Posted 11/16/09 at 11:30:26 AM by Paul Lilly

The tech talk for much of the year has centered around upcoming tablets from Apple, Microsoft, and TechCrunch co-founder Michael Arrington, but to date, not one of them has come through. Will we ever see a next-gen tablet from one of these three? We certainly will, says Arrington, who insists that his CrunchPad tablet is "streamrolling along."

Arrington added that the upcoming CrunchPad will sell for between $300 and $400. It will sport a 12-inch touchscreen and come equipped with an Intel Atom processor (what else?).

Even though Arrington is adamant about an imminent release, some journalists wonder if the expected price tag won't render the CrunchPad irrelevant from day 1.

"While the project apparently isn't dead, I do still think there's a chance it will be DOA. For $300 to $400 I don't really see why anyone would buy a dedicated Web device instead of a fully functional computer," wrote Brad of Liliputing. "By the time the CrunchPad is available, you might even be able to pick up a touchscreen tablet style netbook in the $00 range. You can already get the Eee PC T91/T91MT for around $500 to $550."

Arrington did say he's exploring ways to cut back production costs, some of which include negotiating soft revenue and sponsorship opportunities.

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Posted 11/07/08 at 10:56:55 AM by Paul Lilly

If the Phantom Lapboard sounds familiar, it's because we covered the promising product earlier this year. After spending some hands-on time with the peripheral, it was clear Phantom had a winning design on its hands, provided the company could address the dropout issues with the mouse and other annoyances associated with the rodent. Whether or not the final version represented an improvement over the unit we played with was supposed to have been answered back in June when it was scheduled to be available in limited quantities.

June has come and gone, but the Lapboard is nowhere to be seen. Has it dropped off the face of the earth to become vaporware just as the Phantom Console did over two years ago? Not yet, and maybe not ever. Unlike the Phantom Console, which left Phantom's website as if it never existed, the company is still talking about the Lapboard. In a recent blog post, Phantom Development Consultant John Landino says Phantom has come up with inventory funding and paid for its first shipment of Lapboards, which the company hopes to start shipping in its yet-to-be-opened game store before the end of the year.

It's hard to argue with anyone who might be skeptical about this latest update, but remember that the Optimus Maximus was once well on its way to becoming vaporware before it started shipping.

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Posted 11/04/08 at 11:04:14 AM by Paul Lilly

While InPhase Technologies and its holographic storage solution has a long ways to go before it reaches Duke Nukem status for a laughably late product, the promised technology is beginning to smell a lot like vaporware. The company has been promising a holographic drive since early 2005, and now nearly four years later, InPhase has pushed back it's first drive ship date until late 2009.

On paper, the technology looks tantalizing. By altering the angle of lasers, data stored as holograms can be read or written and can co-exist in the same physical space. This translates into huge amounts of data to the tune of 800GB and even 1.6TB discs, according to the company's 3-generation roadmap.

The technology requires highly sophisticated and precise optics, development of which has been at the heart of the delays. InPhase had intended to ship it's first $18,000 drive in December, but in sorting out a last minute development problem, the company instead ended up laying off part of its workforce. Rumors suggest that as many has half of InPhase's staff may have been given a pink slip earlier this year.

So here's the big question: Which will come first, Duke Nukem Forever or holographic storage? Hit the jump and give us your prediction.

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Posted 04/23/07 at 01:45:38 PM by Paul "One4yu2c" Lilly

The much anticipated OLED keyboard is a no-show at this year's CeBIT, which brings to question if it will ever see the light of day.

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