Arrington's Web Tablet Nearly Ready For Launch? 140
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.'"
Nokia (Score:1, Interesting)
Lets stop reinventing the wheel and use what hardware and software is already out there!
Finally a replacement for my SmartDisplay (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, I am hoping to see this sometime soon as my 10" ViewSonic AirPanel [viewsonic.com] SmartDisplay [wikipedia.org] 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.
Re:Looks great but... (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:Looks great but... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Accessibility (Score:2, Interesting)
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!
Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
If they keep their goal (promise?) to open up the hardware and Android makes more sense, it will happen pretty quickly.
Re:Nokia (Score:3, Interesting)
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.