Touch. One look around the industry and you’ll find touch has invaded in a big way. From the mighty iPhone, to Microsoft’s Surface, to home appliances; devices are begging for our physical interaction. The elusive touch tablet time is almost here, courtesy of none of the usual suspects.
It seems like an obvious next step from the clamshell laptop to tablet netbook. Phones have gone the same route, so why not computers? We’ve been speculating for years that Apple would build a larger touch to grab a larger bit of the education, e-reader markets. Obvious to everyone except those with the power to actually build and sell one.
So it may come as a surprise that a blog has decided to take things into their own hands. TechCrunch has put the resources behind this project and the image above is their launch prototype rendering. The design looks good: it is bright, thin and looks to be what one would hope when building a tablet. The price looks to be nearing $300, which is higher than targeted by TechCrunch but tech costs money sometimes and I don’t believe $300 is a deal breaker.
The device runs on Linux and features a webkit browser. According to a video from last month, the unit has a software keyboard that looks a tad shy of slick; but it seems to be usable. Says Arrington of the latest itteration:
This launch prototype is another significant step forward from the last prototype. The screen is now flush with the case and we’ve decreased the overall thickness to about 18 mm. The case will be aluminum, which is more expensive than plastic but is sturdier and lets us shave a little more off the overall thickness of the device.
Two years ago, I would have been on the edge of my seat waiting for such a device. Heck, I might have even jumped up and down with excitement. But two years ago, I started using my iPod touch/iPhone for couch computing. Sure, this tablet is bigger and probably more engaging but that argument leads us to questions about apps and the massive momentum the Apple App Store has. Is the world ready for this tablet or has it’s time passed? I don’t know, do you?
Read: [TechCrunch]
I like this tablet PC really cute and attractive in shape and size so why i like this…