The Touch Book from Always Innovating is designed to blur the lines between netbooks and UMPCs. The machine has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a keyboard. But you can also remove the display and use it as a portable tablet.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of configuration. The original Elonex One netbook had a removable display. But it also had a small 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel screen and a huge bezel around the edges. The Touch Book looks much more attractive. The specs don’t look too shabby either, although I’d like to know more about the operating system and how it performs with that CPU:
- Dimensions: 9.4″ x 7″ x 1.4″
- Weight: 2 pounds (with keyboard)
- CPU: ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3
- Display: 8.9″ 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen
- Storage: 8GB micro SD card
- Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth
- Expansion: 6 USB ports (3 internal, 2 external, and 1 mini)
- Battery: Claimed 10 to 15 hours of battery life
The machine also has speakers, a mic and headphone jack, and an accelerometer, which I assume will reorient the screen when you rotate the display. The Touch Book comes preloaded with Fennec, which is the code name for Mozilla’s early version of Firefox for mobile devices.
Always Innovating expects to sell just the display for $299, or the display and keyboard together for $399. The company is showing the computer at the DEMO conference today.
Gizmodo has some hands-on photos of the Touch Book, including a look at its motherboard.
