last100 » TechCrunch

It’s alive! TechCrunch’s Internet tablet still has a pulse

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:20:35 +0000

TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington’s Internet tablet project is alive and well it seems, after photographs of the latest “CrunchPad” prototype were published online.

In a blog post, Arrington says that the images were mistakingly leaked, although this is being questioned by many in the tech blogosphere, which has predictably worked itself into a frenzy. Whether or not the leak was intentional only Arrington knows, although comments attributed to him over at CrunchGear – a TechCrunch property – claim that the incident has “completely screwed” project partner Fusion Garage who’ve been instrumental in designing the latest prototype. This, along with photos depicting a very finished looking product, including what looks like retail packaging, suggest that the “CrunchPad” could be closer to market than Arrington is letting on.

Spec-wise, a few other tidbits from Arrington’s post: the resistive touch screen has been ditched for a more finger-friendly capacitive one, as has the Via chip, being replaced by Intel’s Atom. Other than that, much remains the same, albeit in a more refined design – a 12 inch screen and keyboard-less tablet form factor that boots straight into a WebKit-based browser with Linux conspicuously running under the hood. Ideal, says Arrington, 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…”

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Mike Arrington’s CrunchPad web tablet reaches prototype but should it go into production?

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:38:08 +0000

Six months on from TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington’s stated mission to create a “dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web” and the first fully working prototype has been unveiled.

The device, which is now being called the ‘CrunchPad’, sports a 12 inch resistive 4:3 touchscreen, Via processor and 4GB of storage, virtual on-screen keyboard and is powered by a version of Linux and a custom WebKit browser. It’s primary use is for surfing the web, perhaps while watching TV “so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf”, writes Arrington. Or as another means to consume online video (”on Hulu or Joost or wherever”) and other content, as well as check email or access other web services such as Google Docs.

See also: How do you use your Netbook?

In other words, just like existing Netbooks, the CrunchPad is designed for the Cloud, in which our data and applications increasingly reside on remote servers, accessible through a standard web browser.

That raises the question: why not just buy a Netbook, which can cost the same (the CrunchPad’s target price has risen from 200 to 300 dollars) and provide a more traditional clam-shell form factor and near full size physical QWERTY keyboard. (Since TechCrunch first touted its web tablet idea, many more companies have entered the increasingly competitive Netbook space — see Don’t buy a Netbook pleads PC industry).

Many will answer that a tablet form factor is more appealing and point to the popularity of Apple’s iPod touch, whose limited screen size the CrunchPad hopes to address.

However, while the Netbook versus CrunchPad tablet form factor is an interesting question, it maybe largely academic. Arrington concedes that his device may never make it to production.

The real question for us is whether this project has legs and should go forward towards production units, which is a very big step from a working prototype. That would require spinning the company off from the blog and building a team.. It’s a decision we haven’t made yet.

My take: TechCrunch doesn’t need to get into the hardware game in order to deliver a device with Arrington’s preferred form factor and stated purpose. At CES earlier this month we already saw how Netbooks are beginning to experiment with new form factors, including tablet incarnations, as well as Android powered devices that resemble a similar vision to the CrunchPad. Having said that, from a commercial perspective, if Arrington and co. can find a hardware partner to do most of the heavy lifting – finish the design, manufacture, retail and support – then licensing the ‘Crunch’ brand to help differentiate the device from a plethora of likely competitors could be a profitable and smart move.

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TechCrunch interested in developing own web tablet — with your help

Daniel Langendorf — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:26:16 +0000

last100 editor Steve O’Hear has been a big advocate of the so-called ultra-portable Netbook computer from Day One. Now we see others are just as interested.

TechCrunch today announced interest in building its own Web tablet using open source everything. As TechCruch founder Michael Arrington wrote, the basic idea is the “machine is as thin as possible, runs low end hardware and has a single button for powering it on and off, headphone jacks, a built in camera for video, low end speakers, and a microphone.”

The specs continue: It will have Wi-Fi, maybe a USB port, a built-in battery, a half a gig of RAM, a 4 GB solid state hard drive. Its primary method of input is an iPhone-like touchscreen, it runs on the Linux operating system, and it uses Firefox as its browser.

The TechCrunch Tablet (it has no official name yet) is to be built entirely on open source hardware and software, which Arrington says will keep the cost down to around $200 — $2-300 less than existing Netbooks. (Steve’s in-depth review of the MSI Wind U100.)

“The idea is to turn it on, bypass any desktop interface, and go directly to Firefox running in a modified Kiosk mode that effectively turns he browser into the operating system,” Arrington wrote. Add Google Gears for offline syncing of email, Google docs, and Skype for communication “and you have a machine that will be almost as useful as a desktop but cheaper and more portable than any laptop or tablet PC,” he wrote.

The Arrington Plan, echoed by Nik Cubrilovic at TechCrunchIT, is to first create a marketing document to outline what the TechCrunch Tablet will do, then a small group of interested people will spec out the hardware. Volunteers also will help write customized Linux and Firefox code.

Once the design is compete, the TechCrunch initiative will work with a supply chain to source the cost of the machine — Arrington’s goal is $200, Cubrilovic mentions $300 or less. Arrington hopes to build a few prototypes and, if everything works well, they’d open source the design and software for others to manufacture.

“The goal is to keep the machine very simple and very cheap,” Arrington wrote.

It’s a laudable goal, one that should be on the table at all the world’s major computer and telecommunications manufacturers, including Dell, HP, Samsung, LG, and others. But are any of the majors besides Apple working on this?

Apple has already introduced the iPhone (which Arrington says has too small of a screen) and the super-thin (but expensive) MacBook Air. In addition to already available Netbooks, Nokia sells the N810 Internet tablet (see last100 review) for less than $500. There are a bunch of off-brand tablets from overseas (Sahara Slate) and (eo UMPC) and interest from technical organizations (maemo), consumers, (Firebox computer), and some manufacturers (ASUS). There are also products in the wings like Google’s mobile operating system Android.

Ultimately, these all fail the Arrington surf-the-Web-from-the-couch test.

Whether the TechCrunch Tablet can actually be manufactured at a reasonable cost and quality remains to be seen. Nicolas Negroponte, a founder of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), wanted to build an affordable educational device/computer for use in third world countries for about $100. So far that hasn’t happened.

And coming from the world of product design and development, I know there’s all sorts of issues and stumbling blocks once you start delving into the actual hardware and UI design, engineering, parts sourcing, prototyping, manufacturing, and marketing. Suddenly that $200 goal looks more like $400, and what you get for $200 is crap that nobody would want.

But Arrington can dream, can’t he? And who knows: Maybe Arrington is the most powerful person in tech and can move Dell, HP, and the other biggies into a market they should be already exploring.

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