Remember the Touch Book from last year? The netbook with a detachable screen that can double as a tablet? No? I didn’t either. But sure enough, we did a post on the device and it actually shipped to consumers. Well, the company is back with the next generation that takes the multipurpose theme up a notch. The Smart Book is the swiss knife of mobile devices as the demo video shows.
The detachable screen is still there, but now there’s a removable mobile device that can used as a sort-of smartphone with its ability to run apps, browse the web and even place VoIP calls. Plus, the keyboard section hides a USB to HDMI for connecting to a larger screen and a slot that stores a 2GB USB dongle.
An ARM Cortex-A8 CPU along with 512MB of RAM powers the device while 256MB of NAND flash storage and an 8GB microSD card provides the storage. 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 rounds out the connectivity options. It ships with a custom user interface but the company says it can run Ubuntu, Android and eventually Google Chrome OS. Altogether the device weighs in at 3lbs.
The Smart Book is currently up for pre-orders at a cost of $549 for the all three pieces. Or you can order individual components starting at $199 each. Seeing how the original Touch Book actually shipped, there’s precedent that this one will ship too although you should probably proceed with a bit of caution. It smells of vaporware to me. [Always Innovating via Liliputing]