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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.'"
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!
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.
Specs were more of a point of interest - wondered if it was an ARM processor as they are good for power consumption and battery life. I mean, does it even have a battery or does it need to be plugged in all the time?
I looked at another of the prototype pages and it was using an Atom chip. I guess that's not bad for power consumption and processing power.
Also yes, my immediate thoughts were "I wonder if I could get that to run debian?". You can't blame me for that surely?
Connectivity, yes, would be useful to know what's there in terms of network interfaces. I presume wireless, but any 3G? A wired port?
Earlier prototypes used an Atom CPU, I doubt that's changed. And the connectivity is some sort of wifi, presumably g, maybe n.
It looks like a neat device, and I'm definitely interested in the cheap lightweight tablet form factor and market niche. But when I think about purchasing it I can't help comparing it in my head to the super-sized iPod tablet Apple is rumored to be working on.
The crunchpad's 12" screen is nice compared to the 8-10" expected from apple, but the atom and big screen are going to make for really crappy battery life compared to an ARM based 8-10" solution, and the Apple version will be able to do more than just web surf (a version of the iPhone SDK and app store seems inevitable). However, while the crunchpad may have missed it's $200 price target in favor of $300, the rumors of Apple's $600+ price point were never in that league to begin with.
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
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!
If they keep their goal (promise?) to open up the hardware and Android makes more sense, it will happen pretty quickly.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.