I came across this Twitter post today from @chrispirillo which then led me to a new device with some leaked pictures and photos about the new ‘Crunchpad‘.  Crunchpad is one of Michael Arrington’s (Techcrunch) latest innovations in association with FusionGarage.

The idea for Crunchpad was created back in July 2008 blog, and Arrington says it best here:

“Here’s the basic idea: The machine is as thin as possible, runs low end hardware and has a single button for powering it on and off, headphone jacks, a built in camera for video, low end speakers, and a microphone. It will have Wifi, maybe one USB port, a built in battery, half a Gigabyte of RAM, a 4-Gigabyte solid state hard drive. Data input is primarily through an iPhone-like touch screen keyboard. It runs on linux and Firefox. It would be great to have it be built entirely on open source hardware, but including Skype for VOIP and video calls may be a nice touch, too.

If all you are doing is running Firefox and Skype, you don’t need a lot of hardware horsepower, which will keep the cost way down.

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 and you have a machine that will be almost as useful as a desktop but cheaper and more portable than any laptop or tablet PC.

It will also include a custom default home page with large buttons for bookmarked services – news, Meebo/Ebuddy for IM, Google Docs/Zoho for Office, Email, social networks, photo sites, YouTube, etc. Everything that you use every day.”

Here is a video showing the first prototype for Crunchpad:

Personally, I will be watching this space with great interest.  This hardware has a lot of advantages in that it will be less costly (hopefully it will be), a ’straight to the point’ applications and ease of use.  I could see the potential of this for the mobile corporate(s) and for students alike.

What about you?  Is this hardware a likely good fit for you?  Feel free to add your comments here.