Last week the folks at The Business Insider started predicting that Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad tablet was dead. Apparently the reports of the CrunchPad’s death are a bit premature.

The CrunchPad, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington's entry into the gadget business, is still missing in action. Are higher-than-expected costs to blame?

The man whom TechCrunch blog network founder and editor Michael Arrington blamed for killing his CrunchPad hardware project has scheduled a video call with reporters and industry analysts for Monday, according to a Silicon Valley public relations firm.

It was so close I could taste it. Two weeks ago we were ready to publicly launch the CrunchPad. The device was stable enough for a demo. And then the entire project self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication.

However I'd say once you've very openly called your partners greedy and jealous then I think it's unlikely you'll ever be doing business together again.

In four years, Michael Arrington has gone from knowing relatively little about the Internet or journalism to presiding over the hugely popular, influential and profitable Palo Alto-based TechCrunch network of blogs. Now, Arrington appears to be on the verge of entering the computer hardware business.

The CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it.

With all the talk about Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing, one of the missing aspects is the hardware that enables this. Yes the hardware becomes less and less important, but you still have to have something there. Netbooks are certainly part of the hardware that will enable true cloud computing, but devices like TechCrunch's CrunchPad will most likely, in the long run, be a bigger part.

Technology blog site TechCrunch has prototyped a WiFi-enabled tablet PC device that runs Linux. The "Crunchpad" is equipped with a Via Nano processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, and a 12-inch, 1024x768 touchscreen, and appears to be aimed at Web-curious couch potatoes.