CrunchPad Prototype

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/

by eo • 17 years ago

123 52 17 years ago

techcrunch.com

mcav• 17 years ago

18mm thick — about 3/4 of an inch. Hopefully it'll be light too.

I'm impressed. Maybe this TechCrunch tablet has potential after all.

SwellJoe5• 17 years ago

I'd certainly choose this over, say, a Kindle. If they can actually deliver, and at the price they've bandied about, I'd love to have one.

jbrun• 17 years ago

what is the speculative price?

SwellJoe5• 17 years ago

$300 last I heard. It creeped up from the original $200. But $300 is still well within the realm of "awesome".

zhyder• 17 years ago

It'd be great if it (or v2) has one of those Pixel Qi or OLPC XO screens. Better compromise between E-Ink's (sunlight) readability & low power consumption, and LCDs' refresh rate & color production.

Xichekolas2• 17 years ago

Amen.

TC people, if you read this, get a hybrid screen like the Pixel Qi and I would gladly pay $500 for a Crunchpad.

Latest design is looking sweet. Ender would be proud!

viggity• 17 years ago

One big bonus for the kindle is the battery life (2 weeks? vs a few hours). Obviously, the crunchpad has lots of other things going for it. I guess my point is that they're really meant for two different purposes.

SwellJoe5• 17 years ago

OK, valid point. I have a Game Boy and a Nintendo DS for composing chiptunes. I only have to charge the Game Boy batteries every two weeks or so. The DS has to be charged every couple of days. I pretty much only use the Game Boy. And, it has almost nothing else going for it...it's bigger, crappier screen, noisier audio, etc. (The DS is emulating a Game Boy, though, and it has quirks, so that's another negative for the DS.)

One does expect "books" to just work.

erlanger2• 17 years ago

> Obviously, the crunchpad has lots of other things going for it.

Maybe. I'll believe it when I see it: I don't expect this thing to make it to market.

stcredzero• 17 years ago

If the thing is meant to live on your coffee table and couch, then a couple of hours is good enough. Just design an attractive charging station/stand so it can charge while it goes into "picture frame mode."

Another stand so that it can be used as some kind of secondary display would be cool. (Maybe not a real display, but one driven by something like VNC?)

dylanz• 17 years ago

They're definitely two different beasts.

Kindle if you plan on reading a lot. Doing real reading on E-Ink is much, much, much nicer than reading from an LCD.

CrunchPad if you want to browse the internet, and pretty much do anything else (within it's capabilities that is).

Am planning on getting a DX for reading books and research papers, however... the CrunchPad would be a great item for the coffee table, or... bathroom :)

redorb• 17 years ago

Its hard to believe it will sell for <$200 / without being locked to some sort of contract or homepage with ads etc ... If so - this is truly an amazing achievement, not to mention its amazing that its techcrunch.

vaksel• 17 years ago

Nothing wrong with having a home page with ads if it brings the cost down.

SwellJoe5• 17 years ago

It's a technique used by Dell and other PC makers for years. It's a nuisance, but if cost is a factor, it can be worth the 20 minutes it takes to clean the crap off.

mahmud• 17 years ago

Nothing a hex editor can't fix (or one line in /etc/hosts ;-)

barredo• 17 years ago

What about consumption and/or heat dissipation? I'd hate to burn my hands while playing youtube videos...

wglb• 17 years ago

I wonder if it bears any relationship with the view sonic thingey that is unavailable on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-airpanel-V150-Smart-Display/...

tfincannon• 17 years ago

The software demo from April is pretty interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-0Nce5oTQ

Everything goes through the browser. It remains to be seen whether that is the brilliant constraint that makes a category, or a crippling limitation.

johnnybgoode• 17 years ago

I noticed that price wasn't mentioned this time. I'm guessing that means it'll cost a lot more than $200.

raghus• 17 years ago

What a gorgeous digital photo frame this would make! I look forward to pointing this at a Flickr (or other) slideshow. In fact someone in another corner of the country or the world could keep this pointed at your Flickr photo stream and will be able to see your latest photos without doing a thing. Similar to what Picwing was offering.

sfphotoarts• 17 years ago

conceptual designs to first working prototype is often a time fraught with problems. I seriously doubt this will be a few weeks and even more doubt the price. It could sell for much more, so why make it so low?

netsp• 17 years ago

I'm not sure it could. That is, it would sell some at many ranges because it's unique. But I do think price sensitivity will be huge here. In other words, I am guessing every dollar they knock off the price tag will mean a big difference in the number of sales.

anigbrowl3• 17 years ago

I see the USB port is still there :)

Wonder how they will handle storage - suppose I see an image I want to save or stuff I wish to copy/paste and send via gmail. I get that there is no local storage but I hope it will allow inter-process operability.

wmf• 17 years ago

Clearly it should support copy/paste, but on a Web 2.0 tablet I think saving could be replaced with bookmarking/sharing.

anigbrowl3• 17 years ago

Oh yeah. I meant save-to-picasa or such, not locally. Sorry.

Xichekolas2• 17 years ago

Well if it's linux-based, would be nice if you could mount network/samba shares and save to those as well.

DenisM• 17 years ago

I like the prototype C better (the one in the videos)

jrockway2• 17 years ago

Will the screen really look that nice from those viewing angles? If so, it will be a Kindle killer.

axod4• 17 years ago

Quit with the hyperbole. It's not even in the same market as the Kindle. The battery life? Good screen for prolonged reading?

jrockway2• 17 years ago

I was trying to say "shopped" without actually using that word.

martythemaniak• 17 years ago

It looks pretty good, but I still maintain my position from last summer, which was that this will never cost $200. Of course, that's fine, as I would not expect a device like this to cost that much to begin with. About $400 seems like the 'right' price for something like this.

jrnkntl• 17 years ago

Stylus support and therefore support to take notes while on the road would be the feature that makes me lay down even $400 for this thing.

Bjoern• 17 years ago

Hm, did you see in the promotion video of the Software how much the video was bucking especially at full screen?

I think that the CrunchPad will be quite interesting for Websites but not so for multimedia applications in the beginning.

Hope I am wrong though.

rbanffy• 17 years ago

I will buy one if and only if I can install my own software on it.

axod4• 17 years ago

Nice picture there. Has it got velcro on the back or something? Because I can see it slipping down her leg and falling on the floor pretty quickly.

ssharp• 17 years ago

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand the appeal of this type of computer at all. Granted, I also don't understand the appeal netbooks, so maybe I'm way out in left field.

This thing seems like it's a big iphone. I already have an iphone and it meets most of my general quick-fix internet needs. I have a laptop when the iphone isn't sufficient. I just don't see the need for another device in the mix. Unless the pad is easily converted to a moderately powered computer by adding a quick keyboard and mouse, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of buying one.

joezydeco• 17 years ago

Okay, so you won't buy one. But I would, just to websurf sitting on the couch. I want a form factor like a magazine or book, not a 5 pound laptop.

timmaah• 17 years ago

3com Audrey take 2?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Com_Audrey

The internet has changed greatly since then. I guess that is why the netbooks are taking off.

CrunchPad Prototype

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