CrunchPad Will Be a 'Dead Simple Web Tablet'

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.'"

Comments

Wanna sell them like hot bread ?

[da5idnetlimit.com]

Then please add a strong (8\10 meters) IR interface.

It can then become my universal remote AND my (potato) couch web browser.
Otherwise, I already found some solutions to browse from the couch (aka iphone)

Obligatory...

[maxume]

It's not a netbook and I don't see why anyone would possibly prefer a larger screen in a format that is easier to hold to something with a keyboard.

CrunchPad

[Renderer of Evil]

A $300 digital photo-frame that runs Firefox.

Sign me up.

Re:It needs some method of data entry

[tiananmen tank man]

... so you would hold some small keyboard in your hand and your other hand could be holding the tablet? Sounds horrible.

Web "Consumer" device

[presidenteloco]

Overall cool - iphone with big enough screen

But they really should focus on design of a virtual keyboard that is large and ergonomically laid out.

We have to avoid trending toward encouraging passive web surfers who are only "channel surfing"
just like the advertisers want you to.

The internet is way more interesting and useful when it is truely two-way, peer-to-peer.

Once more around the block my friend

[westlake]

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"]

Re:Once more around the block my friend

[iluvcapra]

With each new generation of hardware the geek seems determined to re-invent the web appliance. Which no one wants and no one buys.

It's a challenging use case. For the form factor we're talking about, lacking a keyboard but being very thin, having limited proc, and being only marginaly cheaper than a netbook, the real competition in its market is paper. If this thing isn't as useful as paper, why bother getting this for someone to use when an actual nominal "computer" is only marginally more expensive.

I think it's clear that someday something like this will replace a lot of paper, not all of it, but lots of ephemera. I already use my knidle to read my screenplays, and that's already saved 500 sheets in the past 3 months. If something like the kindle had better searching and browsing, and could actually read HTML documents in the manner they were intended, I could be keeping phonebooks full of film codebooks and sound library stuff in their right now.

Something I've noticed with my iPhone, on the other hand, despite the fact that it's a little small to use properly as paper, is that it's extremely difficult to be browsing something on my computer, and then to continue my browsing session on the phone, or vice versus. The only way to do it is to email links to yourself, and that's a supreme pain.... Something I still think about from Minority Report were the larger pad-like storage devices they used to move files from one rig to another, like when Tom Cruise's assistant would look up a series of mugshots on one machine and bring them over to his. The assistant would collect the mugshots, drag them off his screen and ONTO the screen of the pad, as if the pad, by nature of touching the computer, were an extension of his monitor, and then he could take the pad, which had a display and could show everything it held, and carried it to the other computer. From there, the pad then became an extention on Anderton's monitor, and he could look at the material directly on the pad or drag it to his system, completing the loop. Why the fuck can't someone build an internet tablet that can do that? All that haptic stuff was cool, but for some reason, in my work, I'm constantly wishing I could take something I'm working on at this moment, drag it to a pad, and carry it somewhere, perhaps to move, perhaps just to work in-situ on the pad.

Re:It needs some method of data entry

[generic.individual]

I was thinking something like a slide out keyboard, like g1 phone style. A keyboard is really so much nicer than touch for entering data. In my book it is an essential requirement for serious web browsing and email but shouldn't get in the way or be there when you don't need it or you might as well just be holding a laptop.

Re:Will it be possible to close the browser?

[drgould]

Is it at all possible to close the browser and use the tablet as a proper computer? That would be magical.

It runs Linux and I find it difficult to believe that they are making any serious attempt to "lock it down."

If you can't access at least a shell prompt out of the box, I'm sure someone will post a youtube how-to video within 5 minutes of release.

Re:It needs some method of data entry

[eric-x]

Put a keyboard on the back which can be folded to the front, depending on the position you can use it as a pad or a netbook.

Re:It needs some method of data entry

[ciderVisor]

"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.