Always Innovating Intros Touch Book Netbook/Tablet PC

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Always Innovating have introduced their new Touch Book which comes with 8.9″ 1024 x 600 resolution touchcreen display complete with accelerometer and which, thanks to coming with detachable keyboard, serves equally well as both a netbook and a standalone Tablet PC. And, as if this were not enough to distinguish the Touch Book from the competition, Always Innovating have also opted to power their Touch Book with a 600MHz ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3 processor as opposed to an Atom CPU (a processor that has, its fair to say, wholly dominated the netbook market of late).

Thanks to its design, apart from serving as both a netbook and a Tablet PC, Always Innovating also claim that their Tough Book can also be utilised as a ‘a hand-held game device, or a video player. You can even reverse the keyboard to prop it up on a table in an inverted ‘V’. Finally, because it is magnetic, you can remove the keyboard and put the tablet on the fridge to serve as a kitchen computer or digital frame.’

Interestingly, as a direct consequence of opting to use an ARM processor from Texas Instruments – incidentally the Touch Book is the first netbook to employ this particular processor – Always Innovating claim a battery life of between 10 and 15 hours during normal operation which, all said and done, is extremely impressive in offering around three times the endurance offered by comparable Atom powered netbooks.

In terms of other features, naturally you can factor in integrated Wi-fi connectivity (specifically 802.11b/g/n) as well as Bluetooth, built-in speakers and microphone (curiously there’s no mention of a built-in Webcam, however), six USB 2.0 ports – three of which are internal and one of which is mini USB) and 256MB RAM whilst, in terms of storage, the Touch Book appears to depend on a 8GB microSD memory card as opposed to either HDD or SSD.

An intriguing device that, on paper at least, certainly pushes all the right buttons as far as we’re concerned, the innovative Always Innovating Touch Book is set to commence shipping from late Spring, though pre-orders are already being accepted, with pricing starting from $299.