Posted on 10/05/2011 10:17:09 AM PDT by MBT ARJUN
India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (£23).
Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students.
It supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports, but questions remain over how it will perform.
Officials hope the computer will give digital access to students in small towns and villages across India, which lags behind its rivals in connectivity.
At the launch in the Indian capital, Delhi, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal handed out 500 Aakash (meaning sky) tablets to students who will trial them.
He said the government planned to buy 100,000 of the tablets. It hopes to distribute 10 million of the devices to students over the next few years.
"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," Mr Sibal said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Android is Linux.
3-hour battery life isn’t much better than most laptops.
Good news & interesting. Thanks for posting.
I'm sure Google would bristle if they said Android was Linux since they wrote it. I know it's sorta like saying Xandros is Linux. The Xandros people would beg to differ as they send you a bill for THEIR software. Most Wall Street guys are flabbergasted that Google doesn't make money on Android.
at $50 without subsidy it is still fantastic (i could use one perhaps 2 or 3)
it proves existing tablets are overpriced.
The tablets are an endeavor by the Indian Government to reach out to the farmers as a means of communication to advise them about crops and similar kind of work. It is NOT meant to compete on the market with other tablets for normal functionality. I guess, the most important function would be video streaming to show tutorial videos on how to handle crop and inject them with pesticides and such and may be stream other lectures.
Thanks MBT ARJUN
runs Android 2.2.
“The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide,” Mr Sibal said.
Funniest geek joke I’ve ever seen on FR:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1493781/posts?page=9#9
Unintentionally funny topic, five year retrospective:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1652159/posts
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