CrunchPad - Dead :(

Apr 2, 2009
2,147
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/

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A little background for those of you who haven’t heard of the CrunchPad: This is the post that kicked off the project. I wanted something I couldn’t buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined. 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.

Price? it can be built for less than $250, including packaging. Add in fixed costs and other stuff you have to deal with (like returns), and you can sell it for $300 and probably not go out of business. Physical design is important, and the software is the key to winning.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/10/about-those-new-crunchpad-pictures/
 
if ur giving it away, ill take it :p

haha right

well i know a lot of people like netbooks, and this looks like the perfect alternative to a netbook. most people use computers for the internet anyways, what better way to surf than to use a device MADE for surfing
 
Any idea what kind of Battery life this gets? if so, I could very well use this for Sling.com :D

there hasn't been any word what kind of battery it uses. but i'd expect at least netbook like battery life, probably more since it won't have a hard drive

so what..3-6 hours depending on what battery they use
 
well im sure it has some sort of flash drive for cache, etc... since it's streaming media


otherwise this thing will be slow and stupid.
 
well im sure it has some sort of flash drive for cache, etc... since it's streaming media


otherwise this thing will be slow and stupid.

100mb. if it were slow and stupid they wouldn't bother selling it ;)

netbooks have hard drives tho, so depends on what the user really needs.

my girl has a netbook, does nothing but internet on it. this would have been a better buy for her with the bigger screen.