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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.'"
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.
It's got to be better then typing on my cellphone. T9 or other predictive texts only help if you and the cell phone know how to spell the word you want.
I put on my robe and wizard hat..
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!
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
No, but if anyone reads much Techcrunch you'll know that there will almost certainly be a few dozen Twitter clients, and it will probably be the default browser homepage.
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.
The resolution looks about what the mockups show. You can find a shot of the actual thing here.
You have an iPhone with a 12" screen?
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.
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.
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...
In fact, there should be a "web client". The idea is to remain in a browser at all times (except for skype). But what techcrunch screwed up royally here is that they did not use android. That would have given them the latest codebase from a megacorp to have what? A nice screen keyboard (I know it's an oxymoron, jokers), 3g, and other important stuff... such as the browser. Job would have been much easier with Android. It might also have much more perceived safety in the long run.
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.
Right, and for the same money you could get one of these with a screen about 10 times the size.
This is not the same niche as an iPod touch, just because it has a touchscreen.
"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!
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.
The N8x0 is tiny.
I want this tablet thing as a portable (around the house) media player. It's big enough for two people (myself and my wife) to watch comfortably, has pretty high resolution, and wireless connectivity.
Select your movie from the file server via VLC's web interface, fire up VLC, connect to the stream, set it up on its stand, and enjoy a movie in any room that doesn't already have a screen. We use our laptops for this kind of thing now, but a tablet would be much, much better.
Want music in any room? Turn it on, plug it in to a couple speakers, open up the music player. Want 'Net access in your study for doing quick lookups while reading, but don't want a dedicated machine in there and don't want to cart your laptop all over the damn house (especially since its fucking battery only lasts like 45 minutes while idle after a year of moderate, mostly-plugged-in use, so you have to carry its cord around to use it for anything). This tablet's perfect for this stuff.
Previous tablets were, IMO, too weak to replace a laptop but too big/expensive/small-screened to fill a sub-laptop niche. This thing's awesome, and hits the sweet spot between internet/video phones and laptops. I love it.
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.