I should have been in bed but I got hooked into an excellent Gillmor Gang videocast (below) this evening. Robert Scoble, Mike Arrington, P Rangaswami, Kevin Marks, and Saul Hansell talk a lot about the iPhone and Driod war, discuss the differences and then, all of a sudden, at about 39 minutes in, the conversation switches to the Crunchpad.

As I watched, I sent three important tweets out:

• “crunchpad is steamrolling” , “costs keep coming down”. “big news on that shortly” says @arrington
• Crunchpad is going to sell “for something between three and four hundred dollars” , web-only says @arrington
• “soft revenue”, “sponsorships” on Crunchpad. Sounds like ad-supported “without impacting the user experience”

There’s more in the video below.

$300-$400 dollars PLUS advertising (sponsorship) is what everyone will be talking about. For mass-market couch-surfing, that’s too expensive. The Archos Android tablet and iPod Touch have already set the pricing bar (and possibly the sizing) for home-based sofa-surfing devices.

To be fair, I don’t think Mike Arrington expects the Crunchpad to be selling millions and he understands that the home ‘pad’ market is just taking off so this, like many other 1st attempt projects, could be more of a learning and branding exercise than anything else. If you think about how Nokia are playing with their Maemo devices it’s much the same. They are nurturing awareness and developer support for a time when the market is ripe. That could be 2010, 2011 or beyond but you have to be ready to strike when the conditions are ready.

Clearly the Crunchpad is alive, it’s going to cost between 300 and 400 dollars, it’s Atom-based, it’s going to be sponsorship-supported, web-only and we should expect ‘big news’ shortly.

Related recent article from Ben: Slates, slates, they’re everywhere, they’re in the water, they’re in the air

Via: Techcrunch

It looks like Windows 7 and some invisible tabletPC marketing force is spurring people to make web pads left right and center. The Ebook reports that the Lbook T9 will be coming to the market next year for an interesting retail price of $350-$375. If they really can achieve that than we’re in for some interesting times.

• CPU: Intel Atom Z530 1.6G
• RAM: DDR2 2GB
• HDD: 120GB
• Screen: TFT LCD, 8.9″ wide,1024×600
• Wireless: Bluetooth, WiFi, (3G option)
• Expected battery life: 4 hours.
• Weight: 670g
• Expected retail price: $350-375
• Planned date: March 2010

Super slim 12.7mm body under the control of Windows 7. The highlight of the device would be touch-screen technology “multitouch” to enter information. [Via translation]

The specifications look challenging but not impossible. An SSD might be more interesting for performance and ruggedness though.

Thanks Mike.

The Q7 may not be a ultra mobile PC but there’s a lot to like and a lot to learn from the device.  It highlights the difference between professional and consumer devices very well so in this article I’ve mixed a review of the Q7 with some thoughts about consumer web tablets.

The Smart Devices Q7 has a slow, incomplete web experience, no Flash or AIR, poor video quality, very restrictive ARM11 core, runs a partially re-translated Chinese version of a year-old Ubuntu ARM port, doesn’t have a keyboard, is not good for outdoor use, needs a dongle to get Bluetooth working and has some twitchy touchscreen characteristics. Despite all these scary issues, i’m still using the device many times a day.

Full Q7 specifications available here.

The $189 Smart Devices Q7 web-pad story gets more exciting today as we’ve received some live pics of the device. ElectroWorld, the strange looking Chinese website that many of us would probably avoid, have come up trumps after we contacted them for a purchase. They also tell us they will have a device ‘next week.’  We assume this will be a sample which could mean a 1-2 month wait for the first production run. We hope we’re wrong but we’ll check it out and get back to you.

At $180, the only real question for gadget fans is, what colour? I’d go for Lime Green just to be disruptive and clash with that brown leather sofa you find in every coffee shop these days.

Click to see full size versions in our gallery.

This isn’t going to be a fast browsing device, the build quality needs to be checked out and there will be limitations on the China-focused software stack but if they get the quality right, (a big ‘if’) and offer some better colours, this is a no-brainer for the coffee-table. I’m thinking TV-Guide, auto-updating Friendfeed, Last.fm radio, public transport timetable, picture frame (tuned to the Flickr ultra mobile PC tag of course!), there must be a thousand uses. What would you do with it?

Can you imagine what a dev community would add to this? Maemo, Mer and Android communities would love it. I’m sure ARM’s partners, Techcrunch and the old Pepperpad teams are paying attention too!

Update. I have had further contact with Electroworld and have decided to order. They offered me a Paypal option so I have payed $240 inclusive delivery. Ill have German import tax of 19% on top of that. No dates yet but Electroworld have promised to send more specs when they get the sample on May 12th. First production run will, as is normal, be limited.

Update 2. Electroworld have said that shipment could be next week. Soon after 12th May.

Remember that ‘coffee table’ pad I was talking about yesterday? The one I said could be under $250? Well it looks like it might be even cheaper than I expected. http://www.eletroworld.cn have it up for $189.

We have no idea if this is real but we’re trying to order one pronto because it deserves to be investigated on the coffee table ASAP!

Specs from the web site:

• Processor: Sansumg ARM S3C6410 Processor 667MHz
• Screen size: 7-inch Touch-lens screen,800 X480 pixels
• Memory: 128MB DDR RAM
• Storage: 1GB Flash Memory
• Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
• Language: Chinese/English/German/French/Portuguese
• Memory card slot supporting up to 32GB microSD memory cards
• Wireless: supports WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth
• Connectivity: 2.0 USB HOST supported to connect the high-speed EDGE, HSDPA network adapter or mobile phone
• Weight: 250g
• Battery: 4500mAH
• Warranty: One year

We’ve added the details to the product portal and will continue updating with new news as we find it.

It looks like SmartQ are going to offer their SmartQ 5 device in a 7 inch version which not only looks very attractive but could really find a useful place on the sofa or coffee table of many a modern home.

Kindle, Pepperpad, Crunchpad, Archos 7, Samsung Q1EX and Apple Tablet come immediately to mind but the Q7 is slightly different. It uses an ARM11-based core (according to reports I’m reading on translated forums around the net) which will give it a long, long battery life. It has nice styling (note that these pics are renderings.) It will be light (I estimate 1lb.) It’s targeted at Web-only usage and if the $150 Q5 is anything to go by, could come in at an extremely attractive price.

At first you might think the Q7 uses an old, underpowered platform and then you might compare it to the $200 netbooks that are around but if you think about where you might use this, on the sofa, breakfast table and in bed or even as a picture frame or constantly updating  newspaper, it’s not the same ‘urgent’ usage model as you have with a MID or smartphone and it’s not for table top productive usage like a netbook is. You have more time and patience in these home-based scenarios and you don’t notice slower page loading times so much. This is something I learned when I hooked the Archos 605 up to my TV. It’s not a mobile device, it’s a home device.

Based on hardware and industrial design alone, I think this is an extremely interesting sofa surfer or information pad that could be very competitively priced. A conversion to Android or Maemo could make this even more interesting. I’ll be in Taiwan for Computex in June and if I see one of these for sale, I’ll definitely buy one.

I’ve made the assumption that the Q7 is based on the Q5 hardware and added it to the database. Take a look at the specs, think $250 (my estimation) and let me know; Is it something you’re interested in?

Via Pocketables. Source (translated)

Update: It’s the I1 (i1) not the L1. My mistake. Sorry Wibrain!
Detailed specifications and links are now in the database.

This, just in from Wibrain.

We had news from UMPCfever that Wibrain were working on an Atom-based ultra mobile PC and I can now bring you some details in English. The L1 i1 will be based on the B1 design, will have an updated casing design and will include variants of the Silverthorne Atom processor and an HSDPA module.

It’s planned to be launched running on Menlow (Silverthorne/Poulsbo) in two versions, one with a 1.1Ghz CPU and one with a 1.3Ghz version. The usual 30Gb or 60Gb drive options are available and you’ll also have SSD options up to, wait for it, 64GB! It is planned to be built with Windows XP or Linux (version unknown.) Target weight and dimensions are as per the B1 model. 500gm. One specification that many will be happy to see is an SD card slot. Simple but very useful and missing from the previous, B1 model.

As for battery life, we have a document here that says 6-hours browsing. I’m not sure if that’s with the 30Wh battery or the double-capacity battery. Were checking. It is possible that, with an SSD and the 1.1Ghz CPU that they can reach this figure with the standard battery and a low-level backlight but it’s going to be tough. We know that already! (Update: Wibrain tell us it’s 6-hours with the standard battery – Wow. Even if it’s 5, i’m interested!) Availability is planned for October through global channels. (Yes, U.S. is included in the target territory list.)

For those that haven’t read much about the Wibrain UMPCs, they’re good value and easy to use. The touchpad works exceptionally well and the split keyboard is one of the quickest for URL and password entry. If Wibrain reach 6-hour browsing time on the standard battery I’m sure it will sell extremely well. Links and information about the B1, here. I’ll add the i1 to the database ASAP.

Source: Wibrain.