By now, I assume you’ve heard about the CrunchPad, one of Michael Arrington’s latest innovations.

Of course, we have seen prototype after prototype of his dreamchild, but what really started it was this blog post which was published back in July of 2008. Here’s what Arrington had to say:

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.

A basic thin, light, touch screen masterpiece (which roughly translates into an oversized iPhone), Arrington wanted a device that anyone could have. The cost being only $200 (which he stated at the time) is probably one of the biggest points that intrigues so many towards the hardware.

The feedback looked positive for the most part and people were even starting to throw Mike and the gang suggestions. And who might you ask does this gang consist of?

• Louis Monier
• Software developed by Singapore-based Fusion Garage
• Industrial design work by David Yarnell
• Greg Lalier from Dynacept.

Oh, and Arrington of course.

Here is one of the first CrunchPad prototypes to give you an idea of how far this thingamabob had progressed in such little time:

Much more recently, an affiliate with TechCrunch mistakingly leaked a few pics that got everyone’s attention:

Leaks are always hardest when they hit at home. Now we knowhow Apple feels. The party responsible for the leak has been penalized severely (whipped with wet spaghetti), so believe us when we say this kind of thing won’t ever happen again. Anyway, so long as the cat’s out of the bag, we may as well give you a few more pics. What you see is a prototype, equipped with an Intel Atom processor and a 12″ capacitative touchscreen. Looks a little different than it did last time, doesn’t it?

So, instead of locking down the whole thing from the public viewpoint, Mike did something very smart by giving everyone an exclusive sneak peek:

I wanted something I couldn’t buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined. The goal - a very thin and light touch screen computer, sans physical keyboard, that has no hard drive and boots directly to a browser to surf the web. The operating system exists solely to handle the hardware drivers and run the browser and associated applications. That’s it.

Picture is thanks to Jason Calacanis, who best describes the CrunchPad as “… So amazing!!! Like a giant iphone!!!”.

As you can see above, it seems that the Apple keyboard and Logitech mouse are connected to the CrunchPad, so a physical keyboard may be optional (be it one you already own or by the makers of the CrunchPad).

The key uses: Internet consumption. The virtual keyboard will make data entry a pain other than for entering credentials, quick searches and maybe light emails. This machine isn’t for data entry. But it is for reading emails and the news, watching videos on Hulu, YouTube, etc., listening to streaming music on MySpace Music and imeem, and doing video chat via tokbox. The hardware would consist of netbook appropriate chipsets (Intel Atom or Via Nano), at least a 12 inch screen, a camera for photos and video, speakers and a microphone. Add a single USB port, power in and sound out, and you’re done. If you want more features, this ain’t for you.

One of the many leaked photos.

So, what are some of the key specs for the CrunchPad? Here they are:

12-inch touchscreen with a 4:3 aspect ratio
Single-point touchscreen
Via Nano processor
512 or 1 GB of RAM
4 GB flash drive (To store the OS and browser and any cache)
1024×768 resolution
WiFi
Accelerometer
VGA Camera
4-Cell Battery 
Dimensions: 12.5″ x 9.7″ x 1.3″
Weight: 3 lbs
Software: Full install of Ubuntu Linux on the prototype with a custom Webkit browser
Ports: Power, Headset, 1 USB
Boot time: 10 seconds from cold boot

Jason Calacanis of Mahalo (left) and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (middle) taking pictures of the CrunchPad prototype.

Impressed yet? I am. I swear, I love this thing so much I’ll buy it before Robert Scoble does, and boy does he want one too. Scoble mentioned on FriendFeed that he was able to get Arrington to let him test it out, so here are some of his revelations over the device: He mentioned that “It is fast enough for realtime FriendFeed… The only downside I see is that it is a bit thicker than I would like. [But] the prototypes work great” (which makes me think that Arrington sort of planned the leak). Anyway, to finish this off, here’s a video of Arrington testing out one of the previous prototypes with Louis Monier:

Feel free to comment.