Update On The TechCrunch Tablet: Prototype A

I've been critical of this project before, but my advice on the matter would be to refer techcrunch to the first facet of this effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

I don't understand how the commenters on TC think it's anywhere near an actual prototype. Groupthink?

If they're serious about this project, TC should focus on the skills they have (PR, contacts and reputation) and get this actually built by some pros rather than by some barefooted web 2.0 nerds with bits of Arrington's old macbook air.

Still willing to be proven wrong though.

Actually, that's a very good sign. Every one of the smartest EEs I know works like this: In apartments or labs filled with piles of random wires and oscilloscopes and beat-up hard drives. You can tell which parts are the important ones because they're the ones that are only half-covered with random junk.

The first danger, when this project was announced, was that it would be a vanity project like so many others before it. It would consist of 85% talk, and 10% fundraising, and the remaining 5% would be outsourced to some team of professional ditherers with flashy Powerpoint presentations who would produce lots of shiny plastic mockups and cost overruns and never quite manage to ship anything. Or there would be a giant mob of 'contributors', each of whom is invited to bring a single resistor to be soldered into the heap.

Instead, after the initial rush we seem to have seen very little loose talk, which implies that there might just be a handful of people quietly plugging away on the thing. And now we get a benchtop prototype. All promising signs.

Of course, I have no doubt that you can produce a single, working desktop prototype of a web tablet. That's still a far cry from being able to mass-produce a reliable version for $200. But, if they want to get there, they appear to be on the right track. And, if they fail, at least they might learn exactly why, because they will have gotten into the weeds.

Incidentally, that's why we should be happy to see fuzzy photos of prototypes rather than more technical details. If Arrington's suppliers find out that he's committed to using Component X, the cost of producing a unit of Component X will mysteriously rise, like magic. So secrecy and a lack of public details may be a sign of good project management at work.

The question is whether the Techcrunch call for assistance has yielded a master negotiator who can eat Chinese suppliers for lunch. It might have. Silicon Valley has quite a few of them.

As a pure gadget and not a PC, it's very possible. Take out the touch screen, add a keyboard, use ARM instead of x86, and you're all set.

I blogged about it in detail here: http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/what-the-techcrunch-tablet-sho...