Touch Book
The Touch Book is a portable computing device that functions as a netbook, and a tablet computer. Designed by Always Innovating, a company situated in the city of Menlo Park, in California, USA, it was launched at the DEMO conference in March 2009. Its designers stated at launch that it is the first netbook featuring a detachable keyboard with a long battery life (more than 10 hours). It is based on the ARM TI OMAP3530 processor (taking advantage of the Beagleboard and existing open source software) and features a touchscreen.
Always Innovating Touch Book | |
| Manufacturer | Always Innovating |
|---|---|
| Type | NetBook, smartbook, UMPC |
| Operating system | Fork of Ångström (Linux), Ubuntu, Android |
| CPU | Overclocked 720 MHz OMAP3530 ARM Cortex-A8 (32-bit) and 420 MHz DSP core, NEON support |
| Memory | 512 MB low power DDR-333 |
| Storage | SDHC slot with 8 GB SD card, 256 MB internal NAND |
| Input | touchscreen, keyboard, touchpad and supports any external USB input device |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, 7× USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth |
| Website | www |
First units to customers were shipped in August 2009. There were some (expected) software issues for early adopters, which are being progressively addressed. There were also some hardware issues, which resulted in community discontent.
After much speculation on the community forum, a revised v.2 Touch Book and new Smart Book product were announced. The Smart Book is based on the BeagleBoard-xM design.