Crunchpad dies on CyberMonday or negotiating tactic?

Seth Weintraub
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November 30, 2009
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One thing you won't be able to pick up this CyberMonday is TechCunch founder Michael Arrington's Crunchpad.  In a public note today posted on TechCrunch, Arrington says that his partners have tried to renegotiate the terms of the deal and they've given up.  Arrington's stance is that their hardware partners are playing hardball and trying to steal their intelectual property.  They have no choice but to back out and sue (Arrington is a lawyer).

While this could also be a negotiating tactic by Arrington, the bad blood between him and his hardware partners look like the end to the project.  The tablet - shown at right and below - has a very sleek body and 12-inch capacitive touch display.  According to Arrington, it ran Linux incl. Chrome and would even run Windows.  Therefore we know it was probably based on x86 (Intel Atom?)

Arrington's description of the OS is remarkably similar to Google's Chrome OS which was basically just a BrowserOS. 

The hardware looks sexy enough to sell, perhaps Google or some other company will buy out the rights to the project and hit the streets with it.

Comments (11)

Ells (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 10:22am

Bummer!

PaulTT (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 12:06pm

Arrington is also completely full of s...

The guy is a phony conspiracy nut called the Art Bell of tech. I usually doubt anything he claims. Maybe the assassins that he claimed were stalking him are in on it?

ctyrider (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 3:45pm

And this is related to Mac/Apple how?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 5:13pm

as you may have heard, they are supposed to sell one similar to this one somewhere in the future... that's how :P

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 02, 2009 - 3:45pm

It's the tablet, silly. It's just one of many, that are going to be destroyed by Apple in 2010.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 02, 2009 - 3:56pm

It's the tablet, silly. It's just one of many, that are going to be destroyed by Apple in 2010.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 6:09pm

I don't see how this is Apple/Mac news either.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 7:31pm

Well let's see. It could be a direct competitor to the Apple tablet if it ever happens. Not only that, but it could give us an idea of what a well done tablet could look like. 3rd, while yes, this is an Apple site, it's also a tech site, and any cool tech that is pushing design in the Apple spirit is welcome if you ask me. Now quit your flipping whining.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 30, 2009 - 8:39pm

Could be, but currently it's not a competitor to anything.

The site is called 9to5mac not 9to5tech.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 01, 2009 - 12:12am

Wow, just skip over the article if you don't like anything non-mac related.  Its a slow news day, does it really matter, or rather does it hurt or intrude in any way on your experience with the site?

 

Didn't think so.  Shut up, and just skip the article.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | December 01, 2009 - 4:22pm

"Therefore we know it was probably based on x86 (Intel Atom?)"

 

The article says it would have been and actually talks about working with Intel.

 

Aslo, mac related or not I found it interesting so thanks for the post.