speech to text, etc? Asking because I think a vocal user interface that worked *well* would be very nice for some people. Example, being a boomer myself, I am aware that in our aging population arthritis in the fingers is a reality, and most devices today (because rapid innovation is geared way more towards the youth market, despite the aging population being larger and having a lot more disposable cash...) require the ability to type, and it is getting harder and harder as devices shrink and keyboards start to need mosquito beak shaped and sized fingers, along with near perfect dexterity.
Thanks in advance if you have any insight!
but pricey at $300 for such limited capability.
Perhaps you should develop such a device yourself with a target of $100, and when that becomes very difficult, settle on the price point of $200.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Dude, I meant cool. I know it is easy to write some web app to do this, but it is not as cool. First I do not get the fidelity (can't access internal display controls, play with them, do some magic, etc.). Second: writing a UI in (X)HTML + (python|perl|whatever) is not cool either (for this kind of device, on a PC yes, but not here).
Hmm, then again, I was in my dreaming session it seems again, as I was mesmerising about cool + practical as opposed to practical only. Think I did not emphase that enough.
Disclaimer: obviously cool means the thing I think nice, which is what I pulled out of my ass on an emotional basis and does not reflect a universal cool (thank the spaghetti thing up there).
What am I going to do with this closetful of $300 single-purpose devices?
Let's see, I have a $300 Kindle for e-books, a $300 CrunchPad for Web pages...
Maybe I'll sell them all and get a $300 Netbook that does all of those things. Maybe not quite as well, but all of those things and a helluva lot more.
I can't wait to spit http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/28/some-things-need-to-change/ on it!
For a full screen browser, with that performance, with those limitations on what can be done with it, I wouldn't pay $299. I might pay $199.
The first thing that someone will do is tear it down and install ubuntu on it.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Will this be the net-appliance thing all over again? Just this time it is a net-appliance with a touchscreen. The problem with designing these 'net-appliances' is that in a year or so the cost of a full-featured computer with the same desirable feature the producer is promoting will come out, giving no reason for people to actually buy one of these devices. If he can keep his original price point of $200, it might have worked out pretty well, but at $300 he is crossing into netbook territory. Touchscreens will soon become a standard anyway. Why buy one from him now?
The first thing I thought when I read about this is that it would make an excellent home remote. There are some far less interesting remotes that cost more out there than this. Of course, it'd need an IR port, or you would need a server with an IR blaster. But if there were a way to use it, it would be pretty cool.