the whole Raspberry Pi thing never really caught on with anyone of us here, mainly because building a low-cost PC or laptop isn’t new thrills, however, a Raspberry Pi-powered tablet would be a whole different kind of story. Raspberry Pi has established itself as the tech hobbyists toy, which for about 35 bucks, it would score you a processor, memory, input and output, plus a memory card slot – basically, all the innards necessary for a working computer in miniature proportion. so it is inevitable that a thing like the DukePad would eventually pop up on some hobbyist’s desks. speaking of which, the DukePad is not something you could buy off-the-shelf – it exist as a set of DIY instructions for building a tablet based around the Raspberry Pi.
though the ‘brain’ itself might be affordable, but putting up the DukePad as set out in the instruction ain’t cheap; it is estimated to cost around $350 just for the parts alone and mind you, that’s before getting someone to cut the necessary acrylic case for it. so we suppose the whole DIY thing would cost somewhere around half a grand or perhaps more, which also means this is strictly a hobbyist thing else it wouldn’t make any sense (or cents?) at all. the instructions include a list of hardware you will need to acquire, designs for a laser-cut case (aka the acrylic enclosure), as well as steps for setting up a software environment using Raspbian Linux and Java to give the Raspberry Pi a touch-friendly operating system and user interface. that said, the DukePad is more for tech DIY enthusiasts who love the idea of putting together a tablet from the ground up and having control over the finished product rather than getting a run-of-the-mill, mass-produced item.
needless to say, this DIY tablet venture requires more than just money – it would require a fair amount of technical hands in both the hardware and software department. we’d love to have a go with it, but if we do, we won’t be able to posting anything here for the next month or so, so we shall give it a pass. however, if you are undaunted and think you have the necessary requisites (time, money and all) to DIY a tablet, then head on to Open JDK Wiki to learn more.
