Transparent
tablets may sound like something straight from science fiction, but it may not
be long before translucent slates hit the market. Grippity claims to be the
world's first see-through tablet to come with two-sided touch controls.
The recently
launched Kickstarter campaign promises to deliver the slate by next fall.
Grippity features a semi-transparent 7-inch 800 x 480 display, and both the
front and rear panels support capacitive multi-touch input. Running on a Cortex
A8 processor and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, you'll find 4GB of storage space
with an SD card slot that adds up to 32GB of extra room. Grippity supports both
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and also comes with IR blaster that allows it to function
as a remote control.
While most of
the tablet is semi-transparent, Grippity's top is solid so that users can hold
the slate with their thumbs. Grippity creator Jacob Eichbaum claims that the
tablet's partially translucent display makes it easier for users to type via a
touch-screen keyboard. Since it supports rear and front touch controls, all 10
fingers can be used to type rather than just two, as Eichbaum demonstrates in
Grippity's promotional video.
The tablet's
rear controls are also designed to facilitate touch screen navigation in
general. Typing and touching from the back panel rather than the front prevents
users from obscuring the display's pixels with their fingers, Eichbaum says.
This would theoretically make it easier to interact with small objects on-screen,
such as links with tiny font.
It's unclear
how much the tablet will cost when it launches, but Eichbaum is asking for $235
to reserve a slate for delivery by Oct. 24. Early birds can also opt to
pre-order a Grippity for $159, but you'll have to act fast. Eichbaum has
already sold 397 of the 500 limited Early Bird edition slates.
Grippity is
the first transparent display tablet we're seeing come to market, but the
concept itself isn't new. Samsung has been showing off tablets with
transparent, 3D flexible displays since 2011.
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