CrunchPad Web Tablet Landing “As Soon As Possible” For Less Than $US300

For the right price I'd totally be game. If they can hit $300 I'll be buying one of these in a heartbeat.

This may not want to compete with Apple... But I guarantee you that it WILL compete with Amazon. Just add in a service that displays e-books from a web site rather than a local storage and you have a cheaper e-book reader with a decent screen.

Timothy Collins

@Smiley17o:

Have you tried just doing a clean wipe of the machine and starting over again? If you're running XP on a 2003 machine and just using it for web browsing and such it should be as snappy as it was when it was new.

Rob C

@nightwheel: Yeah, and maybe make it, let's say, a thousand dollars more expensive, why not...

Viroz

this is not a replacement for netbooks, this is the new ereader.
just think about it and wait, it will make sense in a minute

justsomereportingguy

@ThatsNotPudding: Someone somewhere is willing to bet a million(s?) dollars they (or at least their financial backers) have thought of 95% of those things. An educated prediction.

@markntravis: I'm not. (?)

@i.M.A.p.C.: you. make.me.want.to.die.

It does look epic, but I find it extremely hard to believe a tech blogger and just 15 dudes can crank out a reliable high-tech consumer device with all the complex expectations, regulations, and the non-trivial hazard of liability. What happens if the screen starts to fail? Or the battery rapidly degrades? Or if the whole thing starts to overheat? If these problems crop up on devices from huge companies like Sony and Apple, what are the odds for a 'garage project'? I whish them all the best for a very cool device, but perhaps there are real technical reasons no other companies have sold a CrunchPad equivalent.

Also, I can't help to notice just in this thread there is a rapidly expanding body of expectations and critcisms. Mr. Arrington probably doesn't agree with the phrase 'the customer is always right', but he'll quickly find out 'the customer is always a whiny, demanding, clueless pain in the ass'.

ThatsNotPudding

I work for a school that uses a web interface for attendance. This would be perfect for our Phys. Ed teachers and coaches.

mikejonas

@badhatharry: Tell me more, please. I'm currently looking at a major revamp of audio at a large amphitheater, so I am interested in what kind of console/interface you use.

Jim Klingenfus

It would be really cool if you could use it to remote destkop onto an actual PC. I'm sure the Flash Player can handle that. It would also be nice for sitting on the couch and using it to surf and use it basically as a remote to control your audio or video that are getting driven off of a PC. It would also then compete against the high end Logitech remotes.

Marc Silsbe

If I had any money I would absolutely be interested in this.

Possinator

@[www.tenonedesign.com] works with capacitive touch screens

Totally getting this. Does anyone know if it has a USB port? That way I could stick one in and have some storage space.

Exilm

@kzooguy: Oh I know how Wacoms work, but if you were to use the Crunchpad as a wacom a capacitive touch would be pointless cos they don't don't work with pens, using a finger would be a pain in the ass as a graphic tablet.

@deanbmmv: but Wacoms use a completely different technology for stylus input. The screen induces a current in the pen, which sends back a radio signal, which is why it knows where the pen is even if it's hovering slightly above the pad.

kzooguy

@Invisible-Echidna:
Until Apple makes one, there's always the Modbook:
[www.axiotron.com]

kzooguy

@badhatharry: What console are you using? I know that the Yamaha units (M7CL, at least) support interface via WiFi, but you have to install their (Yamaha's) program on your laptop, and I don't think that this supports 3rd party programs. If you can do it, though, you should-it's awesome. My A/1s all have the interface programs loaded onto their laptops, and they say that it's one of the best ways to set the EQ-just wander around the venue and figure out what sounds best where.

Lupus_Yonderboy

@switchblade saints: If this really ends up being $250, that's just what I plan on doing with it. I've been looking to get a Samsung Q1 to do exactly that, and the lowest I've been able to find one of those is $300 or so-and I'd end up with a 7" screen instead of a 12" (though the Samsung would have a hard drive, and I'd have the-possibly dubious-pleasure of installing Ubuntu Mobile on it). I'd just have to set up a web interface for my desktop to get to the media that I have on there, but that shouldn't be too complicated, or at least that's what my hope is...

Lupus_Yonderboy

@Matt Sander: He's talking about jacking his 3.5 incher while watching all the mobile porn on this beauty.

i.M.A.p.C.

@apollo89:
while it is old and slow a new pc is not a necessity at this moment so i would rather save my cash. i am looking to buy atleast 1 new gadget this year and it could be this or the new zune HD.

Smiley17o

@Jonathan Moll: I would buy this to mount in my car. What would be nice is, a USB port for a GPS, and google maps :) I never know where the hell I am going.

Tony Bostony

all this needs is a microSD slot to be the best e-reader yet. forget kindle.

@Jonathan Moll:
But I'm sure once Apple releases a $1000 keyboard-less tablet with a 10" screen you'll gobble that shit up

cc82

I'm an artist and a Mac user, so my idea buy right now would be the Apple's MythTab running Photoshop, but if this can run a GIMP/Photoshop-level painting program (through JavaScript, perhaps) then it starts looking hella attractive.
The lack of HDD sounds limiting though, let's hope there's an SD slot or something.

Otherwise I'm going to have to make my own iTab, since there's apparently nothing like what I want out there (pressure-sensitive/multitouch large screen, runs PS, portable...)

I think I want one. Can I see Michael Jackson on it??

mikegriffin

I just can't wait to see what sort of homebrew appears on this!

@Jonathan Moll: I'm considering this in comparison to the Touch Book right now. The way I see it, is it has more surface area for keys, so I can type, and I can comfortably read the text at home, or away in a motel. I can use my sister's EEE well enough while walking around, so this should be easier, and I have small hands.

The most practical use I see for it is of course, checking websites quickly and conveniently. If it can run a remote PC program well enough though, I can leave my CRT off most of the time, and work on whatever projects I'm spending my time on anywhere. I can also use it to sketch on, replacing the need to use ALOT of paper.

MDevonB

@dragon:ONE: Yeah, I remember them now. Unfortunately they failed miserably, partly due to hardware limitations (802.11b didn't allow for video streaming), but mostly due to stupid MS licencing issues. Wikipedia has a good summary of how bad they were.

If this is hackable, it might just work out...

goodevans

I wonder if this will have Bluetooth or a USB port for plugging in peripherals? I ask because if they can make this work with a mouse and keyboard, then this could be the type of device that kicks-starts cloud computing - a little, at least. (Music, photos, documents and web browsing is probably what most people use computers for anyhow.)

darway

@WilletteEchidna: Capacitive touch would be useless though, you always use Wacoms with a stylus/pen.

@Dallifornia: You mean e-Sata?

@Zomb: Agreed. But for now I see this as the first e-reader I'd even consider. Hopefully version 2 will come with storage and video support.

so tempting will redefine the market and the next history page

Peter Harris

If it's fanless with wifi n I'm sold.

PriceSaturninus

whats the screen size like?

bookmark

@Zomb: Hey Zomb, the capital 'T' isn't optional either. Quit being a grammar nazi or get off the internets.

Touch Book. Pre ordered. [www.alwaysinnovating.com]

furrina

@Dallifornia: That's a pretty big f'in jack!

Matt Sander

Now that's an E-Reader!

cafenitro

No hard drive?
Can someone explain that? Will it run on RAM or will there be a ssd in it?

Sounds like something great for the couch!

I might of bought one if Arrington wasn't such a ass.

Daren

@Jarek James:
Yeah, that would be cool. But, as Cupajo said, no hard drive. :( And if I could use it for drawing, that would be cool, too. Looks like I'm going to have to wait till Apple makes a tablet... That or I'd have to settle for a PC based one. *shutter*

Invisible-Echidna

@Donkey_Pasta: Logmein might work. As long as this thing supports java script I don't see why it wouldn't.

FLOPPY DISKS! Floppy Disk support, if they include that, count me in!

(5 ¼ 's of course)

@goodevans: I'm wondering if a totally web based RDC client would work on this -- but I don't think so.

Donkey_Pasta

Sleek, simple, supports flash.
Support for audio as well as ebooks would make for an excellent reader.
If so, at 300 USD I'm in.

@Brookespeed: I don't think it was ever meant to be portable-portable. More like house-portable. I can totally see using this as an "instant"-on internet device that I web-surf on the couch with or use to check recipes on in the kitchen, etc etc etc.

@brundlefly76: Who isn't to say that this doesnt have a little stand in the back? And lets not forget, you could simply place it on your lap and type.

apollo89

@Smiley17o: Why don't you just buy a new computer and you don't have to deal with an ancient computer?

apollo89

@jetRink: For couch web browsing i guess. Some sort of storage and playback capability would make this top notch.

Zomb

@sharkync: the 's' isn't optional you need it in there to be the contraction of 'is'.

Zomb

@switchblade saints: that's a good idea. I would also that this would be a good car toy if you had a mobile wifi hotspot or tethering. Hulu on the go would be nice.

njso18

@Greg Lloyd: That's a great point. If I'm on an airplane, I have my laptop; otherwise, I have a phone. There is no room in between for this, as much as I like it.

jetRink

"I'd take the under $300 CrunchPad over a netbook any day, since it seems like it'll surpass them at the one thing they were supposedly designed to do—eat the internet. And it still blows my mind it took a tech blogger to actually make it happen." So you've used it? How's the battery life? Is the touchscreen input responsive and accurate? How's the ergonomics - is it heavy to hold? How hot does it get? How do the buttons feel? What devices won't work with the USB ports - will it support a 3G dongle? How's the WiFi range and speed? Does it stutter on fullscreen streaming video?

WilletteEchidna

No way that'll happen in any significant fashion with a cheap resistive touch screen, unless that's changed since the prototype.

WilletteEchidna

Looks like a datapad from star wars.

were getting closer people.

Carlos Vidal

How the hell did this bloat to such a big screen. No longer portable. Just another disappointment in the gadget world. This breaks the camels back. I'm makin' my own stuff from now on.

Brookespeed

@goodevans: They've made those for years, for Windows-only folk. It's called the Viewsonic Airpanel, and it was designed to be a WiFi-enabled Remote Desktop Protocol client for your standard run-of-the-mill Windows XP machine. People have hacked the devices into more than just RDP, enabling its' full-blown Windows CE OS.

[www.aibohack.com]

@Jarek James: I don't know how you would do that, since it has no hard drive to install OSX on.

(Not to say that it wouldn't be cool, if you managed it.)

@goodevans:
I was wondering the same thing today when reading about this tablet on Crunchgear.

TDBURN

I've already budgeted fort this bad boy. Soon, I'll be able to keep up with my Facebook goings on (which of my friends are like Samantha from Sex and the City, and which are like Carrie- for instance) while I veg on the couch.

Oh I love it! Props.

LisaDe

Yup. I'm definitely waiting on this baby. It's an INSTANT buy for me.
Although, I'm hoping that will have a lot of hacking potential. That way if we wanted to tweak the multi-touch or boot different OSes on it we'll be able to.

olternaut

Why are you LOL'ing?

markntravis

If they would stick say a 50gb to 100gb SSD in there. I would have a hard time not buying it if I had the money

nightwheel

@thechansen: Can we start calling it Mobile OSX?: I was just thinking that....

KhaiJB

@lostlikeme: That's exactly what I was thinking. If it could do PDFs, it'd be waaay better than a kindle.

Let's hope it has SD card support and a decently high resolution screen. Finally, a light, and relatively cheap color eMagazine reader.

strife

I remember 8-9 years ago having an idea for something like this, except it was basically a vnc client for your desktop. At your desk, it sits in a charger and is indistinguishable from your desktop monitor. When you have to head off to a meeting, just pick it up and walk away. You still have access to all the files on your computer, because, well, it is your computer.

tl;dr: any chance of a VNC client for this thing?

goodevans

Wow. This is pretty cool.

--Core--

Now we just need to hack it into a $300 [www.wacom.com]

If you saw an early production model video maybe. The final casing is 18mm. Do your research before spouting off. Of course, nothing could possibly be as earth shattering, orgasm-inducing as your over priced cell phone.

SarasiPolyxena

@MrThunderfield: i hope so too. it'd be nice if you could use this for reading pdfs..... this'd be way better than a kindle if it could do that.

lostlikeme

@kernel panic: Because a 12" screen doesn't fit in your pocket, and is not available at the bank when you're standing in line for 10 minutes - the iPhone is, gets to the (most) of the web, including Gizmodo, without any problems, a looks good.

Greg Lloyd

Oh man that looks interesting.

I'm not giving up my Mini 9 anytime soon, but I'm not above keeping my eyes on what's happening.

Not above it at all... :)

Then reason it took Michael Arrington to make this is because the form factor doesn't make any sense.

Why would you want a tablet you have to constantly hold up with one hand so you can read the screen while you do input with the other?

I think just because people like iPhones they think a big iPhone would be a good idea, but if it doesnt fit in your pocket you might as well have a handy hinge and keyboard.

If you saw the video of the production model, it is also really fat, nothing like this picture.

brundlefly76

@Jonathan Moll: unless your phone has a 12 inch screen, i don't see your point.

kernel panic

If it is possible to plug in a keyboard, then it will most likely have USB ports. If that is the case, I can plug a thumbdrive into it and use it to control my FOH console so I don't have to be stuck at mix position. Make that possible, and I'm all over this.

badhatharry

3.5" jack is a necessity.

Dallifornia

12" touch screen that surfs the net. sounds cool, but then again an inference of its awesomeness would lead to a lot of disappointment once it fails the first time.

Zach W. R. Mollett

It sounds pretty difficult to pull it off at that price. I'll be really impressed if they can do it.

I'm thinking that would make an awesome hackintosh :D

Jarek James

gonna grab one as soon as it is available...has gotten better looking in every iteration too... i hope their is a nice handwriting application...i'd love to take notes on this at meetings...at 12" it seems big enough to replace my notebook in my bag

thejager

Is there gonna be a memory card slot? Hopefully, since downloading stuff is a considerable part of my browsing.

This could be a great system, as long as you can connect usb drives to it for uploading and downloading. If its cheap enough I may have to jump. Looks nice too, not clunky. Wonder how long the battery will last.

I could see this working well in the kitchen mounted on the fridge for quick recipe look ups, weather updates etc. but that's about it

So no keyboard? If I want to just browse the internet, my iPhone does that very well. Flash doesn't make up for the awkward typing that will take place on this thing, and seeing as how it's just webkit and has no OS to upload/save pictures or do anything other than look at websites, this is really hard for me to understand. A netbook or good browsing phone seems better than this.

Jonathan Moll

I've been using lifehacker for a while, just started getting into gizmodo, so this is the first time I've heard about this- it looks awesome!

Not only is this bad ass machine cheap for what it does, people will be eyeballing this puppy when its in your hands at your local wi-fi hot spot. Plus, the screen is bigger than most of the netbooks out there!

I will be awaiting the arrival of the crunch pad until the day it comes out now- I've already sent this pages link to two people on messenger, lol.

Somebody(s) sittin' on a whole pile of WIN.

sharkync

looks really cool. i hate booting up my ancient 2003 pc just to get on the web because it is so slow. But i have a 24inch monitor to go along with this old rig and i think i would rather spend 400 on a net book that has an hdmi port so that i can connect it to my monitor. if this is 250 dollars though, i might just get it.

Smiley17o

@Tony Bostony: Exactly what I've love this for.

$300 is cheaper than most good head units, and if it'll connect to external storage and run a half-decent media player, I'll mount this in my center console.

I haven't seen Google Maps use GPS though. Google Earth may be above this thing's specs.

I'm dying for someone to make a light weight artist friendly tablet like this. It would be great to have Wacom technology in one of these. I'd buy it in a sec.

@Zach W. R. Mollett: I was thinking this too, but then I was wondering if you could boot from a flash drive. If so then you can easily just run Ubuntu whenever out of wifi range.

jesuswhammy

@lecti: Why? I mean they aren't spending any money on an operating system, no large hard drive, not a huge need for fans, etc. They are basically taking a 12 screen (the most expensive piece and it's under $100), some ram, and a cpu plus some extras. I find it easily reasonable while still making it profitable.

jesuswhammy

This will totally replace the 1st gen PowerBook G4 with 3 minutes of battery life that lives next to my couch for IMDB lookups.

phlavor

@MrThunderfield: Hmmm... or WiFi access to the home server so the files go to a place you can actually use them.

shawn_dude

@pevans34: Hi, nice to meet you. If my few comments during my short writing career here at Giz have seemed to push you over the edge, then, sir, maybe it is time to re-evaluate your life.

Maybe you are a little (insert emotion) due to bad happenings in your life. I do apologize for triggering your suicidal ideation.

Here is a little reading material for you. This may help you to better understand your situation.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Until we meet next time, you keep up with your incredibly witty comments, kudos to you, sir.

/sarcasm & retaliation

i.M.A.p.C.