When TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington put out a call for the creation of a sub-$200 net tablet that took the netbook idea, threw out the keyboard, and added a little Kindle flavor for good measure, I was excited by the idea, but humbled by the slim chance that this thing had to actually make it to market.
Well, six months and two prototypes later, there’s apparently a working model of what this device might become:
Using a Via Nano processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash memory, a touchscreen for onscreen keyboarding and Ubuntu, the unit boots, connects, and surfs just like you would want it to.
Unfortunately, it looks like the sub-$200 price point may have been too ambitious for the first go-round, but with a realistic target of $299 now set, it looks like this might actually see the light of day.
They did however add that:
The real question for us is whether this project has legs and should go forward towards production units, which is a very big step from a working prototype. That would require spinning the company off from the blog and building a team around Louis. It’s a decision we haven’t made yet.
Despite the challenges that this device still faces, I hope that someone picks it up and runs with it, because I wouldn’t mind kicking back on the couch with the Internet at my fingertips for a hair under $300.
Paul Stamatiou’s 200 Dollar PC is an impressive piece of tech, and his now completed three part guide means that you can build your own as long as you can follow a relatively simple set of directions.
Specs include 1.2GHz of Intel Celeron power, 1GB of RAM, 250GB of hard drive, and a mini-ITX form factor to keep everything small and compact.
Uses include turning it into an NAS, a HTPC, a File Server, an Internet Termanal, an Art Piece, or anything else that you can think of, since for 200 big ones, you’re basically making a computer experiment.
Like the looks of Apple’s new OS, but still trying to stay loyal to Windows?
Then check out Lifehacker’s Hackintosh guide for information on how to build a high-end computer that’s confused about its identity using OSx86.
The build consists of a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a total of 4GB of RAM (four sticks at 1GB each), an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, a GeForce 7300GT (the same basic video card that comes installed in the default Mac Pro configuration), a 500GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and an Antec Sonata case.
So what’s all of this going to cost you?
$800, plus the cost of the OS.
Not bad for a system whose closest competitor is the $600 Mac Mini with half the specs.
