Datawind Not Blowing Smoke: $38 Tablet Coming To the US 210
BigVig209 writes "In a follow-up to a story we discussed in May, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that London-based Datawind it will begin selling its $38 UbiSlate tablet computer in the U.S. early next year. 'The $38 7-inch touchscreen UbiSlate 7Ci tablet runs on Google's Android 4.0 and features a 1-gigahertz, single-core processor. It has 4 gigabytes of storage with microSD card slots for additional storage. The 7-inch display offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels.' The specs aren't the greatest, fastest, or most powerful, but, for under $50, they're still pretty decent."
Re:classroom tools (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you priced E-Text books lately? Maybe it's because I'm looking at college level stuff, but they get a LOT of money just to let you use their book for 6 months and a whole lot more to get the book forever. I just don't see that happening until the publishers back off the rental prices.
Garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
I've purchased two barrel-bottom-scraping androids so far (not this model), with the expectation that that should be able to satisfy very basic needs like ebook reading.
I was wrong.
These 'landfill android' devices garbage in every possible way. Battery life is so poor that you can't even even expect it to last a day on stand by. Yet performance is so poor that you have to wait a good several minutes just for the damn thing to boot up, so forget about quickly pulling it out while on the bus to read a few pages.
And the wifi is so bad that it can't pick up a signal unless you have a router in the very same room, and even then you somehow don't get full bars.
The only use I can see for this class of devices, is in BDSM scenarios:
Master - Check my email, slave!
Slave - Yes Master, thank you master! Oh, I can't connect to the server!
Master - Are you telling me that you're failing me, you miserable wretch?
Slave - Nuh Matha! Ih I puf mah tong oh he corneh, wifi worgs!
Master - Good slave! Now play Words With Friends!
Slave - *whimper*
Re:Paper (Score:2, Insightful)
It seems we're getting closer to replacing paper once and for all.
So, someone has invented a cheap digital data storage method that will last thousands of years?
There's a reason tombstones are still big-ass etched stones, and not digital displays, you know.
Re:NOW we're talking "ubiquitous" and "paperless" (Score:4, Insightful)
Picture them all with a device made by someone else.
Not garbage in EVERY way... (Score:5, Insightful)
Devices like these, and the equivalent devices in the phone arena, help keep Android "market share" figures nice and plump!
Re:classroom tools (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm hoping to see a trend where professors or graduate students write new textbooks and just contribute them to the public domain. Inexpensive tablets plus free textbooks means inexpensive education.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4123035&cid=44658533 [slashdot.org]
It's still early days with ebooks, really. The publishers want to keep the prices high, but the barriers to entry into the market are low. Free textbooks will disrupt the pricing model.
Re:classroom tools (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, because of course people will do hundreds of hours of work for free. Personally, I'm looking forward to the trend where random people send me enough money that I can retire.
Re:classroom tools (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because of course people will do hundreds of hours of work for free.
They will, as it turns out. You'll find countless examples on the internet. Not everyone is as selfish as you.
More storage than an iPad (Score:5, Insightful)