I can honestly say I have never heard of Always Innovating and it seems I have really missed out. On March 2, 2009 Always Innovating unveiled its touch screen netbooklet called the Touch Book. To me this is exactly what I want in a tablet long batter life (10 – 15 hours!!), detachable keyboard, Wi-Fi, and 8 count them, 8 USB ports! wow with a feature list like that I really wonder why it hasn’t gotten the hype that products still in development have got (Apple Tablet).
The Touch Book is light slim and very portable and with that 10 hour battery life you don’t have to worry about charging it until night. The touchscreen is a decent size (8.9-inch) unfortunately I’m not sure how sensitive it is but i have high hopes.
Always Innovating has said they “Don’t really do Windows” and they don’t really seem to like Apple much more
if you are a hard core Apple aficionado, you are welcome to wait and see if Apple decides to release a media tablet. Bear in mind that it is likely to be expensive ($700?), proprietary, non-modifiable, linked-to-iTunes only, and lacks a keyboard. But it will certainly be very polished. Anyway, there are many ways to "think different".
I am a little disappointed by this. I think Windows 7 could run on this beauty, but it means the device is entirely open source, it runs Linux and a version of Mozilla’s Fennec touch browser.
The Touch Book is picking up this trend and comes with our own Linux-optimized system. Over time in 2009, we plan to support other Linux-based alternatives such as Google Android or interesting projects such as Moblin. As for Windows, XP cannot work on our platform by design — don’t expect a native Photoshop on the Touch Book. Only Windows CE can make the cut, and Windows 7 is uncertain for the moment.
I would love to see the Touch Book run Android 2.0 and if Always Innovating keeps its word it might happen yet this year.
Another interesting feature of the Touch Book is the magnetic attachment that allows you to stick it to a metal surface say a fridge for use as a mobile TV or recipe reader ect.
WOW this device has a great feature set, great connectivity, an open source OS I can see no reason not to love it (512 MB ram :S) Visit Always Innovating store to buy yours at a cheap $299 USD ($399 with the keyboard).
Cheers to Always Innovating! 🙂
Specifications
Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory8.9 inches 1024×600 A+ screen Main storage: 8GB SD card — we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it Internal USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset Internal USB bluetooth class 2.1 FCC, CE, UL-certified, 5V, 3.5A power adapter 8.9 inches pressure sensitive touch screen US Qwerty 24cm-large keyboard — around 95% of the size of a standard keyboard Cirque Touchpad Two Owolff high-quality internal stereo speakers 3D accelerometer Two internal batteries 6000 and 12000 mAh — it can be replaced with a screw driver 7 USB ports: three external, four internal, three of them may be reserved for wifi, bluetooth and keyboard Bi-color silver/black case — see photos — with a beautiful dark-red back cover (we decided to go only for red for the first batch as it really jumps out, you won’t regret it). Secured attachment system of tablet into keyboard Independent magnet system for the tablet — we don’t want your Touch Book to un-magnetize all your credit cards while carrying it in your bag!
Included Software
In July, the default beta Touch Book OS will include:
- Linux 2.6.29 with all the required drivers
- Xfce 4.4 desktop environment
- A unique 3D interface for starting applications with your finger
- Firefox 3.0 and Fennec beta 2
- Youtube and daily motion support
- A video and music player
- Abiword and Gnumeric
- A PDF reader, evince
- A chat manager, Pidgin
- Mypaint 5.1
- An e-book reader, Fbreader
- A printer manager, Cups
- All usual accessories (zip, picture viewer, dictionary…)
- Support for most standard USB accessories
- Java support
The software roadmap towards release 1.0 will include the following:
- Upgrade to the latest of all the applications already mentioned
- Skype compatible application
- OpenOffice 3.1
- A full Adobe Flash solution
- Recognition of the Touch Book by iTunes to synchronize your music and video
- A Google-maps-based application with GPS support (GPS USB not included)
- Some 3D accelerometer-based iPhone games
Also, we will also offer or give strong support for a Google Android image.