CrunchPad: awsome 12-inch tablet from TechCrunch's Michael Arrington
It is just a prototype for now, but this is a device that is being experimented by TechCrunch's founder Michael Arrington. According to Michael, it is too early to talk about the device. However, since some pictures leaked recently, he made this post today explaining what's behind this cool gadget.
According to him:
The goal - a very thin and light touch screen computer, sans physical keyboard, that has no hard drive and boots directly to a browser to surf the web. The operating system exists solely to handle the hardware drivers and run the browser and associated applications. That’s it.
The key uses: Internet consumption. The virtual keyboard will make data entry a pain other than for entering credentials, quick searches and maybe light emails. This machine isn’t for data entry. But it is for reading emails and the news, watching videos on Hulu, YouTube, etc., listening to streaming music on MySpace Music and imeem, and doing video chat via tokbox. The hardware would consist of netbook appropriate chipsets (Intel Atom or Via Nano), at least a 12 inch screen, a camera for photos and video, speakers and a microphone. Add a single USB port, power in and sound out, and you’re done. If you want more features, this ain’t for you.
Althought there is no concrete information, he expects the price to be around USD $300, since the estimated costs at this point are around USD $250. The picture on the top is initial conceptual drawing. The red unit is the latest prototype.