Are you desperate for an iPad-like device, short on cash, and long on the desire to completely jack up your netbook? Well you're in luck, friend, as the proprietor of MSI Wind fansite
Insanely Wind has crafted a device which may satiate your tablety desires. By taking a U100, removing the keyboard, relocating a touchscreen display to the bottom half of the unit, and doing some simple rewiring, user alexbates has fashioned a tablet which he says bests a device like the iPad or JooJoo with "10 times the storage, twice the speed, external video (VGA), webcam, USB ports, and built-in multi card reader." Of course, as you can tell by the photos, this mod has a ways to go before it's got the fit and finish of the aforementioned devices, and you'll have rev up a compatible, hackintosh build of OS X to make it appropriately Apple-ish -- but it can clearly be done. While this isn't the first time we've seen
this type of
modification, it's nice to see the love spreading to
various devices (and done in a fashion that doesn't seem overly complicated). From the sounds of things, this project hasn't hit its zenith yet, so we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for a more complete variation of the Windlet (our name). For now, hit the read link and keep up with the unfolding saga.
[Thanks, MistaBishi]
posted March 14th 2010 6:28PM
This trend of theming stuff to look like other brands like apple is just plain pathetic.
@HighestRanked2 your arguing about a product that's not even out yet.... talk about a hallow argument.
Whats with all the hate comments?
Honestly, its ridiculous. He has done a good job on this, and I applaud him for it.
I'd like to see any of you people with hate comments try and make one of these. Go on, show me if you can do any better. Cause this is appalling, this is a tech blog, if you don't like whats been posted, go elsewhere. Or use the filters.
haha i know why all the apple fanboys hate this, besides the fact that they are fanboys: it's because this tablet was created by awesome geeks, instead of a multibillion dollar electronic company aka their beloved Apple, had the final touches secured via electrical tape, and even still it BLOWS THE IPAD AWAY!!!
hahahahha alexbates FTW. where can i get one?
@jawman +1 man, thanks for the support towards Alex.
no physical keyboard?! pass
@wickersty Yes, tablets tend to not have physical keyboards. If you want that then you should look for a netbook/laptop.
Wow, talk about staying true to the stereotype (Apple fanboys FTW - or not). All this over a mod a guy did. Hell, the guy just wanted to see if he could do it and he did. I like it. I know I don't have the skills to pull something like that off.
Props to him for taking the initiative. I do have a question for the fanboys... When was the last time you were ballsy enough to take your beloved iPhone or iPod apart, replace a component, upgrade?
(Sound of crickets chirping resounds through the engadget halls)
What I am getting at is the fact that unless it was previously broken over 95% of the Apple population have never considered doing such a thing. Why? Simple, Apple makes 'beautiful' products that cater to a crowd that is happy with the pre-packaged solutions provided they 'look' nice and function as promised.
Now, before all you fanboys get bent out of shape and start harping the same old tired out THEY ARE GOD bull$h!t know that I am not dissing Apple.
Their execution towards design is flawless. Products released by Apple are for the most part game changers in that they lead the way in pushing newer technologies and both hardware and software design trends. Simplicity is key and it is something Apple knows best.
Time to get back on topic for a second. This guy took a regular unassuming netbook and transformed it into a tablet. He is not selling this and were you to follow the link in the post to the InsanelyWind topic where this resided you would read that this is version 1 which is the 'I wonder if I can do it' phase. He has stated that he is looking to remove the tape and possibly replace it with a custom aluminum housing.
Apple guys... remember how the company you worship got started? It was the same way... In a garage and the first working units built there were cased in wood. Wait now... I see yep they may have also used electrical tape in some of the wiring... Damn... That hurts...
Point is he is making something that fit his needs and wants... Keyword: making
This goes out to the squirrel in the corner with the blue nuts.
@JohnMcLearran Thanks for standing up for alexbates, +1.
You make some very good points in your post, and I agree with it 100%. This is a work in progress, and once its complete, you Fanboys will be jealous. I'm just saying.
meh...I've had Mac OS X running on a Toshiba Tecra M7 with full tablet support for about a month. It's functionally identical to the axiotron modbook, except I still have the keyboard and trackpad.
Eventually, I plan to get it working like a wacom cintiq device for other systems over a modiied vnc setup.
Needs more tape.
@stridermt2k NEEDS MORE DESU
@HighestRanked2 It's the desktop based windows OS on a low specced/low batterylife/fun but not really usefull device with a high price that fails, NOT multitasking.
The geeks are probably loving this thing!
I got a fever, and the only cure, is MORE BEZEL.
It's one thing to get defensive of the iPad against production tablets. But when someone mods something, it's cool just because it's modded. You start there, and any usefulness is cream on top. There's no need to (or way to) defend your home team against this. I'd have given them 20 more points if they had closed it up with duct tape.
Why oh why is there more than one "highest ranked" comment. Surely the name means there's only one? Highly ranked yes.
the UI looks like what the iPad's UI should've looked like