It is... ALIVE !

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/info.htm

Initial Shipment Expected July 2009

If you are in the market for a highly portable second computer, good news! We intend to start shipping the Touch Book next month, in July 2009. Our first batch of Touch Books is already in production.


Hardware specifications

We are publishing the final specifications and we are glad to say that we are extremely close from what we initially announced back in March:

• Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
• 8.9 inches 1024x600 A+ screen
• Main storage: 8GB SD card — we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it
• USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n dongle powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset
  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 12000mAh — 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!

Pricing, warranties and returns

Pricing has not changed: $299 (USD) for tablet, $399 (USD) with keyboard.

Software beta and roadmap

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 chat manager, Pidgin
• Mypaint 5.1
• An ebook 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
• Recognizition 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.