[ -- ] Much awaited cheap tablet is ready now. Grab it ;)

[akhileshbc]

http://www.aakashtablet.com/

Akash Tablet - Rs. 2500
http://www.aakashtablet.com/order-now.html

UbiSlate 7 (The upgraded version of Aakash) - Rs. 2999
http://www.ubislate.com/prebook.html

I have prebooked UbiSlate 7.

[baja_yu]

Are they both with a resistive touch screen?

[akhileshbc]

Are they both with a resistive touch screen?

Not sure about that. Didn't saw anything specified like that in their site.

[baja_yu]

Ubislate.com mentions that it's resistive not capacitive. I haven't seen anything on Akash. It's hard to argue with a $50 price tag in any case. Are they available to anyone or just students?

[akhileshbc]

Ubislate.com mentions that it's resistive not capacitive. I haven't seen anything on Akash. It's hard to argue with a $50 price tag in any case. Are they available to anyone or just students?

A couple of months ago, they said, they will be distributing this through educational institutions like colleges, etc. But yesterday at Yahoo India News, I have seen that they started distributing to all(I believe). Because, their site says, we should enter the info and it will be delivered to our home within a week. And it's a COD(Cash On Delivery) item. But actually Akash was aimed at students. Then how are they going to verify that this is going to reach to a students hand ?

[akhileshbc]

Some articles:
http://www.thinkdigit.com/Tablets/Sk...sh-2_8219.html
http://www.themobileindian.com/news/...-tablet-starts

[BlindSniper]

Is Rs. Indian Rupees ?

[akhileshbc]

Is Rs. Indian Rupees ?

Yes.

[dilettante]

These look a lot like the crappy Android tablets you see all over the place for around $70 to $90 on sale in the U.S. I suppose their main advantage is that (a.) support for a frozen Android build might continue since this is government sponsored and subsidized and (b.) GPRS support suggests they can also be used as phones (?) on the government subsidized cellphone network (that good old Diesel Subsidy if nothing else).

But... Android devices are pretty crappy generally. Much like iPhone, etc.

More or less fixed-function content consumption devices, and nothing like a tablet form-factor PC running Windows. That doesn't mean they're a bad fit for the intended market of passive consumers. I have no idea why it makes sense to put another layer of subsidy on them for students though. Not much here that's very "educational."

Do students in India get subsidized TV or MP3 player pricing too? I wouldn't be surprised at all if they (the Evil Axis of government and big-money interests) tried that here in the U.S., I'm not knocking India. They already do that with Macs, PCs, etc. here.

[dilettante]

Here's (sort of) a micro-review of one of the crappy brands we have over here:

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/...cifically.html

Note that it has twice the storage of the UbiSlate (4GB instead of 2) and there's almost no room left.

[abhijit]

2 GB flash doesn't sound like a lot, once you start to load up the tablet with apps.

[akhileshbc]

Aakash tablet's delivery pushed to next year : http://in.news.yahoo.com/aakash-tabl...next-year.html

[honeybee]

...
I have prebooked UbiSlate 7.

Aakash tablet's delivery pushed to next year ...

I had half a mind to prebook one, but then I assume a lot of people must have already booked it, since it also allows Cash on Delivery, and as a result the waiting time will be phenomenally high. Instead of getting a vastly outdated tablet six months later, I think it might make sense to wait and invest in something more modern.

.

[abhijit]

[akhileshbc]

DataWind draws government ire over faulty Aakash tablets

[dilettante]

The government is now planning to dump the faulty tablets to rural villages.

Oh, nice. As if government cheese isn't bad enough.