The CherryPal device strikes us as somewhere between a thin client and a full-fledged PC. The thin client part of the machine caters to the cloud angle where you’re tapping into software over the network. On the PC side, you find some local storage and enough horsepower to run semi-demanding applications on the device should the need arise.

When we posited this idea to Seybold, his look indicated that we’d got it all wrong. The man sees CherryPal as a true PC. Period. And it’s going to run software faster than your Vista or – dare we say it – Mac OS X-addled machine.

Again, al lot of the magic apparently happens through CherryPal’s mysterious cloud software delivery component.

But, er, Max. The kids love their iTunes, and you need a local component and quite a bit of storage for that. How will you appeal to the youngsters without iTunes on this machine? We can’t see Apple lending a helping hand.

"It was an important requirement for us that iTunes works without restrictions," Seybold said.

Intriguing.

We suspect that CherryPal will sell access to the software bits as some type of subscription service, although it’s, of course, not talking about that either.

"It will be very, very affordable," Seybold said.

Okey dokey.

Anyway, Seybold believes that the CherryPal team, which is also considering a laptop down the road, is inventing the future.

"This is a historic event with cloud computing," Seybold said. "In the past, you’ve had players like HP and Dell trying to build isolated computers. They have almost no intellectual property and are just assemblers.

"The market is desperately asking for greener devices, and we’ve got something that’s like an Asus EEE PC except much more powerful and at a much lower price."

And the CherryPal name? Well, we’re told that Cherry arrived because cherries are sweeter than Apples. Boo-yah! And the Pal bit points to the community aspect of sharing software via the cloud.

Someone please send us a puppy so we can tweet the hell out of it.

You'll find the company's web site - Liberation is Here - over this way. ®