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SDRNews : Couch Computing with the Crunchbook

June 5th, 2009 Administrator

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SDR2009-06-05

FTC Closes Blackhat ISP
CrunchPad Prototype On the Way
Unix Turns 40

SDR News is a Daily (M-F) Technology Podcast with Tech News Highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit

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Couch Based Computing

by Andrew McCaskey
Now Where Does This Fit ?
Just about a year ago, Michael Arrington of Techcrunch asked who was working on a tablet based computer that had only a browser as an operating system.

With the silence in the room approaching cricket levels, Arrington announced that he would develop such a device.Â And, if the press conference rumors in July are true, it looks like he will be able to deliver ,with a price point around $300.
Photos and a YouTube video were leaked about six weeks ago -and this appears to be a very interesting device. You could think of it as a thick clipboard, with a touchscreen as the only surface. A guesture on the surface brings up a minimal keyboard – just functional enough to type in url’s. The scrolling is a two finger grab and slide motion, and the remaining guesture is to flick to a desktop that shows which broswer windows are open. A cynic might say the video portion of the demo approached 1fps, but let’s assume that hardware and bandwidth issues were at fault.

So far, so good. The only problem that I see, is once you get to a web page, what do you want to do ? Type. Answer email, Tweet, register for something, write on a wall. And from appearances, that keyboard is not going to make the grade.

This device would have a place in my home – but only if you could type out a tweet or quick note.
It might be an ideal Wave platform – so how about a keyboard, or the ability to bluetooth in from a regular keyboard ?

CMSX Jen McKibben 4webinc

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