Laptop Thoughts: TabCo Fusion Garage Grid 10 Tablet and Grid 4 Phone

"Earlier this summer, a company called TabCo burst onto the scene with videos, skywriting (yes, really), and the promise that it was "reinventing the wheel." What and who TabCo actually was, however, was still unknown. Until Monday, anyway.

A lot of cheesy, manufactured hype, and now (or September 15th), maybe a real device promoted from a possibly pre-recorded press conference. This may be a 10-inch tablet with 1366x768 resolution, 16GB storage, a Nvidia Tegra 2 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, weighing in at 690g. Their own OS is called GridOS, and is built on an Android kernel, with major UI tinkering, including an on-screen navigation wheel, that promises to baffle end users. Price for the WiFi only version will be $499, with a WiFi/3G model expected to cost $599.

The 16GB Grid 4 phone has a 4-inch screen with 800x480 resolution, and is expected to cost $399 unlocked. GridOS promises some synergy between tablet and phone, for example, playing video on the tablet, stopping it, and restarting it on the phone from the exact point where it stopped. PC Mag promises a full review if and when the products are actually in their hands. Skeptical? Yes I am.