India Launches $35 Tablet 203
Many readers have submitted stories about a new $35 tablet computer released today in India. The Aakash (meaning sky) has been handed out to 500 students for an initial trial run, if successful a $60 commercial version will hit the shelves later this year. The Aakash computer runs Android 2.2 (Froyo), has a 7-inch touch screen, 256MB of RAM, 32GB expandable memory slot, two USB ports, and weighs in at only 350 grams.
Cool (Score:2)
So it's a $35 tablet that costs $60 then?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, much like the OLPC was a $100 dollar computer that cost $400 for an individual to purchase.
OLPC pricing was for *two* devices (Score:4, Informative)
The OLPC cost $400 because you were buying two devices. the second device was your donation through the Give One Get One program. It was the only way you could buy them.
The reason the devices cost $200 each was because the OLPC suffered a bit of feature creep and bad pricing projections on components.
The idea was that volume sales would bring pricing down more closely to the $100 level. I will mention that both Microsoft and Intel tried their best to derail the project*
[*] - http://news.cnet.com/Negroponte-Windows-key-to-OLPC-philosophy/2100-1016_3-6215837.html [cnet.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Seems to match pretty well to the third subsense of that common definition of donate. I'll allow that it isn't a gift, and "grant" may or may not fit. But it quite clearly is a contribution to a cause.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Social Security may or may not still have been a healthy, going concern - if the politicians hadn't raided it multiple times, for money to dump into general funds and/or special funds. I've forgotten how many times SS has been raided, or what it adds up to. But, the fact that they raid it only shortens the life of the program. Billions, that should have been drawing interest, have been pilfered. So, SS lost that capital, plus all the accrued interest.
Yeah, it was a pyramid scheme from the start, but cho
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, thanks for all that extensive effort you spent to prove your controversial thesis that an agency that can tax peter to pay you can provide a better value than an enterprise that has to be self-sustaining.
I totally never would have guessed that I'd be able to make a profit while giving stuff away, if I had the power to tax. Just blows my fucking mind.
Re: (Score:2)
Social Security has several trillion dollars. It doesn't keep it all piled up in a vault, but like any large corporation or bank has it stored in AAA-rated US Treasury Bonds.
If you had a million dollars in US Treasury Bonds, guess what? You'd be a millionaire.
Besides that, Social Security is still taking in more money than it sends out. Social Security has not contributed one penny to the budget deficit. Please get your facts straight.
Re: (Score:2)
Then why did Obama say "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3 if we haven't resolved this issue, because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it".
It's called "lying". (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Cue birth certificate and instructions on making Tinfoil hats.
Now, now, this is why I referred to "politicians" and not "Obama". Republicans are just as bad.
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone but my mom. I trust her, but I still hired a private detective to check up.
Re: (Score:2)
If a private company had done such a thing, the whole board would be under the jail.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a beneficent project, subsidized by the government, for the sake of bringing digitally-assisted education to the masses. They're not concerned with profit margin. They care about being able to afford their goals.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The commercial version is almost certainly subsidized too, but obviously not as much. It says the government plans on purchasing 100,000. So since they aren't even manufacturing them in bulk yet, the real-world price isn't even known. However for them to have set an exact price for both shows that the government is willing to kick in to some extent to meet a specific price point.
As the article more tactfully states, these things might be unusable junk. They probably use the cheaper (and less patent incum
Re: (Score:2)
From the wiki:
Operating system Android 2.2
Power Internal rechargeable non-removable lithium-polymer battery
CPU 366 Mhz processor ;on chip Graphics accelerator and HD Video processor
Storage capacity 2GB (Internal)Flash memory, expandable upto 32 GBmicroSD
Memory 256 MB LP-DDR2/DDR2
Display 7-inch ; 800x480 reolution
Input Multi-touch resistive touchscreen display, headset controls
Connectivity Wi-Fi connectivity ;GPRS
Real life measure of 350 grams (Score:2)
For you/we Americans, 350 grams is a fraction under the weight of a 12 ounce can or pop/soda.
(weird note: the can of Coke in front of me says caffeine content is 46mg/12 fl oz. Way to go and mix your units!)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Fluid ounces measure volume not weight/mass.
350 gms = 12.35 oz
Re: (Score:2)
As a child-post post points out, 1ml of pure water at 4C weighs 1g, and the weight of the bubbles, sugar, etc. are not of consequence since this is an approximation.
355ml = approx 355 grams of fluid.
Oh, I suppose we can add the weight of the can in there. Quick Googling gives it another 16 grams for an empty can. So: now we're up to ~371 grams.
Still: it's an approximation to give someone the idea of what it really weighs. The other one I use is that a regular disposable water bottle is usually a fraction ov
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I believe I'd like to see you try. Actually I'd like to film you trying and upload it to Youtube.
Re: (Score:2)
I believe I'd like to see you call me Poindexter to my face, although you have pointed out to me that I want to make the world's second most boring Youtube video.
Re: (Score:2)
weird note: the can of Coke in front of me says caffeine content is 46mg/12 fl oz. Way to go and mix your units!
So, how many grains of caffeine do you want to limit your consumption to in a day? Would it really help you to know that that can contains 0.7 grains of caffeine?
Or, in other words, quantity of caffeine consumption is a medical measurement. Medical measurements are made in metric units; this is just the way it is, because doctors have preferred working in metric just-about since the system first became available. However, the concentration of caffeine is only useful if it is given in units that are easy
Tech Support (Score:5, Funny)
So, will they outsource their tech support to America?
Re:Tech Support (Score:5, Funny)
Hi there pardner, name's, uh, Ranjeep, now wut can I do ya fer with that there tablet thingy?
At $20/hour? (Score:3, Insightful)
Occupy Wall Street Movement [slashdot.org] wants Americans to make $20/hour (whether they work or not), so providing tech support for a $35 device at over $20/hour would be a neat trick.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for linking that page, it is a brilliant piece of troll-work. I would like my $20/hr min wage for doing nothing now, please.
Re: (Score:2)
I wish Indian support could speak English without revealing their native accent.
The retail launch is the proof of legitimacy (Score:2)
Sounds like it will have a wholesale price in quantity of $35 then get marked up to $60 for retail which is about right considering the specs. If it actually appears at retail anywhere in the world around that price you know the thing is probably legit. If not, it is just a scam on the Indian govt. We have Solyndra so we can't laugh.
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty much the similar thing which is why I mentioned it. If this thing is a scam it was because they could use "for the children" to unlock some sweet sweet taxpayer money from the Indian govt. Meanwhile over here Solyndra used "for the Earth" to unlock half a gigabuck. Imagine that much money for a tablet project. Even at $50 per unit the money we pissed away on Solyndra would have put 10 million tablets into our schools. That would give every K-1 student one and almost every second grader.
tablet market is going to go crazy. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Aside from phones and desktops, It already is everywhere. It runs the internet.
Re: (Score:2)
Aside from phones
Hmm, Android and webOS?
Re: (Score:2)
It runs the internet.
That is a ridiculous statement. One could easily say that Cisco IOS runs the Internet. More IP packets pass through Cisco gear (running Cisco's proprietary O/S) than Linux kernels.
Maybe you mean webservers...but "the Internet" != "the Web".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
and all DVD player,s bluray player, all HDTV's etc... makes the windows fanbois cry at night....
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Its definitely year of linux on the phone and router, and it could be year of linux on the tablet. On the desktop? not so much.
Re: (Score:2)
Hi, I'm from the year 2015, and what's a "desktop"?
Re: (Score:2)
It's the top part of your desk. underneath all your 3d porn.
Re: (Score:2)
The real purpose (Score:5, Interesting)
Hi,
I would like to provide a background for this. The tablets are an endevaour 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 lectuers. To get a background on what kind of exercise is this and wonders its necessity, you might like to visit NPTEL where free lectures are made available by IIT faculty on various college courses (both undergraduate and postgraduate). Due to the population, it is very difficult to reach students and farmers individually so this is the type of "distance education".
For example, in this age also audio lectures are transmitted over radio for anyone to listen by the Indira Gandhi Open University for people who want to study on their own but cannot attend a college as there is probably none in the region they can try to reach.
As it may or may not be common knowledge, software patents per se, are not valid in India. You can patent your code, not your idea (which is pretty pointless). There are certain workarounds the legal system as usual is the case. But ideas and software algos are not patentable per se. So patent encumbered thing might not be a really big issue here. I don't know about resistive or capacitive touch screens though.
How successful it is we all are sceptical (due to corruption and all the issues). But this is the main idea behind it. If it succeeds we would be very happy.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd hope the screen is resistive in this case - it's what you want for field use anyway, so that it can be used in working gloves, with dirty hands etc.
Re: (Score:2)
The tablets are an endevaour 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.
I hope it's to tell them not to buy from Monsanto, and not the reverse.
Re: (Score:2)
The tablets are an endevaour 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.
I don't understand how the farmers are going to receive this information since bandwidth is limited and expensive in India. I am working near the city of Vadodara in Gujarat. Where I stay at a 5 star hotel, the Internet costs $12 per day and sometimes the bandwidth sinks so low it is unusable. My iPhone 4 works great with 3G in the city, but just outside the city where I work, there is only EDGE connection and even if the connection is strong, the available Internet bandwidth is almost nonexistant. Is there
What kind of touchscreen? (Score:2)
[ ] Really crappy
[ ] "You've got to be kidding me!" crappy
Even from TFA:
You can already get really cheap chinese android tablets on EBay, and they're almost usable. Except for the touchscreens on them. At this price point, you can't get adequate enough quality for real use
Re: (Score:2)
What you and I would consider usable, and what someone who might have to save up for months to get one of these would consider usable are to very, very different things.
Re: (Score:2)
You can already get really cheap chinese android tablets on EBay, and they're almost usable.
And some at Walgreen's (Walgreen's? Yes, Walgreen's) that are not [arstechnica.com].
Excellent! Can't wait to get one! (Score:2)
There's been plenty of discussion about the tablet over the last year and a half. Much conjecture about whether it would happen ( http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/india-35-tablet/ [wired.com] ). But what struck me most when all the jabber started was the enthusiasm of one minister: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817 [bbc.co.uk] .
GPL Compliance (Score:2)
This has roughly the same extremely mediocre specs as most of the cheap Chinese tablets. I wonder if this company will comply with the GPL, in contrast to the vast majority of Chinese vendors who either hold the kernel sources ransom (after giving you a binary) or refuse to release them at all.
Replace my clocks (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not pay $99.00 and get a really cool one.
Chumby is your friend.
Big deal, Deal Extreme have had these for a long.. (Score:2)
...time now, just check this out:
Since the Indian model are planned to be sold commercially for 60 bucks, with those poor specs...check out these android pads for 79 bucks:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70053 [dealextreme.com]
I've seen the same tablet, sold for 59$ when they have specials, so it's certainly possible. And this one is feature ladden.
Re: (Score:2)
do they have one with a 600 MHz CPU for $100? that would be real news. I look at tablets on there occasionally but have yet to be motivated.
"cigarette lighter" function like the Nano? (Score:2)
drawbacks (Score:2)
Does it come in curry flavor? (Score:2)
Kind of like the towel in Hitchhiker's.
No wonder (Score:2)
Coming up for sale... (Score:2)
My 4 dollar tablet will be released soon!!!!!
* Retail version will sell for $5495.99, but as the first "Real" $4.00 tablet you should order a lot of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, just like the iPad is 7inch iPhone.
Re: (Score:2)
And it can't make calls.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Somebody hooked up a GSM modem to an iPad? I'll admit, that's pretty damn l33t. Got a source?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I know you're talking about some kind of VoIP system (SIP, IAX, and a variety of proprietary system can all work on an iPad). But they're not practical as a cell phone replacement outside of North America and some places in Europe. I really wish they were, but they aren't, and region-specific solutions aren't really solutions.
Re: (Score:2)
skype's no good?
Re: (Score:2)
Force someone to recognize that the Ipad is a giant Ipod Touch, not a giant Iphone?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, Apple did. that's what the 3G part of the 3G model is. a GSM modem in there. Uber 1337!
using skype or other IP telephony app I make phone calls from mine all the time.
Re: (Score:2)
My ipad makes calls just fine, never touched one have you.
Re: (Score:2)
Not going down this road again, see here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2461378&cid=37615968 [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Hey don't give 'em any ideas.
Tablet makers should give everything crazy bladed corners like the tech in Metalocalypse as a fuck-you to Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
To follow the tradition of the DethPhone, it should also have spikes around the screen that stab you in the wrist every time you use it.
Re:Looks like a propaganda stunt. (Score:5, Informative)
Chinese factories turn out stuff like this all the time. I have traveled to the South Pacific and you can get a basic smart phone for $20--made in china. They won't sell in the western world for that because they can sell the same piece of junk for $120, or "bundle" it for $20 with a term contract. In most countires in Africa where average household expenditure is less than $300, cell phones are prolific--this certainly is not because people are spending a years worth of wages to buy a phone. Companies will charge what the market will bear.
Re: (Score:3)
Funny... (Score:3)
and sell, and sell, and sell... (Score:2)
I just had a guy here doing a repair on my floor. He almost left his phone, and we got to talking about them. He was complaining that his iPhone was starting to flake out and that he was going to have to get a new one. I showed him my phone, which is about 5 years old and works fine, and that my wife and I share minutes and we spend about $60 a month between us. He said he spends something like $200 a month on his.
So you buy an expensive phone and pay $200 a month to use it, and when it breaks you just
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What's more retarded than either, is an idiotic slashdotter sitting in his mom's basement, gorging on big mac and diet coke, typing stuff which he doesn't know shit about.
Use some brains - the reason this is being produced is not to "desperately imitate what happened decades ago". It is to provide millions of poor students an opportunity to buy their own tablet/computing device.
Re: (Score:2)
Imitating is fine and does in fact produce lots. It's what students spend years doing - replicating work that has already been done. Or do you think that each computer science student is forging new ground in finite automata and that physics students are developing the mathematics needed for relativity?
There's a huge difference between knowing that something can be done and knowing how to do it. There's a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. If you want to build on it
Re: (Score:2)
Imitating is fine and does in fact produce lots.
Imitating is fine and does in fact produce lots.
...Ahh look!!! A lot!!
Re: (Score:2)
It's $35 after government subsidy. It's been a government research program to close the tech gap between the rich and the not-so-rich.
Re: (Score:3)
Or, nobody will use it because it's junk. Have you ever noticed how everybody in the world is getting cell phones that are cheap--practically disposable, even--and yet perfectly functional? Can you tell me how many of these phones were the product of some kind of design-a-phone-for-poor-people initiatives?
I'll hazard a guess that the answer is zero.
What happened with cell phones was that the price and quality of commodity parts finally hit a sweet spot where everybody could afford a phone that they actual
The real price of phones (Score:2)
> Have you ever noticed how everybody in the world is getting cell phones that are cheap--practically disposable, even--and yet perfectly functional?
Every actually priced a cell phone? Didn't think so. You are paying a lot more than you think for that shiny toy, they just figured out you will swallow $200 up front and finance the rest over two years a lot better than $499 up front. Or did you think cell service alone is why your bill is as high as it is? Ever wondered why people with 'good credit' wh
Re: (Score:2)
Ever consider that I wasn't talking about the States? Didn't think so. Hint: the article was about India, not Indiana.
People in Nigeria, India, or any other massive developing nations aren't paying $200 for a smart phone with a 2 year hitch. They weren't buying cell phones when they first came out, either. They started buying cell phones when the price and functionality hit a sweet spot, and they buy millions of them.
The same could be true for tablets in the near future; personally, I won't be surprise
Re:The real price of phones (Score:4, Insightful)
Every actually priced a cell phone?
Mine cost $35 with no contract (its pay-as-you-go.)
You are paying a lot more than you think for that shiny toy, they just figured out you will swallow $200 up front and finance the rest over two years a lot better than $499 up front.
You are confusing "cell phone" with "smart phone" .. stop being an idiot. Smart phones are still a large minority both in the United States as well as globally.
It is because the TracPhone is crap
So yesterdays high-end feature-phones like the Motorola RAZR are crap now? You really are an idiot. You seem to have incorrectly conflated "Touch Screen" with "Quality" and that makes you stupid.
Someone mod me troll for calling this wanker out.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I agree, at that price it looks like tablets could get as commonplace in real life as they were in Star Trek.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a reason your signature always comes out so crappy on those supermarket signature pads. It's not because you can't write (well, maybe), but it's because the touchscreen is cheaply made and poorly calibrated. There's basically no chance of making your signature legible on one of th
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You do realize that 8 mHZ computers could display text? All your quadcore 500ghz toaster does on a daily basis is compensate for the millions of layers of abstraction that is called computer programming these days.
Re: (Score:3)
--7-inch resistive touch screen = stylus, not fingers
--Android 2.2 "Froyo"
--800-x-480-pixel resolution
--366mhz cpu
--256mb ram
--2gb internal storage
--microSD
--two USB ports
--3.5mm headphone jack
--2100mAh battery that can last up to 3 hours
--does NOT have access to Android Market
Here's a dozen detailed photos of the device [ndtv.com]
It's not impressive by any means but then again it's not suppose to impress those of us with an iPhone or latest Droid in our pocket, it's designed for the
Re: (Score:3)
It's a similar spec to my Nokia 770 (a bit better, but close), which I got in 2005. The RRP was $359.99. Moore's Law says the price of transistors ought to halve every 18 months, so if the other components follow a similar curve I'd expect to be able to get it for a tenth of the original price five years later. It's now a bit over six years later, but presumably some of the parts were already about as cheap as they can be without a major breakthrough in mass production techniques. Actually, the most imp
Re: (Score:2)
it's designed for the 1+ billion Indians who have never even been on the internet and for first time internet usage I think it'll be fine at that.
1 billion noobs released all at once onto the interwebs... what could possibly go wrong?