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Although I’ve tried several attempts by Nokia and others, I haven’t seen the perfect ‘Firefox computer’ that TechCrunch has just challenged it’s community to build:

TechCrunchIT » Blog Archive » The Techcrunch Web Tablet Project

Today at Techcrunch we announced that we are building our own web tablet hardware device. This all stems back from a conversation a few weeks ago when we were discussing the ultimate web browsing/cloud computing client hardware. The iPhone is nice but too small, and most laptops are over-powered for the task. With applications on the web most of us just need a web browser most of the time, so the ideal device would be a light-weight small tablet running nothing more than Firefox on a decent screen and with a WiFi connection.

I’ve been searching for this perfect device for a long time. I’ll be one of the first in line to buy it.

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• The Techcrunch Web Tablet Project” – Check out Chumby
• A web tablet that uses the cloud for apps? Ridiculous!

Image by Oishi Kuranosuke via Flickr

Finally, after the over hyped launch of the iPhone 3G, someone has come out and questioned Apple‘s walled garden approach to application development for their phone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m probably going to buy one in a few weeks, but I’ve been wondering why Apple was getting a pass on it’s closed system, and mainly by the same folks that challenge any regime that Microsoft puts in place. From TechCrunchIT

Apple has wrapped the iPhone SDK in enough licensing, security controls and right management that it would make the Microsoft Active Desktop team blush. The phone and platform that is certain to soon take second spot behind Symbian in the smart phone market is also the most restricted and closed. Applications can only be installed from a single source, iTunes, and open source applications and distribution is near impossible. How do you install an iPhone application without iTunes? Where are the community advocates arguing for a standard interface, openess and free code?

UPDATE:  Gina Tripani piles on.