Hasta La Gadget!

The upcoming Touch Book from start-up Always Innovating will be the first netbook that detaches its screen from the keyboard in order to create a standalone touch screen tablet.

Whether that versatility will make it a top must-get gadget is up in the air. After all, many available tablet laptops (Fujitsu makes the best ones), are able to switch between tablet and laptop form with the help of a simple twisting hinge between the keyboard and the screen. And Asus displayed its own version of the ‘flip-style’ tablet netbooks at last January’s CES show.

But the Touch Book, with its versatile design, appears to make good on previous failed promises by gadget-makers to physically transform for different feature applications. One example of this is that the netbook/tablet is magnetized and is light enough to stick on the fridge as a kitchen computer, or you can just use it to watch a movie on your lap without getting weighed down by an extra keyboard.

Almost always, we find it’s the user who needs to adjust work/play habits to accommodate the physical limitations of gadgets.

The netbook tablet, previewed at this week’s DEMO 09 conference in Palm Desert, is also aiming to be the first notebook to come out with an ARM processor (from Texas Instruments), which has promised to boost the battery and processing performance of all netbooks. Always Innovating is claiming the Touch Book will have a battery life up to 15 hours due to this chip. Brian earlier talked about the further implication of ARM processors right here, including always-on booting. 

The Touch Book will also have plenty of open source features, and will come with a 3-dimensional accelerometer, a 1024 x 600 8.9-inch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and perhaps most surprisingly (and limiting), only 8GB of storage, provided in microSD form. This means that this could be a great portable travel device, but you’d be bothered by the endless accounting of cards for your travel gadgets.

As for the OS, it’s a custom Linux that works like a regular system when using the keyboard but switches to a touch-screen interface, presumably increasing the desk icons and focusing on media features. 

According to Always Innovating, the Touch Book will be available in the next few months for $300 for the tablet only, and for $400 for the rig with the keyboard. Check out a video from Always Innovating CEO Gregoire Gentil showing the tablet after the jump.

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Photos: Always Innovating, Rafe Needleman/CNET