Continue comments here. The discussion has been very interesting, thank you to everybody. We are taking it all in and organizing the new dev site which will be up in the next few hours.
Forking comment thread here. Thanks!
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GeekBrief.TV | Video Podcast » Archive » GBTV #396 | GeekBrief.TV
July 21st, 2008 at 9:35 pm -
Techcrunch: Wird das Techblog zum Hardwareentwickler? | TechBanger.de
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am -
TechCrunch Web Tablet Initiative | iDoctor - Internet Marketing
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:49 am -
GBTV #0396 (small) | GeekBrief.TV | TechTV Update
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:36 am -
Beta Alfa » Blog Archive » Hundratals vill hjälpa till med surfplattan
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm -
TechCrunchın Web tableti geliyor! | alialtugkoca
August 5th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
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I’m interested in interface design if you need it, though interest seems to be abundant, if not overly so, and I’m sure others are much more qualified. Shoot me an email though…
I’m interested greatly in this project, I would quite like to try writing my own linux distro for the machine but i would first need some technical specications -I’m guessing this thing will have an arm processor as standard, but with half a gig of ram and the memory capacity, a powerful lightweight distro could be written with a lot of applications.
Will it have bluetooth? I think that a lot of people would like to be able to sync this with either a bluetooth GPS device for navigation or to their 3G phones to surf the web when there isn’t a hotspot…
just let me know when and where I can buy one, or two. If I have one I know my daughter will have to have one too. I think it is a great Idea, the perfect lazy boy tablet. Make sureit can be used in direct sunlight as well please.
Cheers
make sure its solar powered. something this low powered could easily be solar powered and that makes its a really usable device in developing countries.
I am college math professor using the MyMathLab and Mathzone course management systems software. A tablet PC like this would be extremely useful in education where the latest big advances are in the elimination of standard textbooks. It would be very helpful to be able to write on the tablet screen with anything (like a pencil or pen) and have the writing recorded as it is input. Also, being able to change the screen resolution like they do on the iPhone would be great so that students could see the entire problem page or quikly and easily zoom in to a specific area. Being able to write would allow students to submit their work woth different Hw problems, etc. I would like to help in some way. I can beta test or give input into what features might be desireable for this to be come a great educational tool. It could be called the iTeach.
Rob Knight
I love the idea of this. The only forseeable problem is that an onscreen keyboard would quickly wear out the display, and possibly leave ugly fingerprints on the screen(I’d hate having fingerprints on my screen if I was in the middle of browsing) I also think that it’s too much to incorporate so much software off the bat. Up the memory a little, and let the consumer decide what to install. Software is what makes a computer cost so much in the first place.
I hope to see these on the shelves soon!
Zooming & scaling are good. Changing screen resolution is not. Electronic screens have only one resolution. Learn the controls your desktop software provides for image sizing, including fonts.
You should make a big screen wall mount version. That’s once you have the original out to consumers. You should also consider adding touch sensitive light buttons like on the Lenovo Thinkpad series. Have them automatically switch for Skype and Firefox. You should add email support. You should also develop an application like Windows Tablet PC Input for handwriting purposes. Also an application like OneNote or Windows Journal should be included. You should let it have GUI support. Have a button inside the battery case to get FireFox or any other application out of Kiosk mode. Have a higher end model for like gaming purposes or a person who likes to run more intense applications. You should add multiple OS support. Make the hard drive replaceble in case consumers want to get a larger size in gigabytes. Add a figerprint scanner for multiple user support, so that way, each user can customize the application settings.
Definetly email me when they will be available.
Hope you like my ideas,
Sam Clark
Great idea…! I’d def buy one…!
Not sure if its been mentioned, but would it include the ability to play media streaming from a NAS or another computer…? UPnP/ DLNA device…
I’m pretty sure VLC can do that.
This is a product I want, would like to help as much as possible
I’m in college for computer science and have job experience with Javascript, vb.NET, c#.net, sql
other languages: java, python, c
I would be more than happy to beta test =] I’m not into coding anymore, but I sure can debug like none other!
I’d love to help in whatever way possible. Also, I’m really sure I can get my super-brilliant friend to do some work too. :P
I have redone (and help design) several intranets, applications, and tools with User Interactivity in mind. I can work with every step of the process to be sure that this project is just as intuitive (if not more) than the iPhone.
Actually, it sounds like so many people are wanting to work on UI design, why not ask for people to design a usable UI and have the community choose which one is the best. It sounds somewhat like a textbook answer, but it will get the best UI out there.
I just whipped up a little advertising thing for the $200 web tablet; it features a lot of adjectives on what you guys could do with the thing, and also asks for everyone to contribute to the project: http://ionizedmedia.com/webtablet.png
I think the link is broken its not working for me.
I’m all for beta testing as well. Also, is there a way we could include more languages, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, etc.?
I would hate for this to be just an American thing.
I’m with Darnell on this subject.
I would be happy helping (or at least trying to help) to add languages and more then happy to beta test it in Hebrew :)
I’d be happy to help you translating this to Finnish :D
If a danish translation is needed i’d love to help.
I’m a freelance web developer these days but dabbled back in the day with more “standard” app development. I’m an open source freak from my gentoo desktop to my linuxmce HTPC. Cool thing about your request is X11 doesnt NEED a desktop manager to function…you can start it right into pure x with the firefox as main app. One real major software need would be the “lcd/touch screen keyboard” would require knowing more about the exact hardware to be used before a driver could be pulled off..but yeah sweeeeeet deal guys keep us in the loop and hit me up for anything I could do.
Although that would make the software particularly lightweight, I don’t think many consumers will appreciate that since it lacks the eye candy neccessary for selling the thing.
It would be a cool idea, however, to have the entire UI as vector graphics, allowing for seamless zooming.
If it comes in black, I want one. With LCARS on it, preferably. ;-)
I can build anything with these languages – PHP, C, C++, Java, Perl, C#
wow, i brought a eeepc, but all i want actually is this TC netbook, pls count me in, i am in China, i think i can do some help, thank you!
something like fast dial (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721) may work well for the “home page” basically it’s a rip off of opera’s speed dial, but it works pretty well and is very customizable.
Let’s crowdsource several UI’s then. I run my own consulting company (UsableXperience) doing interaction design and I would be happy to input if you’re interested.
Am I the only one who’s a bit skeptical about your chances of actually pulling this off?
Some issues come to mind…
– No open source hardware project has really taken off
– Crowdsourcing doesn’t work that well
– Major companies have no doubt considered making such a product and haven’t for some probably good reason
– There’s a lot more to delivering a product to market than just getting it spec’d out and manufactured
– Once Mike has one, what reason do you have to continue with the project?
– You’re effectively taking on the iPhone, the EeePC, Nokia tablets, OLPC, and the UMPCs for hardware and OpenMoko, Android, Palm OS and others on software
– You’re a blog
I certainly wish you luck, but I’m not going to be holding my breath.
sadly I have to pessimistic as well, if you can get some major investors you could have a chance, but anyone who put money into this would prolly see that 200$ price point as a deal-kill, i know i would, I know more than a few of the big names in internet marketing and I could talk around and see if I can generate some interest, e-mail me if you want
How will you guys fit a battery? And if it is capable of running photoshop I WANT IT.
i highly doubt it that requires high specs
Its an ideal concept… and to put it into relative terms… its a macbook air tablet.
Who could want more.
Im in.
I’ve got python & java experience & my background is in mobile computing devices.
It’s great idea.
Need pdf & flash data support.
Bluetooth headset support (for Skype Conversation, Flash ** Video ** contents)
If Mini-DVI is there, we can use it for presentation.
support double byte language (CJK: China — Japanese –Korean) support.
Can we discuss about this in TechCrunch50?
I can’t see it proposed anywhere, but there should be a way to change screen orientation. Either through a sensor like in the iPhone or via a button (maybe in the tray).
I’m In!!! Ya’ll have got the ultimate road warrior tool brewing here. Light enough to go anywhere and still net ready to access critical content. Who needs a laptop? I’ve got a wireless security background for what it’s worth…
Also, I live in China now and I realise how many device and services designed in the US are not at all ready for this market. There should be Input Methods adapted to countries with non-alphabetical writing. (via keyboard or handwriting).
The organization where I used to work did a device like this. However, since we did this in India in early 2002, funding and other things were hard to come by and ultimately, we were forced to abandon this project. I wrote the device drivers on Linux for wlan, touchscreen and a for a few keys that we had soldered on to the main board. I volunteer to pitch in whatever way I can.
Shyam
Interesting, Please send email
I think it would be really cool to have an option of linking this to a laptop/desktop acting as a server. Basically it would be a VPN into a personal box, with the VPN being the only thing running on the tablet. I’m not sure you could get enough performance out of this setup (maybe a lot of buffering/prefetching to the ssd) but it would definitely expand flexibility.
Interested in the financial backing of such product. What sort of initial investing are we talking… let’s discuss.
Would like to help with marketing etc also think it need flash and pdf support + google gears
I’m a college student, with knowledge of embedded design and hardware design. I’ll be glad to participate with the development of this project.
please include me in the loop.
Would love to be part of this exciting initiative. And I like the fact that It is Open Source based and Crowd Sourced. Lets make it happen. I will be able to help any thing related to Software.
I can think of a huge number of applications of such a device. I don’t know what I can contribute but please shoot me a email too; it’s something I would like to be a part of.
To address one of Chris Sears’s points: it’s true that there was and is a reason other companies have not launched a similar product at a similar price point; but at this time I think a $200 web only tablet is feasible.
http://www.slashgear.com/gigabyte-m912-touchscreen-ultraportable-priced-from-556-2112762.php
If people can build a fully functional computer with touch screen and a 1.6ghz cpu for $556, a web only tablet should be possible for near $200.
An exciting idea – but could be improved with some form of “natural input” apart from a virtual keyboard. Pen, voice gestures – there’s lots of creative talent in the posts above. There needs to be something other than the geeks favourite for those whose hands and fingers no longer work properly (or maybe are missing).
This is very cool cool idea i would be the first one to buy it. Though i may not be able to give you programing codes or anything i can do research and give ideas so yes this is truly going to be something truly great though there may need to be some modifications(minor i hope). Thank you.
I’d be interested in this as well. I can provide support from a coding perspective. Shoot me an email.
I’d love to be a beta tester and put me down for two of the final product.
I think this a very cool Idea, I would love to help in any way that I am more of a business guy though. I think bluetooth would make a nice feature to communicate with other devices.
I think this is a fantastic idea. If this device had some way to simultaneously use an actual keyboard for document editing, and an external hard drive (my ipod would be perfect), I could see my desktop going cold for days at a time. I’d only need the desktop for my big graphics programs, and that’s really only an occasional thing. A device like this might actually demonstrate to most of us how little we really need the endless bells and whistles on a three-thousand dollar laptop or a big power-hungry desktop. I see plenty of reasons why the big boys don’t like this idea. Think how much cooler my office will be without that 450-watt power supply on all the time. Count me in.
Personally, I think that pdf reader must be embedded in this machine so that it can be one of the competitor to kindle.
This sounds like a great project.
I would love to be involved at a
designer
developer
or even just end user testing role.
Matt.
i would love to help you guys promote it i am and expert on facebook group and free advertising on there.
I’d take a little thickness over a large bezel. The mock up is nice and sleek, but maybe a little too bezel-happy. I think it would also be cool if the device has the capability of accepting a sim card with a 3G/EDGE radio, but that’s likely to push the cost up a bit. Maybe different versions?
As for project offerings, I currently operate a website that is a customized homepage service with feed reading, etc. I’d be more than happy to modify the front-end code to make a tablet-friendly, streamlined start page that utilizes the powerful back-end we already have in place. Our widget support would also make for a desktop-like experience without harming the goal of this being an internet device.
It certainly looks like there are no shortage of volunteers; however, I am more than willing to help out in any way I can, just shoot me an email. I’m not sure how helpful I will be at writing code, but I’m always willing to learn, and I’ve been interested in linux kernel programming.
Just a question, what’s the plan for the linux distro on here? Planning to make your own distro for this project, or just planning on running a stripped down linux distro in a kiosk mode? As a linux user, I would like to have the ability to spawn a shell on one of these, and that wouldn’t require any additional resources.
I’ve done quite a lot of work in the area of minimal linux installs and deployment on enterprise level servers. I’m a linux engineer working out of San Antonio currently, and would love to get in on the development side of the project.
Came to give some input in what I would like to see in one of these.
Definitely an SD card slot. DUAL SDHC slots would be quite nice. I could see putting a 32gb card into one slot and my “camera” card in the other slot and dump my camera to the 32gb card. Its too expensive to buy 32gb cards for everything (and some are not SDHC compatible) a 32gb card has enough space to let me download a 4gig card 8 times. This would also make it a FANTASTIC picture viewer.
Bluetooth so I can also use the data connection on my cellphone. a LARGE screen Internet Tablet is something that would do a lot more than just browse the web in my home I want to browse the web anywhere On a nice readable screen!!
First the SCREEN. NO FRAKING wide screen. It might be great for movies (debatable) but it SUCKS for internet browsing.
Ideally I would like a 1600×1200 display resolution. I can turn that vertical and have an amazing Internet Experience. LOTS of vertical pixels. But I do not think thats possible for a sub $200 device.
1024×768 is the minimum for me. Anything less that that and my N800 works just fine.
Also built in speakers (loud ones)
Make the “hardware” open source as well. IE ZERO proprietary connections. Use a standard barrel jack charger (say the defacto standard plug like on creative hardware PSP hardware and Sony Readers etc..)
Standard Mini A USB port that ALSO charges the device. Standard Mass storage. One of the primary modes of failures in devices like this is the charging jack. It might even be interesting to make the charging jack a “module” so I can say unscrew the back cover and “replace” the charging jack module.
“dock” connectors would be nice so people can build hard mounts for this device and “integrate” it into other functions and usages.
The ability to expand the battery capacity.
The minimum power needed for web browsing is also enough power to do many other things. It seems silly not to at least “permit” the device to be capable of doing these things.
Also minimum power is not all that great for web browsing unless the browser is HIGHLY optimized. My N800 is pretty powerful and it can be damned slow sometimes on some sites :-)
Done right (think dual mode screen like the XO PC ??) it could be low power enough to make a FANTASTIC Ebook reader. ESPECIALLY with a 1024×768 screen. it could make ANYTHING readable.
I figure 10″ is an idea size. large enough to make that resolution usable but small enough to be extremely portable.
If it can be done cheaply USB HOST would be nice.
Computer Engineer here, helped a hardware startup build a tablet prototype last year. My specialty is low-level dev work close to the processor. Sounds like a great project and a great way to build community! Please add me to the list. Thanks!
I’m in high school, but I would like to help anyway I can.
I’m an Industrial Design student at Auburn University. My goal in my career is to work on computers, both in hardware design and interface design. I’ve done a few projects already focusing on the external enclosure of small palm-top web and communications devices, and recently finished a project in which I mocked up a new type of easy-to-use touch interface (think multi-touch, but even simpler than that) that I think would be very useful and fit perfectly in this device. If you think it would fit you can have it and run wild with it. I would be VERY interested in helping here, feel free to email me.
Hey Dan,
Can you shoot me an email? I’m looking for a designer for something similar to this, and came across your post.
Thanks,
Nick
support@alstonimages.com
I can help code and would love to help. I also agree with a number of others that it really needs a pdf reader.
i do a lot of design stuff ie photoshop/flash/web design…i also know people who would love to be involved on the same front
let me know if i seen to fit the bill
i dont really expect an answer though with the 400+ posts
I’m in. tabula rasa +1.
I’m interested in leading the design and feel of the UI.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Boom chi poo chi poo chi triple boom hoom gloom!
Oh no!
Boom hoom zoom!
Oh no!
Boom hoom gloom!
Oh no!
Yes, boom chi poo chi triple boom hoom gloom Oh No-no!
(repeat chorus)
Listen up kids, this is the gospel.
I’ve been using Linux for a while now, 2+ years… I just started building my own systems, and would love to work on this, in fact i already have the basic specs in my head… I’m a high school student, so I’ve got nothing but time!
I actually work at my school as an open source software advocate, implementing OSS where its useful.
I just graduated with a Comp. Sci. degree, and would love to help out anyway possible. Shoot me a note!