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The Touch Book is a portable computing device that functions as a
netbook Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
, and a
tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
. 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 Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
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 Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
) and features a
touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...
. 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.


Overview

The Touch Book is a netbook and a touch tablet device. It features a detachable keyboard, a removable back cover to access the electronics of the device, and several Linux distributions shipped by default and offered via a multiboot system. The default operating system launched is a custom
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
OS based on
Ångström The angstromEntry "angstrom" in the Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/angstrom.Entry "angstrom" in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://www.m ...
, being custom themed to fit the small form factor. Since 2010, the Touch Book comes with a multi-boot graphical interface, allowing users to run also Ubuntu and
Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
. Users can install other OSes like Gentoo and
RISC OS RISC OS is a computer operating system originally designed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England. First released in 1987, it was designed to run on the ARM chipset, which Acorn had designed concurrently for use in its new line of Archi ...
. Touch Book's major intended uses are media viewing and web browsing, although more power-hungry applications such as OpenOffice.org are available on the device. The Touch Book ships standard graphics libraries such as
OpenGL ES OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-ac ...
and SDL. The Always Innovating team claims the device follows an open hardware philosophy, so that anyone can access the hardware design from the company's website, modify it and redistribute it. Although the business model of open hardware is still maturing, it seems to be profitable to the company In addition to this open hardware approach, the Touch Book fully relies on open source software. A Git repository of the entire OS is currently available, allowing for download of the latest kernel source as well as the different root file systems. A community of contributors has emerged and is interacting with the Always Innovating developers.


Technical specifications

* ARM 600 MHz (overclocked to 720 MHz) Cortex-A8 superscalar microprocessor core: Texas Instruments OMAP3530 System-on-Chip * 512 MB DDR-333 SDRAM * 256 MB NAND FLASH memory * DSP Core video processor at 430 MHz * OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant * Freescale-based 3D accelerometer * Integrated Ralink-based
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...
802.11b/g/n * Integrated
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
2.0 * 1024x600 resolution touchscreen LCD, 8.9" widescreen, 16.7 million colors *
SDHC Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between Sa ...
card slot (currently supporting up to 32  GB of storage) * Headphone output, microphone input * Standard QWERTY keyboard and touchpad * USB 2.0 OTG port (480Mbit/s) * 6× USB 2.0 host ports (480 Mbit/s) * JTAG debugging interface * Runs the
Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...
(2.6.x) * Dual 12000mAh + 6000mAh rechargeable lithium polymer battery * Estimated 10+ hour battery life for video and general applications * Detachable magnet system for the tablet * Dimensions: 248 mm × 158 mm × 19 mm for the tablet, 248 mm × 180 mm × 33.5 mm for the full netbook * Mass: 675 g for the Tablet; 1,418 g for the full netbook


Similar products

Other
single-board computer A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonstrat ...
s using OMAP3500 series processors include OSWALD, Beagle Board, IGEPv2,
Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pÄn'', i.e. "all" and , ''dÅron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...
and Gumstix Overo series. Since launch of the device in March 2009, several similar devices have come up in early 2010, such as the ''Freescale tablet reference design'' or the Lenovo U1 IdeaPad.


References


External links

* {{Acorn computers, clones and compatibles RISC OS Embedded Linux Texas Instruments hardware Linux-based devices 2-in-1 PCs