Topic: Open Source touch tablet computer (target $200)

[Nemesis]

Part 1:

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I’m tired of waiting - I want a dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web. Nothing fancy like the Dell latitude XT, which costs $2,500. Just a Macbook Air-thin touch screen machine that runs Firefox and possibly Skype on top of a Linux kernel. It doesn’t exist today, and as far as we can tell no one is creating one. So let’s design it, build a few and then open source the specs so anyone can create them.

Part 2:

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Update on the TechCrunch Tablet: A humble (and messy) beginning. Prototype A has been built. It’s in a temporary aluminum case that a local sheet metal shop put together for us that’s at least twice as thick as it needs to be, but the hardware has been defined and is nearing lockdown. We booted the machine in the case for the first time today, accessed the Wifi network and were able to navigate a web page via the touch screen.

Most of the work is transitioning to software and UI, and real industrial design work on the case is beginning.

Part 3:

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CrunchPad Prototype B

The device has a 12-inch touchscreen with a 4:3 aspect ratio (which is ideal for web browsing in my opinion). It is powered with a Via Nano processor, which has performed at par with the Intel Atom in our testing. 1 GB of ram (its more than we need) and a 4 GB flash drive to store the OS and browser and any cache. Resolution is 1024×768, which means the vast majority of websites are viewed in full width without scrolling. The device also has wifi, an accelerometer (so when you turn the screen on its side you can view more of a web page), a camera and a four cell battery. Total cost of the device, when we include estimates for the case, codecs and other miscellaneous items, is just over $200. Prototype B is actually much less expensive because the screen we used isn’t very good. The price estimate includes a much better, more expensive LCD.

The case, which was designed and built by David Yarnell and Greg Lalier from Dynacept, is 12.5″ x 9.7″ x 1.3″. It’s about twice as thick as is needs to be without further engineering - we just built in a safety thickness in case of heat or other issues. The device weighs three pounds, partially due to the extra batteries we’ve stuffed into it to see how long we can run it without power. Still, the device weighs in at 2 oz less than the 10″ eeePC.

The software: currently we’re running a full install of Ubuntu Linux on the prototype with a custom Webkit browser. A lot of the work done to date has been on the drivers and the virtual keyboard, which you can see in the videos. The software has been created by Singapore-based Fusion Garage, who continue to work with Louis on the feature set and user experience.