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CrunchPad Will Be a 'Dead Simple Web Tablet'

Posted by Soulskill on from the tablets-going-crunch-is-usually-a-bad-thing dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has been talking for a year about building a touch-screen tablet for Web surfing and now it appears that the CrunchPad is close to becoming a reality. 'We're going to make some really big announcements,' said Arrington, who predicted a prototype would be ready for unveiling by the end of July. The purpose of the CrunchPad will be very simple: surfing the Web. Turn it on and up comes a browser — 'an Internet consumption device,' for reading, checking e-mail or watching video. The CrunchPad will not have a hard drive or keyboard and photos of the latest prototype show a device with a 12 inch screen. 'The screen is now flush with the case and we've decreased the overall thickness to about 18 mm,' writes Arrington. 'The case will be aluminum, which is more expensive than plastic but is sturdier and lets us shave a little more off the overall thickness of the device.' The CrunchPad boots directly into the browser with a Linux-based operating system and a WebKit-based browser. A video of an earlier CrunchPad prototype in action shows a device which, unlike the iPhone, runs flash. 'The next time we talk about the CrunchPad publicly will be at a special press and user event in July in Silicon Valley,' writes Arrington. 'We're full on. These prototypes are real.'"

7 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Article originally posted June 3rd. Old news.

    1. Re:Old News by maxume · · Score: 2, Informative

      The newspaper articles/blogs are from July (one is even from 2 days in the future), but the TechCrunch article (arguably the 'original') is from June.

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      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  2. flash video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    A video of an earlier CrunchPad prototype in action shows a device which, unlike the iPhone, runs flash.

    Yes, it's quite impressive. I like watching my YouTube videos at 1 frame every 3 or 4 seconds.

  3. Once more around the block my friend by westlake · · Score: 3, Informative

    With each new generation of hardware the geek seems determined to re-invent the web appliance.

    Which no one wants and no one buys.

    Not in the numbers which matter to WalMart.

    The Kindle stores 1500 e-books for your off-line reading pleasure.

    The Atom netbook running XP or Win 7 can play hundreds of MSDOS and Windows games - available as dirt-cheep downloads from places like Gog.com ["Good Old Games"]

  4. Re:Wanna sell them like hot bread ? by bjwest · · Score: 2, Informative

    An iphone for general browsing? You're kidding right? There is no way a device with a 3.5 inch display could be used for serious browsing. A quick lookup or banking transaction maybe, but if you're doing your daily browsing (news sites, research, what ever) you need more than a couple of five or six word lines at a time, and forget about serious posting. A remote replacement, yeah, general browser replacement, no way.

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    --- Keep the choice with the user..
  5. Re:Wanna sell them like hot bread ? by oakgrove · · Score: 2, Informative

    The iPhone has a 480x320 resolution for a total of 153,600 pixels.

    The N810 has 800x480 resolution for a total of 384,000 pixels.

    So, yes, the N810 does indeed have more than double the resolution.

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    The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  6. Re:It needs some method of data entry by ciderVisor · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Piece of piss" is Brit-speak for saying something is simple/easy to do. He's saying that operating a touch keyboard on a 12" screen would be very simple in comparison to typing on an iPhone.

    If you knew that, then my apologies.

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    Squirrel!