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I just did something I've been wanting to do since I first heard of them: I ordered a Datawind UbiSlate 7Ci tablet. Why is this even worth mentioning? Datawind is a Canadian-British company that does it's manufacturing in Hyderabad, India. Rather than just being another company exploiting cheap labour in another country, this company exists to service the Indian market (and is expanding into Africa, etc.) and had developed the Aakash Tablet as part of a Government of India initiative to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program. The initial Aakash tablet had a target price of $35US, ran Android 2.2 on an ARM11 CPU, had a 7" resistive touch screen display, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of Flash on an expandable SD Card, and was capable of displaying HD video. The latest version, the Aakash 2 is the UbiSlate 7Ci tablet. It also has a 7" display (800x480 pixels) but it uses a capacitive touch screen, runs Android 4.0.3 on a 1GHz Cortex A8 ARM CPU, has 512MB of RAM, 4GB of Flash expandable to 32GB (SD Card again), a VGA resolution front facing camera (basically a webcam), has an accelerometer and WiFi capability (which can be used for VoIP calls), and can also do HD video and run pretty much any Android application. They also have two higher end versions. The UbiSlate 7C+ is a 7Ci that also can communicate via the EDGE Network (I didn't know what this was until I looked it up just now... it's basically a pre-3G GSM-based cell phone based data network that has lower data rates, but consumes less power) so it can have data communications outside of WiFi zones (you need a SIM card from a cell service provider). And they have the UbiSlate 3G7 which can communicate via 3G networks, has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM CPU, the 7" display is 1024x600 pixels, and it has both a front VGA resolution camera and a rear megapixel resolution camera. Their secret? They manufacture their own display and that's how they get the price so low.
Again, what's so special about it? Well, they have decided to offer this same tablet for sale in Canada and other "Western" nations as a low-end/low-cost tablet for people who cannot afford more expensive options. How low cost? The UbiSlate 7Ci, which I just ordered a few minutes ago, costs $37.99 Canadian!!! With tax and shipping the final price is closer to $55 anywhere in Canada (in Ontario, the shipping and handling was $9.99, the rest is taxes), but that's still an amazing bargain and I'm sure that if a group were to get together and order in bulk (for instance a group providing tablets to children in lower income communities), that the price could be brought a lot closer to $45 I think. The UbiSlate 7C+ (with EDGE connectivity) is $79.99 and the UbiSlate 3G7 (full 3G networking and calling capability) is only $129.99. They also have a MicroUSB keyboard and leather case for an additional $14.99 for any of their tablets (which I also ordered). After my 7Ci arrives, I will play with it for a while and report back here with how it performs. In the meantime, here are the websites for Canada and the US:
Datawind Canada Aakash Tablets
Datawind US Aakash Tablets
The US tablets are the same price as the Canadian ones (in 1:1 US dollars), but you can also get the 7C+ and 3G7 with 1 year of free mobile Internet access there (now ain't that nice).
And as I've been posting videos with my various posts... here is Skrillex and Damian Marley (yes, the son of Bob Marley)... whut??? Yup. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, and it's an awesome song (even more surprising), and a very political and, dare I say, awesome video on top of it all!
Again, what's so special about it? Well, they have decided to offer this same tablet for sale in Canada and other "Western" nations as a low-end/low-cost tablet for people who cannot afford more expensive options. How low cost? The UbiSlate 7Ci, which I just ordered a few minutes ago, costs $37.99 Canadian!!! With tax and shipping the final price is closer to $55 anywhere in Canada (in Ontario, the shipping and handling was $9.99, the rest is taxes), but that's still an amazing bargain and I'm sure that if a group were to get together and order in bulk (for instance a group providing tablets to children in lower income communities), that the price could be brought a lot closer to $45 I think. The UbiSlate 7C+ (with EDGE connectivity) is $79.99 and the UbiSlate 3G7 (full 3G networking and calling capability) is only $129.99. They also have a MicroUSB keyboard and leather case for an additional $14.99 for any of their tablets (which I also ordered). After my 7Ci arrives, I will play with it for a while and report back here with how it performs. In the meantime, here are the websites for Canada and the US:
Datawind Canada Aakash Tablets
Datawind US Aakash Tablets
The US tablets are the same price as the Canadian ones (in 1:1 US dollars), but you can also get the 7C+ and 3G7 with 1 year of free mobile Internet access there (now ain't that nice).
And as I've been posting videos with my various posts... here is Skrillex and Damian Marley (yes, the son of Bob Marley)... whut??? Yup. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, and it's an awesome song (even more surprising), and a very political and, dare I say, awesome video on top of it all!
