A few days have passed since my original mention of early Averatec advertising. Since then, Averatec actually updated their product page, confused a number of people, made others think the company was shady, and eventually updated their site again, removing some information. So here's a summary of what all happened and where things stand at this point.

On Monday, AMD announced its new mobile processors, including the Athlon XP-M 2200+ used in the C3500 tablet. Averatec first became a hero for AMD, because the press release made a big point about a Tablet PC using an AMD mobile processor for the first time.

Averatec issued its own press release, which mostly introduced a number of confusing details about the specifications. More on those a little later.

The product page was updated a little later, and at the time listed a separate model with an 80 GB hard drive available only at Costco. That model is now not listed anymore, although it should still exist, and the larger hard drive seems to be exclusive to Costco, at least for now. I think the model numbers are still in the air, so we'll have to see. There has also been speculation of inventory being available at Costco, Staples, and possibly other similar office supply stores relatively quickly - within a week or two, and maybe even this weekend already. That, again, remains to be seen, and might end up depending on your location.

The price, directly from Averatec, is currently $1,349.99, with a $50 rebate (PDF document) available for purchases made directly from Averatec, and dated between July 19 and September 30. Hopefully retailers will eventually have their own - and larger - rebates when they start carrying the model.

There still remains some confusion about the specifications, so here's a quick breakdown. The confirmed ones:

• AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor
• 12.1" XGA display
• 512 MB of DDR memory
• Integrated DVD/CDRW drive
• 10/100 LAN
• 56k modem
• 802.11g wireless networking (although the exact chipset is still not known)
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 60 or 80 GB drive (although the availability of the latter is still sketchy)
• VGA, headphone out, microphone in, Type II PC Card slot
• 5.5 pound weight with battery - this was changed from the previously (incorrectly) reported 4.5 pounds

The ambiguous or unknown parts:

• Battery life: this has been changed from "up to 4 hours" to "up to 3 hours"
• Video card: integrated or not, and which chipset?
• Maximum memory capacity is unknown
• Speakers: two or one?
• Audio card
• The so-called "TV Out, S-Video" port - the pictures seem to show a yellow RCA composite video output instead
• Pen: does it have an eraser? (It looks like it might.)

Lora and Layne have been in touch with the Averatec folks and are trying to clarify as much of the ambiguous information as possible. In the meantime, Lora put together a great photo overview (doesn't work right now) with tons of pictures, including close-ups. However, the article quickly got Slashdotted, and WhatIsNew later suffered a technical setback, so the original article is down right now, and Lora set up a temporary alternate location for the photo gallery. The C3500 became a hero here for the second time, because it actually led to a Slashdot article, and thus created some more publicity for the Tablet PC.

What's my take on the C3500 based on the information available so far? Well, the weight correction was a major disappointment. I was really hoping for a sub 5-pound convertible with an optical drive - same weight like my M200 or Monica's PowerBook, but with the drive thrown in. I guess that sort of thing will take more expensive engineering to finally happen. So it'll be pretty heavy and with relatively short battery life. That concerns me too. If it's only "up to" 3 hours - and the stated numbers usually overshoot real results - then the actual time might end up in the 2 hour range, which isn't all that great. But again, we are talking about an affordable tablet, so the weight, battery life, and possibly heat issues will likely be the trio of tradeoffs that you'll have to endure to offset the lower price.

But you know what, that may be the end of the bad. The audio can't possibly be worse than the crappy mono speaker on my Toshiba M200. The video...well, that could end up being pretty horrific, but can it be much worse than the commonly used Intel Integrated Graphics modules?

And here are the massive positives: plenty of base memory and storage. Full complement of ports, including a nice external volume wheel, like on the M200. Even video out, apparently. (Hook it up to a TV and show off annotated vacation pictures?) Plenty of USB ports and fast wireless networking. The much coveted internal optical drive. I mean, that list sounds very impressive, and it's all for around $1,300! And in another move I loudly applaud, Averatec bundles OneNote with the unit - again, something I think needs to be present on each and every Tablet PC sold.

I really love the 4 USB ports, and the audio/video options. Plus I am a great fan of the (unfortunately) uncommon design where you have the pen in the lid next to the screen - that's where it belongs, and all tablets should at least have a secondary groove for it there.

Obviously, benchmarks will be needed to prove the C3500 is not a snail, and quality could be an issue too. But the low price point and the fact that this Tablet PC may (hopefully) end up being one of the most widely distributed (and available for touchy feely testing) tablets is absolutely fabulous! Hopefully the price point will rapidly slide down closer to the promised $1,000 mark, even if it takes a bunch of rebates. It just sounds nice. As I have said before, unless some OEM comes up with some revolutionary new design soon, the C3500 will be my tablet of the year, hands down. Not necessarily because of any specific features, but because it's precisely the affordable breath of fresh air that the tablet segment has been anxiously awaiting for two years.