CrunchGear Founder Set To Launch 'Dirt Cheap' Tablet

The man behind the CrunchGear blog is set to release a "dirt cheap" Web tablet called the CrunchPad, according to reports.

Michael Arrington, lawyer-turned-journalist-now-turned-hardware-provider, will debut the touch screen tablet that was specifically built for Internet browsing.

"I wanted something I couldn't buy and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined," Arrington wrote in a blog about the concept behind creating CrunchTablet.

Arrington toldThe New York Times that he will introduce CrunchPad at an event at the end of this month or in early August and that the product will be available "as soon as possible" and retail for less than $300.

CrunchPad has a 12-inch screen that is 16mm thick in an aluminum case and will be available in a variety of colors. The tablet will run on an Intel Atom chip and support Flash, the paper said.

Arrington stirred up a frenzy among techies back in July 2008, when he first posted news that he was creating the tablet.

"I'm tired of waiting," Arrington wrote. "I want a dead simple and dirt cheap touch-screen Web tablet to surf the Web. Nothing fancy like the Dell Latitude XT which costs $2,500." After several news leaks about the tablet, including a YouTube video that was quickly taken down, Arrington provided further details about CrunchPad on CrunchGear back in April 2009.

The goal of CrunchPad, Arrington said, was to come up with a very thin and light touch-screen computer without a physical keyboard that did not have a hard drive and boots directly to a browser to surf the Web.

The machine's intended use isn't for data entry, but geared toward reading e-mails and the news, watching videos on Hulu and YouTube, listening to streaming music on MySpace Music and imeem, and having video chats via tokbox.

"Add a single USB port, power in and sound out, and you're done," he wrote. "If you want more features, this ain't for you."

After a disappointing initial prototype, a more promising version was created by Louis Monier, with software developed by Singapore-based Fusion Garage and industrial design work by by David Yarnell and Greg Lalier from Dynacept, Arrington said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE