A look at the industry and find Touch has invaded a large way. From the mighty iPhone, Microsoft Surface, the household appliances begging for our physical interaction. The volatile Contact tablet is almost here, courtesy of none of the usual suspects.
It seems like an obvious step from the gripper tablet laptop Netbook. Phones have the same distance, so why not computers? We have been speculating that Apple would create a larger contact to grab a larger bit of education, e-reader market. Obvious to all except those with the power to actually build and sell.
It may come as a surprise that a blog has decided to take things into their own hands. Techcrunch has the resources for this project and the picture above is the start of prototype rendering. The design looks good: It is light, thin and looks at what one would hope that if one tablet. The price looks briefly to $ 300, which is higher than that of Techcrunch tech costs money, but sometimes, and I do not think $ 300 is a deal breaker.
The device runs Linux and has a WebKit browser. After a video of last month, the unit has a software keyboard, which is a bit shy of smooth, but it seems to be usable. Says Arrington itteration the latest:
The prototype launch is another important step forward from the last prototype. The screen is now flush with the case, and we have decreased the thickness of about 18 mm. The case is made of aluminum, which is more expensive than plastic, but is more stable and allows us to shave a little more on the thickness of the device.
Two years ago I would have on the edge of my seat waiting for such a device. Heck, I might even jumped up and down with excitement. But two years ago, I started with my iPod touch iPhone for couch computing. Sure, the tablet is probably larger and more appealing, but this argument leads us to questions about applications and the massive dynamics of the Apple App Store has. Is the world ready for this tablet or it’s time passed? I do not know, do you?
via TechCrunch
