This looks interesting. And, as the CrunchGear article points out, these guys HAVE delivered on their previous devices so they've got a tangible record of delivering on their announcements of new devices:

https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/products/smartbook.htm

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/09/16...puting-device/

Also... a *REAL* and *fully* open-source friendly device.

Looks quite nice, but wonder how good it is in practice.

Yes, Alwaysinnovating does try. I almost bought their last gee-whizz device, but I backed out at the last minute. They do have the right spirit.

Unfortunately, my life is awfully full of devices already. I have a couple of Kindles, N900, Netbook, desktop (actually, more than one desktop).

Sigh.

Before you buy, it might be good to read through their forums to get a feel for their past performance. There are widespread stories of 3+ month waits between payment and shipping, and the Touchbooks suffered from a number of common hardware problems and failures.

I'm still interested in their Smart Book, but I'm hanging back a bit to see some reviews.

Where's the local store i can walk in to get technical support? Am i to rely solely on a (linux) community for OS and other updates? I want "xyz" program/app for it and it only works for Mac and Win, why doesn't it work on my SmartBook?

Maybe I should go to the SmartBook forums and ask them. Better yet, I'll buy me an iPad and then tell them how they all got a raw deal since their's isn't an iPad.

This is all in jest kiddos, I got nothing against SmartBook nor its owners, all is well!

Surely, as a Nokia customer, you're perfectly experienced with these things. Except that the one advantage might be that this device is expected to be a FULLY open platform, unlike Maemo/Nokia. ...plus, for those who keep pointing this out as the benefit of a "computer": it runs multiple OS's. (Hell, it even runs multiple OS's SIMULTANEOUSLY instead of having to reboot into each OS.)

I know you're joking around--but it's good talking points, too. I'd still be interested to know how well they will support their hardware for parts/repair. On the other hand, they DO provide EXTENSIVE specifications and details so that it's easy to get it repaired by just about anyone or to find/make parts.

You should be careful whom you trumpet like this. They're using a TI processor, which means that they're hampered by a closed 3D driver just like the N900 (and every other PowerVR backed device.)

Two things:
1. Micron bought Numonyx
2. Needs more NAND

I'd like to see that with the Tablet UI they are sporting on the WeTab. It might actually be possible once the changes are pushed back to the Gitorious repos.

I know next to nothing about porting/coding on Maemo, but is any of this stuff useful for devs here? For example, there appears to be a Hulu desktop app that would be GREAT if it could be ported

http://git.alwaysinnovating.com/cgit...5b22e9ca6669da

wow that looks so cool.....ability to switch between multiple operating systems just like that is awsome

The Smart Book (and/or the Touch Book II) looks OK; I can definitely see getting one, although the lack of a digitizer is a bit annoying.

But what really is interesting, and what should be a far more direct competitor (to certain Maemo devices now discontinued, and still unparalleled), is the Mini Book itself. And it falls down twice, lightly (and, admittedly, unsurprisingly) with no D-pad, and spectacularly with a 480x320 display. Yeah, guys, I was laughing at that on the iPhone 3.5 years ago, and I'm laughing even harder now -- even Apple's seen the light now, can you really expect any significant number of customers for this? (And yes, I know the 480x320 was probably decided before the iPhone 4's launch -- I guess it made a little more sense then, but like all products, it's gotta make it in the market today, not the market when it was designed.)

It's actually quite sad, because that not only undercuts the standalone MB, but also the whole SB package. Combine that with the website seeming to go out of its way to not clarify whether buying the Touch Book II, Mini Book, and Dual Screen gives you the same result as buying the Smart Book straight up, or if the MB dock is exclusive to the SB, and people will hold off entirely instead of preordering the TBII now, while waiting for the MB reviews to hit.

I really hope they can come out ahead on this despite that stumble, but it doesn't look good from here.

Edit: to clarify my comment on their website, I haven't watched all the videos yet -- so the relationship of the TBII and the SB may be clarified there.