Android 4.0 ICS based Aakash 2 tablet launched in India

DataWind in collaboration with the HRD Ministry of India has launched the new low-cost Android tablet called the Aakash 2. This device will come with a special subsidized price for India students and will be up for grabs for the eligible for as low as Rs. 1,132.

The Aakash 2 which just like the original is also manufactured by DataWind is a much well equipped device. It is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, it has a 7-inch capacitive display with a 800×480 pixels resolution and 512MB of RAM.

Apart from this the device will includes 4GB of built-in storage, expandable memory via microSD card, runs Android 4.0 ICS, has a front facing VGA quality camera which supports video calling and has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

Apart from this the device will be equipped with an app from Amrita University which is especially designed for the Aakash 2. This app is called Amrita Virtual Interactive E-Learning World or A-VIEW. It will be available across all Aakash 2 devices.

The commercial version of the Aakash 2 will have the same specifications and it will be known as the DataWind Ubislate 7Ci. It is already available for pre-order with DataWind’s website for Rs. 4,499.

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Must Buy 7-inch tablet- ASUS Nexus 7

It's spending season this fortnight, that time of the year when you're most likely to be splurging your money on a gadget. In this series, our crew of gadget-obsessed boffins pick the best deal in each category, from entry-level dual-SIMs to superphones, tablets, ultraportables and luxury laptops. We've spent plenty of time deliberating on our choices, saving you the trouble of poring through a sea of specs sheets, reviews and benchmarks. Today we're gonna tell you why we think the Nexus 7 is the best tablet you can buy. Feel free to debate your choices and suggest alternatives in the comments below.

ASUS Nexus 7- Overview

It’s been a good year for Google, Android, and all its beneficiaries, thanks in part to devices such as the Nexus 7 from ASUS that has been shipping by the millions. Coming from ASUS, the Nexus 7 is built on a Tegra 3 SoC that has a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz, and 1GB of RAM. The tablet has a 7-inch IPS-grade screen with native resolution of 1280x800 pixels.

The Nexus 7 model that ASUS has released for the Indian market has 16GB of onboard storage. Being a Nexus device, there is no SD slot for storage expansion, instead the user is expected to use online storage services such as Google’s Drive. Getting the Nexus 7 sourced from North America will set you back by little over $200. Alternatively, the 16GB version can be acquired from local markets for Rs.19,981.

Specs

Screen7" 1280x800 HD display (216 ppi)
Back-lit IPS display
Scratch-resistant Corning(R) glass
Camera1.2MP front-facing camera
WirelessWiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
NFC (Android Beam)
Memory16 GB internal storage (actual formatted capacity will be less)
1 GB RAM
Battery4325 mAh (Up to 8 hours of active use)
OSAndroid 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
CPUNVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor

Pros

Hard to find another tablet with matching price/specs ratio

Easy to Service/Repair

Cons

No Rear Camera
Lack of expandable storage slot
Indian prices are nearly double of what you would have to pay in the US

Bottom-line: Getting an Android device backed by Google should ensure best support for future OS updates, even more so now considering the company is going after the brand with renewed vigor. While the tablet may not be a powerhouse, the specs are quite respectable for a device of its size. Like the rest of the Nexus line, the Nexus 7 is selling at a price that almost makes it a no-brainer for anyone in the market for a mobile computer.

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Android Jelly Bean based Galaxy Camera up for pre-order in India

Just in time before Diwali, Samsung has started taking pre-orders for its Galaxy Camera through the official Samsung eStore. The company demands a Rs. 3,000 pre-booking fee and its official pricing is yet to be disclosed in the market.

With the pre-booking you get a voucher of the same amount which one can redeem while making the final purchase. Along with the device Samsung is also offering 16GB microSD card as a free gift with every pre-order.

In the past the device has been priced in Germany as well as in the UK. Based on these prices chances are that the Galaxy Camera will be priced around Rs. 35,000 in India which is as expensive as an entry-level DSLR camera.

This is a well equipped device and also the first digital camera to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The device is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, it has a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, 21x optical zoom lens and a 4.77-inch HD Super Clear LCD display. In terms of the connectivity it supports Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi HT40 and Bluetooth 4.0. It is equipped with a 1,650 mAh battery.

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RIM offers 1 year free BBM service with purchase of Curve 9220 and Curve 9320

Research In Motion (RIM) which is still selling quite a few devices in India has launched a new offer for Diwali. With every purchase of the BlackBerry Curve 9220 or the BlackBerry Curve 9320 the user gets one year of free BBM service.

This offer will be available between November 9 and December 9. Now this seems like a good deal, but if you want that whole year of free BBM service then along with the new Curve device one will have to get a new Airtel or Vodafone connection. One year is a long time and that new number may be worth it after all.

Airtel subscribers have to message ‘BBM” to 543210 to activate the service on their new SIM. Vodafone users will get the service activated automatically within 48 hours of stating either of the devices with the new SIM.

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Must Buy 10-inch Tablet - Apple iPad 4G

It's spending season this fortnight, that time of the year when you're most likely to be splurging your money on a gadget. In this series, our crew of gadget-obsessed boffins pick the best deal in each category, from entry-level dual-SIMs to superphones, tablets, ultraportables and luxury laptops. We've spent plenty of time deliberating on our choices, saving you the trouble of poring through a sea of specs sheets, reviews and benchmarks. Today we're gonna tell you why we think the iPad 4G is the best tablet you can buy. Feel free to debate your choices and suggest alternatives in the comments below.

OverviewLaunched less than a month ago, the new iPad 4G no longer has the highest viewing resolution on a tablet - those bragging rights belong to the Nexus 10. However, the 4’th Generation iPad is the tablet we’d buy, for all the reasons we voted the iPad 2 as the ‘Must Have’ tablet last year, in addition to all the improvements made over two hardware revisions – the onboard cameras are improved, the A6X processor is at the top of the performance charts, with twice the graphics performance over the 3G Retina iPad.

Core specsOS: iOS 6
Display: 9.7" Retina Display 2048x1536 Resolution @264 ppi
Chipset: Dual Core A6x processor, 
GPU:  PowerVR SGX 554
Storage: 16/32/64GB options. 
RAM: 1GB
Camera: 5 MP iSight Camera, 1.3 MP front camera
Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Lightning connector 
Battery:  42.5 Wh, 10 hours, 30 days idle.
Weight: 660g
Size: 9.5 x 7.31 x 0.37 in
Prices: 16GB Wi-Fi @$499/Rs. 30,500

Pros and Cons(+) 5-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording
(+) 2x graphics performance over the iPad 3.
(+) Has a larger ecosystem of apps at present

(-) No ports for expandable storage.
(-) Requires accessories to connect camera, do HDMI mirroring. 
(-) Lack of 4G in India might dampen interest for cellular option.

 
Verdict: Improved graphics performance makes this more than just a minor update over the third generation iPad. Most Apple stores are still sporting the old ‘new iPad’ and we’d stay clear of those, unless you have a bunch of accessories based on the old 30-pin connector and don't care much for gaming.

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'Aakash' maker among Forbes' 15 classroom revolutionaries

The man behind India's low-cost Aakash tablet and an Indian American professor are listed among Forbes 15 "classroom revolutionaries" who are using innovative technologies to reinvent education for students and teachers globally. Suneet Singh Tuli, the CEO of Datawind, the maker of Aakash, and Massachusettes Institute of Technology professor Anant Agarwal figure among the education innovators who are "harnessing a slew of disruptive technologies to change everything from the way we teach grade school math to how we train the next generation of teachers".

Tuli is the "mastermind" behind the world's cheapest tablet computer Aakash, "which has the potential to revolutionise educational access in the developing world", the US business magazine said.

Datawind has a backlog of "millions" of orders for the 35 dollar Aakash tablet. The publication quoted Tuli as saying that "I don't care about creating the iPad killer. I care about the 3 billion people who can afford this device".

Agarwal, 53, a professor of computer science at MIT is also the President of edX, the new combined online offerings of Harvard, MIT, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas. Over 400,000 are currently enrolled in the education programme.

"It is insane. We've created dramatic access to learning for students worldwide," says Agarwal who took the helm in May of teaching to the masses. "By reinventing online learning, we can dramatically improve what we do on campus."

"EdX continues to up the ante by increasing partners, classes (seven to dozens for spring 2013) and innovations, such as virtual laboratories," Forbes added.

Datawind had won the tender in 2010 to supply 100,000 Aakash tablets for a price of around $49 dollars per unit. A new version of the tablet PC, featuring one Ghz processor, four-hour battery time, capacitive screen and Android 4.0 operating system, is expected to be launched in India Sunday.

Among the other education innovators on the list is Salman Khan, the Bangladeshi-American founder of Khan Academy, the revolutionary online education platform.

Khan Academy has grown from one-man working alone in a walk-in-closet 24-months ago into a 38-employee organisation, but Salman Khan's offbeat educational videos remain at the heart of the organization. He has personally recorded more than 3,000 of them and they have been downloaded 180 million times.

"The numbers get really crazy when you look at the impact per dollar. We have a $7 million operating budget, and we are reaching, over the course of a year, about 10 million students in a meaningful way", says the 36 year old MIT and Harvard alumnus. -IANS Photo: REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma

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Next Unit of Computing: Intel's mini-PC ready for December release

Intel has designed a custom form factor motherboard that it is calling Next Unit of Computing (NUC), and these are expected to go on sale early in December through Amazon and Newegg. Intel will bundle the NUC with a 4" x 4" x 2" chassis, and the line will debut with two models that differ in the ports they provide. The first lot will be based around the dual-core Core i3 3217U, Intel QS77 Express chipset, and Intel HD 4000 graphics accelerator.

The motherboard has HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, one half-height and one full-height mini-PCIe slot, and two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots. The DC3217IYE model will have two HDMI ports, and one Gigabit Ethernet port; whereas the DC3217BY has just one HDMI port, and sports a Thunderbolt port in lieu of Gigabit Ethernet. Intel expects these two NUCs to retail for $300 - $320, when they release in December.

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Wikipedia adds HTML5 video player

Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, has launched a new project enabling registered users to post videos, according to the portal's press service.

"A new video player has been enabled on Wikipedia and its sister sites, and it comes with the promise of bringing free educational videos to more people, on more devices, in more languages," Wikimedia Foundation said Friday.

Wikipedia articles have remained largely text-based until now. The video upload project, carried out in cooperation with open-source video start-up Kaltura and the Google search engine, was launched in 2008. But it was delayed due to numerous technical problems.

The new HTML5 player is a result of a combined effort between Wikipedia, Google and Kaltura. Wikipedia, which sees 25 million unique daily visitors to its English section alone, currently hosts only about 15,000 videos. The videos were added either via the older Ogg Theora player that has been in use since 2007 or as part of testing the new player, based on HTML5. -IANS

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