TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/19/techcrunch-tablet-update-prototype-b/

by dcurtis • 18 years ago

89 76 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

mixmax2• 18 years ago

Looks like they might actually pull it off..

I didn't expect that, it certainly deserves some respect.

jedc• 18 years ago

Very true. That's a pretty strong statement for Techcrunch; they could go from a one-man blog to a blog/event and now hardware "empire" in just 4-5 years. Even if the tablet is crap, that's quite an accomplishment.

axod4• 18 years ago

There's a few others that have found success with similar methods:

  1. Build a blog, get large readership, convince them you're *awesome*!
  2. Release reasonable product
  3. Sell to blog readership

bprater2• 18 years ago

It's one thing to build a prototype.

It's an entirely different ballgame to put a prototype into production.

Someone has to print out boards, solder stuff on the boards, burn an OS on a drive, order parts from suppliers, and have a rigerous testing program.

Then you need to package up these puppies in pretty boxes and get them shipped out.

Oh, don't forget a crew of folks to man phones and deal with new orders and support issues. Don't forget the salespeople you'll need to get these into the hands of big suppliers.

Prototypes ain't hard. (More accurately: they tend to be inexpensive and you can fit everything you need into your two-car garage.) It's the business model that wraps around it that gets expensive and time-consuming.

Best of luck though to the crew. I like to see new competitors. It pushes everyone's game up.

gravitycop• 18 years ago

Documentation has to be written. Then there are legal fees, and perhaps an entire permanent legal department. Regulatory fees must be paid. Taxes must be paid. Tooling costs. Electricity costs. Insurance costs. Advertising costs.

joeyo• 18 years ago

While all this is true, the process of moving from a prototype into production is a more or less solved problem. For example, there are a lot of companies that one can outsource the actual pick-and-place, assembly and packing to. The same goes for support and sales, I'd imagine. If the VC money is in place, this part should just be turning the crank.

markessien4• 18 years ago

It's not going to work. The major problem I see is that we only have two arms - if both are holding the device, how do you input data into it. If you drop it on the table, then it's flat on the table, which is also uncomfortable to enter data into. You want something that leans towards you.

What they need to do to make this work is:

1. Drop all the border around the touchscreen. Make the screen almost flush with the plastic around it

2. Use metal for the edges - like the macbook pro. Pay extreme attention to the external aesthetics

3. Make it smaller. One should be able to hold it comfortably with one hand and type with the other

4. Increase the size of the on-screen keyboard

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

How much input would you need? Aside from chatting, just having access to RSS and typing in Wikipedia entries would be enough.

markessien4• 18 years ago

I'd say about 30% of my interaction with the internet involves me sending data out. The other 70% is about reading stuff. The form factor of the tablet is not correct for reading, which is part of the point I'm trying to make. We have hundreds of years of experimentation with reading equipment, and there is a reason that books are a certain shape, size and for. It works. Why are they throwing all that out and coming up with a brand new form factor for something that is supposed to also be a reader?

RK5• 18 years ago

They could split the keyboard in a way that would make it thumb-able.

markessien4• 18 years ago

Well, if they offer a small bluetooth keyboard as an accessory, then it would be okay.

froo4• 18 years ago

1) I assume they can't get rid of the border because of the camera that comes with it.

3) If you read the article, it will be probably half as thick the final product - this is just a prototype which they left lots of room in it.

With the being flat on a table thing, what about the addition of foldable clips that would put it on an angle (like underneath your keyboard) - that would fix that problem.

markessien4• 18 years ago

It still does not solve the typing problem. You view the thing on an angle, but you want to type on a flat or slightly up tilted surface.

mikeyur• 18 years ago

Regarding 3 - why would you want to make it smaller? It can easily be held with 1 hand as they were doing in the demo. It weighs under 3lbs (maybe a couple oz' less when they make it smaller/remove stuff) - I can comfortably hold my MacBook Air with 1 hand while I type with the other and it weighs 3lbs.

richcollins• 18 years ago

> Because the device skips the resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on one application - the browser - very low end hardware can be used and still give users a desktop-like Internet browsing experience.

I guess he never looks his Activity Monitor / Task Manager

streety2• 18 years ago

I was thinking the same thing. I know firefox on vista can get up to 1Gb of ram without too much trouble. My understanding is that webkit is a little less resource hungry though.

The article also says, "The software: currently we’re running a full install of Ubuntu Linux on the prototype with a custom Webkit browser." Sounds as though they are needlessly limiting themselves in the marketing spiel.

axod4• 18 years ago

I don't understand why people would want this over a netbook. Having a screen flat on your lap could make things pretty uncomfortable. Whilst holding it in one hand while you type with the other could be equally irritating.

Might be nice to mount on the wall though, for example in the kitchen so you can look up recipes while you cook.

iamdave• 18 years ago

Well I could be wrong but it looks like in one of those screenshots it has a USB port; what's stopping someone from just getting a keyboard and using it?

tsetse-fly5• 18 years ago

Yes, the prototype clearly has USB, ethernet, and VGA.

Realistically, though, why would anyone bother to plug a keyboard into this thing? Why wouldn't you just use your laptop or desktop?

axod4• 18 years ago

How do you hook up the screen into a nice position? The reason laptops work well is because the screen can be positioned well.

froo4• 18 years ago

Well, I'd be inclined to buy this kind of device for my grandmother.

Touch screens are intuitive for people who don't have a good grasp of technology, and combined with a decent homepage (perhaps a dumbed down google IG with large bookmark icons) she would get everything she needs.

Quite simply, it could be a great entry level product and useful for others who just want to check emails or other stuff while doing other stuff.

What would be great is if this was semi waterproof aswell with a stand for inclination - would be great to use in the kitchen while cooking.

mhb• 18 years ago

And if it's in the kitchen and had an e-ink display, it could have a battery life of a year and I could stick it on my fridge to show me my Google calendar when it wasn't doing recipes.

czcar2• 18 years ago

i think it will work (if not in this iteration then another), it does one thing, and hopefully well. it allows the owner to consume information. which is one of the main tenets of the internet.

czcar2• 18 years ago

this would be a killer device for university students aswell, i would love being able to carry this to class vs 4 different massive textbooks, and imagine how much more useful a chemistry/finance etc textbook would be if every page was interactive, imagine quick referencing and word definition

streety2• 18 years ago

Everything you've described could be done with a standard laptop and you wouldn't need to make all the sacrifices.

tsetse-fly5• 18 years ago

It's a cool toy, but I really can't imagine how/where I would use it in-place of my laptop.

What are some use cases?

froo4• 18 years ago

Give it a stand and use in the kitchen for recipes etc while cooking?

Perhaps as an entry level product for people who don't know how to use a mouse but might want to use the internet.

A basis for some kind of learning device for younger kids (if they get it more robust that is).

tsetse-fly5• 18 years ago

Seems like an expensive recipe catalog.

I don't think it's a very good idea to use electronics while you're cooking. Getting grease on anything that can't be scrubbed under running water is very irritating. There's a more durable solution to this: paper. You don't have to worry about washing your hands before touching it and if you splatter food on it then it's disposable.

ikor• 18 years ago

It reminds me UMPC thing from MSFT, but cheaper.

matthewking• 18 years ago

You've got to love the LEGO stand they've made for it..

sdfx• 18 years ago

For me, it all comes down to price. I think a lot of people might consider it if it costs 200$, whether they "need" it or not (cf. the netbook effect). For 300$ and above I'm not so shure.

noonespecial• 18 years ago

Excellent. Another candidate to embed in my wall near light switches to control my X10 stuff.

I'm still rooting for the Picwing guys though.

greyman• 18 years ago

It doesn't look bad, but Asus will come with a new generation of their EEE netbooks this year, which could be folded to tablet pc with multitouch (Eee PC T91). So for a few more bucks I will get superset of Crunchpad with much more functions (normal netbook, keyboard, gps, tv receiver etc).

guruz• 18 years ago

you will almost always get more for a few more bucks. the question is if you want/need more.

ryanwaggoner• 18 years ago

If my damn iPhone would just get flash already, I wouldn't have much need for something like this.

TweedHeads• 18 years ago

I like this one better:

http://www.ianmikutel.com/storage/CrunchPad.jpg

ph0rque• 18 years ago

Didn't the original idea post mention that they will make the tablet open-source?

jwesley• 18 years ago

I'm sure Big Mike would have no problem going back on that if it looks like this thing could make a mint.

jodrellblank• 18 years ago

Your comment is nothing but an ad-hom. Do you have any evidence to support that he might?

lapenne• 18 years ago

This is the sort of stuff I would be excepeting out of YCombinator startups. Instead we got mostly lame web 2.0 websites with no clear business model. Okay, that was a bit harsh, but still - I think most of the YCombinator applicants don't have enough ambition and the ideas are too focused on the web 2.0 world.

jonknee3• 18 years ago

Hard to expect innovative hardware with only a couple grand in funding.

henning• 18 years ago

Weren't Apple's first machines built by two guys named Steve in a garage?

vaksel2• 18 years ago

thats because coding up a site doesn't take as much effort.

Here you'd need to figure out how to build it, then find a factory to build it, then figure out how to sell it to retailers, then figure out shipping etc etc

immad• 18 years ago

picwing.com: I know its different but it has similar end goals given time.

edit: Why don't you apply to YC with this idea if you can execute it :P

antidaily• 18 years ago

Is this really that innovative? for $299, I can get a Dell mini 9 or countless other netbooks (some of which can be hacked to run OSX). In terms of providing value, give me a web 2.0 tool that helps my business or helps me lose weight or whatever... over this thing.

bprater2• 18 years ago

The other advantage of a laptop is that it includes a "kickstand" by default (the keyboard). When I'm laying on the couch, I have the laptop on my chest and use a wireless mouse.

Prrometheus2• 18 years ago

There are different markets for "mobile general purpose computing devices" and "an easy device to surf the internet and keep up with the kids".

Yes, it is that innovative. It's awesome.

blackguardx• 18 years ago

I agree. I would like to work on a hardware startup, but I wouldn't focus on consumer hardware like TechCrunch is. Once you start concentrating on the average Joe, the costs go way up. Industrial hardware is better for a garage startup environment.

BenS• 18 years ago

I'd like to see this running android.

vaksel2• 18 years ago

I sure hope they don't call it the Techcrunch Tablet...talk about a crappy boring name. They need to call it Crunchpad...at least that has a cool sound, and has a hint of Apple like branding.

Hell you can see that it's a great name, because in the comments half the people are already calling it a Crunchpad.

vlad• 18 years ago

They need to make sure they have a very low-power mode. When the tablet is placed in the stand, it should both charge as well as serve as a digital photo frame automatically.

TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B

Related Stories