First of all let me point out that I’m no expert at hardware prototyping. I’ve never done anything like that, and am not familiar with the steps involved in getting a product launch-ready. But still, common sense tells me the unboxing experience is probably one of the things you’re going to be testing last, right?

When leaked Crunchpad images appeared online this week, Michael Arrington, who runs the project was very quick to point out that this was an early prototype. But is it? Arrington’s comments sounded a bit irritated to me. As if a his big surprise had been spoiled.

My guess, and I do mean guess, is that Crunchpad is a lot closer to becoming a product than the team is willing to admit. This may be wishful thinking, but why else would there be nice, colourful boxes in the pictures?