Cheapest Tablet Aakash 2's first lot not for students: Government

 
The recently developed Aakash-2 tablet is for the purpose of testing and empowerment of teachers and there is no proposal to provide these to students from poor and rural backgrounds, the government told Lok Sabha today.

In a written reply, Union Human Resource Development Minister, MM Pallam Raju said, "Presently there is no proposal in this regard... In the first phase one lakh tablets are for the purpose of testing and teacher empowerment. They would not be distributed to students in the first phase."

He was asked whether the government is planning to provide Aakash 2 tablets free of cost to students, particularly to the rural and poor students belonging to the weaker sections of the society.

The advanced version of low cost access device Aakash 2 tablet was launched by President Pranab Mujherjee on occasion of National Education Day on November 11, this year, Raju said.

"The salient features of Aakash-2 tablet includes seven inch multi-touch capacitive projective display with at least 800x480 resolution. It runs on Android 4.0 (ice-cream sandwich) operating system, powered by 1GHz processor and HD video playback support," the minister said.

The device has Wi-Fi support for internet connectivity with four GB internal memory storage and a microSD card slot that can support cards having capacities up to 32GB.

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Asus Padphone – A Tablet with a Kangaroo Pouch

With the launch of iPad, Apple introduced a new category of computing devices that were light and portable like mobile phones but more powerful than most netbook style computers.
Taiwanese computer maker Asus is taking a step further by marrying these two different devices into one. They have introduced Padphone, an hybrid device that looks like any other touch tablet but with a kangaroo pouch for carrying a smartphone. In other words, the tablet body itself acts as a case for the phone.
Why would anyone want an Asus Padphone? Well there are a few innovations listed in the specs that really impress.
One, you can have a single SIM card and share the data connection with both the phone and the tablet. The tablet can be used as a standalone charger for the mobile phone. The Padphone runs on Google Android and you don’t ever have to worry about transferring your files and other from the phone to the tablet or vice-versa.

The ASUS Padfone is a device that explores one possible convergence between two popular mobile devices - the smartphone and tablet. The Padfone solves the problem of data transfer hassles and multiple SIM cards when both a smartphone and 3G tablet are used.
With the Padfone, the smartphone docks inside the tablet to give users an expanded view to suit their tasks. With the phone docked, it can recharge from the tablet's larger battery and the tablet can also make use of the smartphone's 3G internet connection. The dual interfaces for both the pad and phone ensure an enhanced user experience as the layout is automatically adjusted for all activities such as video conferencing, web browsing and emailing.

There’s no word on pricing or availability yet but it will interesting to see how it shapes up in the coming months. Watch the following videos to get some more idea of Asus Padphone.

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