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.
Ryan was “a Canadian animator. A gentleman panhandler. One of the pioneers of Canadian animation. Oscar nominee. Poor beggar. An artist unable to create. God observing the world. Fallen angel. Arrogant. Shy. Broken. Not destroyed.” 30 years ago, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. Years later, plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse, he was destitute on the streets of Toronto.
In this rather captivating and haunting short, called simply “Ryan”, Chris Landreth animates a tribute to Ryan Larkin.
In Ryan we hear the voice of Ryan Larkin and people who have known him, but these voices speak through strange, twisted, broken and disembodied 3D generated characters… people whose appearances are bizarre, humorous or disturbing. Although incredibly realistic and detailed, Ryan was created and animated without the use of live action footage, rotoscoping or motion capture…but instead from an original, personal, hand animated three-dimensional world which Chris calls ‘psychological realism’.
Niko Bellic is a pretty realistic character in Grand Theft Auto IV to begin with, so Pixeloo’s latest untoon isn’t quite as impressive as the last few, but regardless, he’s got more skill in his little pinky than I have in the entire Photoshop part of my brain, so check out his latest work and prepare to be amazed once again.
