A Dead Simple Web Tablet For $200

TechCrunch has proposed an open source development of a dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web.

The basic idea is to make the machine is as thin as possible, runs low end hardware and has a single button for power on/off, headphone jacks, a built in camera, speakers, and a mic. It will have Wifi, maybe one USB port, a built in battery, half a Gigabyte of RAM, 4GB SSD. Data input is primarily through an iPhone-like touch screen keyboard. It runs on linux and Firefox, and supports Skype and video calls.

The idea is to turn it on, bypass any desktop interface, and go directly to Firefox running in a modified Kiosk mode that effectively turns the browser into the operating system for the device. Add Gears for offline syncing of Google docs, email, etc., and Skype for communication.

If you are interested in helping out with the project, you can check it out here.