It’s just freaking amazing what technology and a little time on your hands can do. Like French tech company ExoPC, for instance, which produced the ExoPC Slate — we figure this is a cross between a netbook and some other small multi-touch tablet with black bezels whose name we just cant place right now. Go figure. Saw this at JKontherun.com.
Does anybody else remember those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials? You know, the ones: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” Well, even if you never saw them, you probably get the idea. And if not, ExoPC is here with a modern day example of what happens when you meld an iPad with a Windows netbook. Yes, it’s an 8.9? multi-touch slate complete with a black bezel to rest your thumbs.
…specs on this $599 tablet: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional with a custom UI, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB SSD, Wi-Fi, optional 3G, Bluetooth, three USB ports, 1.3 megapixel webcam and four hours on a single battery charge. Yup, there’s definitely a netbook hiding in there.
The full post here at JKontherun.com.
The ExoPC Slate - It does look like the Apple iPad, doesn't it?
Of course, it reads e-books. Must be an uncomfortable time for Amazon and Kindle right now.
Just mere days after the Apple iPad launch, and these Slate-type machines come up. (HP’s Slate is still a few months out, but they are building hype for it as well.) Talk about riding the wave. And ExoPC really hit hard on what the iPad can’t do — reading the product page, and we had to translate it from the original French, they mentioned — twice — that this device can do Flash. Well, whadoyouknow. *big smile*
Full screen flash video on the ExoPC Slate
And yes, a virtual keyboard to complete the iPad-like package.
Specs on this one reveal that it is undoubtedly of netbook descent — Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, Intel 950 GMA graphics, a 32GB Solid State HDD, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 4-hours of battery life, Wifi, Ethernet and Bluetooth. What will set it apart from the iPad is the Windows 7 Professional OS, albeit with an ExoPC custom UI, that makes multi-tasking a definite feature for this tablet. The not-so-robust specs will mean that it may not be as lightning fast as the iPad, but it will have Flash. And 3 USB ports for expansion, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam – both things that the iPad wishes it has. It will also have VGA output, plus optional 3G broadband capability (just put in your sim).
What does MacPCWiz think? The thin spec line is balanced out by the multi-featured approach. We like the addition of the USB ports — we can plug in our portable hard drives for quick photo, data, and blog uploads. Or burn stuff directly to our DIGISTOR External DVD Burner. Flash support means that the browsing experience, though not as snappy as can be, would be otherwise complete.
Is this the start of companies manufacturing a slew of other iPad-like tablets? Is it the death of the netbook? What do you think?
I have been looking at many articles today about the iPad and yours in one of the easiest to read. Thanks for the sweet article.