Digital Home Thoughts: Modified HP Mini Uses Dockable Android Tablet

"It looks to have all started in an HP Mini 1000 that had been modified to use a 1.6GHz VIA C7 processor and for the tablet portion a 533MHz Samsung Arm core chip. Check the video below for a closer look at this amazing device!"

Developed by III, an organization in Taiwan, the Hybrid HP Mini is another stab at the modular concept for computing. At its heart is a modified HP Mini that runs Windows XP. However, you can remove the screen which becomes a tablet that runs Google Android. Try and recall the very old idea from IBM called the Metapad. This would be very similar. Do not forget the Celio Redfly, Palm Foleo and Windows tablets using the slate format. So far, the only one I know of that has been successful at all are the slate tablets, and only within certain vertical markets at that. Of course, the whole consumer market has changed, but the way in which this Hybrid has been put together just does not look practical to me. The idea of using two different operating systems could be a bit frustrating for some users. While I can see a benefit, since each OS is better suited to a particular physical format and size, I cannot see any real benefit of this over a two device configuration, that being a phone and a netbook. At least its an attempt at something new and different.