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meh.

metro runs on arm and x86. ..in a different os, that they'll also just happen to call windows 8.

windows has been "running on arm" for a decade. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-tft-lcd-windows-ce-6-0-arm-cpu-wifi-umpc-netbook-266mhz-2gb-flash-disk-usb-host-sd-slot-lan-39391 80 bucks. windowed windows, on arm.

7', Android 2.3, $139: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8902-7-capacitive-lcd-android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wi-fi-agps-camera-hdmi-4gb-telechips-8902-73431
10', Android 2.2, $128: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ramos-w10-7-0-touch-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-hdmi-otg-tf-arm-cortex-a9-4gb-66981
8', Android 2.2, $113: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70054
8', Android 2.2, $106: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-resistive-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-tf-slot-800mhz-2gb-100188

If you're buying ten thousand, I'm sure DealExtreme can give you a better deal.

7', Android 2.3, $139: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8902-7-capacitive-lcd-android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wi-fi-agps-camera-hdmi-4gb-telechips-8902-73431
10', Android 2.2, $128: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ramos-w10-7-0-touch-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-hdmi-otg-tf-arm-cortex-a9-4gb-66981
8', Android 2.2, $113: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70054
8', Android 2.2, $106: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-resistive-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-tf-slot-800mhz-2gb-100188

If you're buying ten thousand, I'm sure DealExtreme can give you a better deal.

7', Android 2.3, $139: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8902-7-capacitive-lcd-android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wi-fi-agps-camera-hdmi-4gb-telechips-8902-73431
10', Android 2.2, $128: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ramos-w10-7-0-touch-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-hdmi-otg-tf-arm-cortex-a9-4gb-66981
8', Android 2.2, $113: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70054
8', Android 2.2, $106: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-resistive-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-tf-slot-800mhz-2gb-100188

If you're buying ten thousand, I'm sure DealExtreme can give you a better deal.

7', Android 2.3, $139: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8902-7-capacitive-lcd-android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wi-fi-agps-camera-hdmi-4gb-telechips-8902-73431
10', Android 2.2, $128: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ramos-w10-7-0-touch-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-hdmi-otg-tf-arm-cortex-a9-4gb-66981
8', Android 2.2, $113: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70054
8', Android 2.2, $106: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8-resistive-screen-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-tf-slot-800mhz-2gb-100188

If you're buying ten thousand, I'm sure DealExtreme can give you a better deal.

My (non-government) employer used to track my cell phone, using VZW's Field Force Manager system. It wasn't a completely unreasonable request since I was doing field work for them, and I was just as able to use it to show that I was working when/where I said I was as they were to do the opposite.

It worked, but it was a pain in the ass. The battery in the phone would go from a full charge to nothing in less than an hour in areas of poor or zero signal, and it was impossible to actually turn the software off (it would magically turn itself back on again), so it was going 24/7 and I found myself completely frustrated by having to keep the thing both available to me and tied to a charger at all times. And this with an old dumb Motorola handset with an extended battery, which prior to the tracking software would work for a week or two (!) without charging.

It's not so much that I don't trust my boss (I do, very much), but that the process of asking myself if I should trust my boss which bothered me, along with always being mindful to keep the stupid thing plugged in. Between questioning my circle of trust and always looking for a place to charge up, I really became very angry about the whole thing.

Eventually, I changed the configuration (on the cloud side of things) to turn off at around 5:30PM, which helped a hugely with my sanity, and kept my battery usage low during most non-work hours. (I never asked anyone before making this adjustment to the system (oh, durnit - must've forgot) and nobody ever changed it back...)

But even then, I was bothered by an overzealous manager who would keep track of me even while I was at lunch and who would question every activity. So I bought a little Faraday cage from dealextreme, and started using that at lunch, or if I had time off during the week.

And that restored a little bit more of my sanity.

Eventually, after the release of the Motorola Droid, I convinced the boss that I should have a fancier phone. Unfortunately, at that time the Droid did not support Field Force Manager (it might by now), so the notion of automatic tracking just sort of disappeared and I haven't been tracked by my employer since.

My sanity was almost fully restored: Almost, because I also lost the ability to show that I actually was where I said I'd been.

Later on, I quit that hourly job and started doing contract work for the same folks. Now, nobody gives a fuck where I'm at or what I'm doing, as long as the work gets done and the customer is happy. I am thus currently running at 100% sanity, and everyone else is happy too. (I still have my own office area at the shop, but nobody has expected me to fill it ever since, and I haven't actually seen it in months.)

The moral of this story is simple: If your boss is tracking you and you don't like it for whatever reason, offer to quit and become a contractor. :)

The summary wasn't quite accurate. $3000 to $8000 a pair is supposed to be the traditional price.

This story is actually a product marketing newsletter for the company that sells Audicus hearing aids http://www.audicus.com/category/hearing-aids/ which start from $400 a pair.

http://www.mdhearingaid.com/acoustitone_max/ starts at $200 per pair.

The cheapest was http://www.dealextreme.com/p/axon-hearing-aid-v163-4326 Axon Hearing Aid (V163) for about $27 a pair, but they don't seem to adjust to the frequency of the patient's loss.

Nice guy, he only makes 1500% profit reselling those
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/axon-hearing-aid-v163-4326

with free shipping
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/axon-hearing-aid-v163-4326

Yeah, I was about to post the same thing.

http://s.dealextreme.com/search/hearing+aid

That's about what I'd expect it to cost, given the price of electronics these days.

The only downside to dealextreme is that it's a pretty slow delivery, allow a few weeks.

(replying to myself)

The parent post was meant to be a joke, but after posting I decided to check if there is any truth to it. It turns dx does have many different devices, and some people compare the 10$ hearing aids to 1k$+ branded ones, and even find them very good.

Just check these reviews: http://www.dealextreme.com/feedbacks/BrowseReviews.dx/sku.23194

(Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with DX or any other chinese site in any way)

I did something similar for my blind dog, which it used for a year before it died earlier this year. I a circuit like this one as starting point: http://www.kerrywong.com/2011/01/22/a-sensitive-diy-ultrasonic-range-sensor, and a cheap vibration motor like this one: https://www.dealextreme.com/p/repair-parts-vibration-motor-for-iphone-4-73348, but you can use a parallax PING module or something similar.

Basically, a controller (I used an atmega chip with an arduino bootloader) that sends pings and moves the motors stronger as the obstacle is closer. Mounted it on the head of the dog, and had the two vibration motors on two sides of the chest. The dog had it figured out in less than a day.

The only "hard" part is that if you go DIY all the way, you'll need an oscilloscope to build the ultrasonic sensor thing, otherwise it is rather simple.

Or buy one of these: https://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-male-to-female-data-charging-cable-20cm-length-47088

Thanks, glad I could help. I'm 24, so I can't really say I've experienced what you have yet; that said, I have gone back to games I played as a teenager and noticed I'm not quite as sharp as I was back then. Someday I'm going to be playing these games with my kids and get my ass handed to me in a neat little package. At which point I'll launch into rant about how much better games were in my day, before we had these holo-projectors and full-body control suits that are just used these days to cover up the uninspired cookie-cutter designs of games like Call of Duty: Blood from a Turnip and they were fun because the graphics sucked and it was about gameplay, dammit!

Anyways, I can give you some advice on that PSP as well. Sadly, there's no perfect all-in-one resource for PSP homebrew like there is the Wii; the closest I've found so far is PSP Hacks, especially the forums. If you want to explore your homebrew options, you'll want to install a custom firmware (CFW) on it; which one to use depends on your PSP model and preferences. I personally have a PSP-Go and run 6.39 PRO-B8 on it. Some CFWs install permanently and other require a program to be run every time you start the PSP, which if you use sleep mode instead of turning it off isn't nearly as annoying as it sounds. The homebrew available for it is impressive, though not as good as the Wii; you can get emulators for almost every system up through the N64 - though SNES emulation is a little slow, and N64 is far more so, assuming you can get your game to run at all. Surprisingly, even though SNES emulation isn't perfect GBA emulation is much further along, if you like that platform. And if you have any interest at all in the PSX, the PSP has a near-perfect emulator built in; you can use PSX2PSP to convert disc images into PSP format. It doesn't support dual-shock though, and images with audio tracks are a bit tricky - they don't work at all in 6.xx firmwares.

As for the memory stick, don't bother with them - get a MicroSD-to-Memory-stick adapter instead, like this one. Or if you have a PSP-Go, you have 16GB of flash memory built in. For your media, use PSPVC to convert videos to something that will play on the PSP. If you want to listen to music, it should handle standard MP3s just fine.

Hey, Hairyfeet, speaking of old gaming...

You know of any solutions to play games from that screwfest DX 5-7 period? I've been trying to get TIE Fighter 95 and XvT going, Win98 is too old for VirtualBox and AFAIK, DosBox is for DOS-age games. Two of my favorite games of all time are stuck in the middle.

BTW, from our conversation last month (on the topic of old games) : My Dingoo A320 finally showed up. The stock NES and GBA emulators would be pretty nice, but they seem to have some unreliability in dealing with SRAM. With Dingux installed, Gen/MD with picoDrive works nice, but Snes9x performance is still pretty limp (Tested with Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, and FF III), as usual. Haven't messed with overclocking it. No network support. Movie player seems surprisingly capable wrt formats, but only provides basic controls (no seeking, e.g.). HTH.

They're not hard to find. Cheap, too.

What it is worth is subjective.
I bought a $150 watch at a clearance store for $17
I bought a $3000 Rolex at an auction for $350
I have also bought a couple of $8 Chinese crap because I thought they looked cool.
One of my favourites is a $10 Chinese LED watch. I think it looks really cool.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/stylish-8-led-blue-light-digit-stainless-steel-bracelet-wrist-watch-black-1-cr2016-47822

It's not worth a hundred bucks considering what you can get under a hundred bucks these days, e.g. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70053 or perhaps http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-0-tft-lcd-android-2-2-via-8650-cpu-wifi-umpc-netbook-white-349-79mhz-2gb-3-usb-sd-lan-70761.

It's not worth a hundred bucks considering what you can get under a hundred bucks these days, e.g. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-2-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-tf-arm-v5-349-79mhz-70053 or perhaps http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-0-tft-lcd-android-2-2-via-8650-cpu-wifi-umpc-netbook-white-349-79mhz-2gb-3-usb-sd-lan-70761.

What's killing your Wi-Fi? Or rather, who? *maniacal laughter*

Mini Portable Signal Jammer (Wi-Fi/GPS)

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-tft-lcd-windows-ce-6-0-via8650-cpu-wifi-umpc-netbook-red-349-79mhz-2gb-3xusb-sd-lan-70901

an arm computer running windows(ce) for under a hundred. so it's nothing new, actually. it's just that now they haven't been pushing this much in the pr so..

Remember, you can add more APs for wifi, but not for phones.

Proven false by example.

You mean something like this one?
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/m001-7-touch-screen-tft-lcd-google-android-1-6-tablet-pc-w-wifi-via-mw8505-300mhz-39169
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-tft-lcd-google-android-1-6-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-via-wm8505-arm926-42070
Google or see youtube for "Eken m001".

You mean something like this one?
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/m001-7-touch-screen-tft-lcd-google-android-1-6-tablet-pc-w-wifi-via-mw8505-300mhz-39169
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-tft-lcd-google-android-1-6-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-via-wm8505-arm926-42070
Google or see youtube for "Eken m001".

Deal Extreme has a few.
High Power GPS Blocker with AC Adapter and Car Charger $26
Mini GPS Blocker (with AC and Car Charger) - $105
Super Mini Cigarette Lighter GPS Blocker - $80

Or check out their full line of GPS and Cellphone blocking products.

Deal Extreme has a few.
High Power GPS Blocker with AC Adapter and Car Charger $26
Mini GPS Blocker (with AC and Car Charger) - $105
Super Mini Cigarette Lighter GPS Blocker - $80

Or check out their full line of GPS and Cellphone blocking products.

Deal Extreme has a few.
High Power GPS Blocker with AC Adapter and Car Charger $26
Mini GPS Blocker (with AC and Car Charger) - $105
Super Mini Cigarette Lighter GPS Blocker - $80

Or check out their full line of GPS and Cellphone blocking products.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/amaze-usb-modchip-ps3-break-dongle-for-ps3-driver-3-0-48225

Just install a cell phone blocker. Problem solved. I'm sure the prison system can arrange an FCC exemption to use this. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/cell-phone-signal-blocker-40m-range-mountable-7709

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.42015

if you really want, here's an 88 bucks arm laptop(the windows ce on it might be pirated, tho), sure it's not super fast but olpc never was supposed to be. what sucks about olpc, is that they haven't been very good at lowering costs, instead spending time on subsidised plans and mesh research while the 'real' industry has been driving costs down like crazy(and really, moving a linux desktop to arm isn't such a bid deal that you should be hyping up your world class engineers).

and taking credit for the netbook market? they must be hiiiiiiigh.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.42015

if you really want, here's an 88 bucks arm laptop(the windows ce on it might be pirated, tho), sure it's not super fast but olpc never was supposed to be. what sucks about olpc, is that they haven't been very good at lowering costs, instead spending time on subsidised plans and mesh research while the 'real' industry has been driving costs down like crazy(and really, moving a linux desktop to arm isn't such a bid deal that you should be hyping up your world class engineers).

and taking credit for the netbook market? they must be hiiiiiiigh.

I haven't checked the prices, but DealExtreme http://dealextreme.com/ has some insane prices.
Every price you see on the site there is in USD and INCLUDES international shipping anywhere in the world.
I think the only way they can do it is by being subsidised by the Chinese Government.

I've quite literally bought items off that site for a couple of dollars and had them turn up in my post box 7-10 days later. I'm amazed, so much so that when I've had issues with the products (and at those prices you can't honestly expect it to be 100%) that it would cost me more to return it than it would to purchase another one. They seem to realise this though and it's only in extreme cases that you need to return defective or incorrect items...

And, I've bought HDMI cables from there before - digital cables are digital cables (for sensible lengths anyway) and my PS3 is working perfectly in 1080p to my LCD TV and has been for a couple of years now.

There are sites out there which are cheap and have free postage. A good example is DealExtreme - $7.20 for a HDMI cable with free postage. That isn't the cheapest on the site, they go from $4.52!

I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.

I use a P20B jammer, which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.

* May not be legal in your jurisdiction.

I have to say, your pretty rude.

I own a mp3 player. I use it to drown out conversations, peeps on cell phones, teenagers who think that the whole bus cares about the convo they are having with the kid sitting next to them, so on. I don't step on anyone's rights listening to my mp3 player, I don't keep people from making or receiving calls.

While I understand the usefulness of a cell phone jammer, I can't see using it because you find peeps on cell phone's annoying. Grow a backbone, learn to ignore, or get a mp3 player.

Ya, i'll get off your lawn, you probably about to let an emp loose anyways.

I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.

I use a P20B jammer, which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.

* May not be legal in your jurisdiction.

That gets annoying really fast. TVs only have so many inputs available for use. And adding single use players is kind of a pain.

So: Just Add more inputs.

That gets annoying really fast. TVs only have so many inputs available for use. And adding single use players is kind of a pain.

So: Just Add more inputs.

That gets annoying really fast. TVs only have so many inputs available for use. And adding single use players is kind of a pain.

So: Just Add more inputs.

If I wanted affordable phones but would be willing to shell out that amount of cash, I would buy something from DealExtreme's cellphone category: Sure, their <40 dollars costing phones are probably a lot less durable than that one... But you could buy two or three of those for the price of this and each of those phones would have better features. For example, you could buy this, this AND this and still be below 120 dollars (shipping included). Even if one doesn't work and the other one breaks quickly, you still end up having paid about the same amount and with a lot more advanced phone. If they all work, great. Give others away or have a backup in case that you lose or break your phones.

I would never pay that much cash for a phone that doesn't even let you see who is calling (there is no display). I understand that it isn't in mass production so I could pay some $40 dollars for it mostly to support the concept but the current amount... It wasn't long ago that we aimed for fully functional and durable laptops that would cost that amount. Granted, the OLPC ended up costing about twice that but stilll... I understand that not all people want to pay for GPS, etc. if they don't use them but there is keeping it simple and then there is "stripping away all the features and still keeping the price high"...

If I wanted affordable phones but would be willing to shell out that amount of cash, I would buy something from DealExtreme's cellphone category: Sure, their <40 dollars costing phones are probably a lot less durable than that one... But you could buy two or three of those for the price of this and each of those phones would have better features. For example, you could buy this, this AND this and still be below 120 dollars (shipping included). Even if one doesn't work and the other one breaks quickly, you still end up having paid about the same amount and with a lot more advanced phone. If they all work, great. Give others away or have a backup in case that you lose or break your phones.

I would never pay that much cash for a phone that doesn't even let you see who is calling (there is no display). I understand that it isn't in mass production so I could pay some $40 dollars for it mostly to support the concept but the current amount... It wasn't long ago that we aimed for fully functional and durable laptops that would cost that amount. Granted, the OLPC ended up costing about twice that but stilll... I understand that not all people want to pay for GPS, etc. if they don't use them but there is keeping it simple and then there is "stripping away all the features and still keeping the price high"...

If I wanted affordable phones but would be willing to shell out that amount of cash, I would buy something from DealExtreme's cellphone category: Sure, their <40 dollars costing phones are probably a lot less durable than that one... But you could buy two or three of those for the price of this and each of those phones would have better features. For example, you could buy this, this AND this and still be below 120 dollars (shipping included). Even if one doesn't work and the other one breaks quickly, you still end up having paid about the same amount and with a lot more advanced phone. If they all work, great. Give others away or have a backup in case that you lose or break your phones.

I would never pay that much cash for a phone that doesn't even let you see who is calling (there is no display). I understand that it isn't in mass production so I could pay some $40 dollars for it mostly to support the concept but the current amount... It wasn't long ago that we aimed for fully functional and durable laptops that would cost that amount. Granted, the OLPC ended up costing about twice that but stilll... I understand that not all people want to pay for GPS, etc. if they don't use them but there is keeping it simple and then there is "stripping away all the features and still keeping the price high"...

Tri-wing? Really? That's not so hard.

Just buy them straight from China. Free shipping, too.

(No, they ain't Wiha, Xcelite, or King Dick. They may not be ideal tools to use every day, year after year. But they'll do just fine for occasional jobs.)

My first thought was about the impractically of leaving the male end sticking out as well. Not all laptops orient their USB ports the same way nor put them in the same place. Just imagine someone trying to use this with a vertically oriented port on the front of the laptop... Plus the fact it sticks out makes it highly vulnerable to physical damage, and it'll probably rust eventually. How hard would it have been to just use a coupler on the drive first?

Here is an incredibly slow Android 2.1 tablet from DX for $157.90. That's kind of tempting, if I had disposable money right now I might dispose of some in that direction. They have another, faster unit but it seems so sketchy I won't even link it.

I wouldn't trust Cherrypal either, but if I were to get a shitty Android 1.6 tablet I would buy it from DealExtreme (warning: referral links, you know what to do if you don't like it) where you can pick one up under a bill shipped, say this little POS for $95.50. Note that in spite of my self-serving promotion of DealExtreme I did not and would not buy any of these little "gems" because none of them can handle Android 2.1... They have one listed but it's "sold out" with no reviews, suspicious. I'm not willing to send them more than a few bucks at a time in any case :)

I wouldn't trust Cherrypal either, but if I were to get a shitty Android 1.6 tablet I would buy it from DealExtreme (warning: referral links, you know what to do if you don't like it) where you can pick one up under a bill shipped, say this little POS for $95.50. Note that in spite of my self-serving promotion of DealExtreme I did not and would not buy any of these little "gems" because none of them can handle Android 2.1... They have one listed but it's "sold out" with no reviews, suspicious. I'm not willing to send them more than a few bucks at a time in any case :)

The iPad uses the same pin outs and has serial port support as well.

Cool hack for an iPhone, but you could do the same thing with an iPad to USB adapter and a USB=>RS232 adapter in a smaller form factor.

Two thumbs up for the hack though. I'm going to have to get a few of those breakout boards, my Sansa e200 has the same connector, just different pin outs.

The technology is pretty mundane. Here, you can buy one for $100 --

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25332

(I imagine the FBI's version would be fancier, might include some velcro, a 12v power input (or a much bigger battery) and maybe an external antenna, but the gist is the same.)

Usually the FBI hides things like this pretty well. I wonder if he had a reason to go looking for it?

I wonder how hard it would be to make a device that blocks or otherwise interferes with all cellphones in a small (say, one-two meter) area?

It would appear that it's not very hard at all:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4355
It's my understanding that something like this would be illegal to use in the US, though. Even prisons here in MD had to request an exception from the FCC to test local jamming of cell phones. Mississippi prisons are installing pico cells or similar to control what goes in and out without actually jamming.

I'd say netbooks aren't and weren't overblown, they filled and still fill a niche in the market that regular laptops don't and tablets can't.

Yup. For the service guys at my work netbooks have been a blessing. They can take them to the field easily to attach to in field equipment. They are light and rugged enough for field work and are so cost effective that it becomes possible to carry a backup unit that gets left in the truck or hotel in case of failure. For the stuff they do a laptop is overkill (in both processing power and size + weight) and for the cost of a decently rugged laptop you can buy a bunch of netbooks.

I almost bought my wife a netbook for her blog surfing (to replace the aging bulky laptop she currently uses), but I'm glad I waited as an Android based tablet fits her usage even better (and costs less). I'm holding on a bit before jumping as I haven't seen enough reviews yet, but something like this $168 china sourced Android 2.1 tablet would probably suit her perfectly. I'm waiting on seeing some reviews before I pull the trigger on that particular one. At that cheap it's I can justify some risk.. but I'd like to read at least one review to mitigate the risk of it being complete junk.

I'm excited about the proliferation of low cost tablets. There are a lot of usage scenarios that they suit better than any other form factor (just as there are niche uses for netbooks). Let's face it, most people don't need the power of a full blown desktop or laptop. As a software developer that likes playing with media (RAW photos, movies etc) I DO need the horsepower, but for people like my wife or situations like my coworkers that just need to run configuration applications a netbook or tablet fits the bill perfectly.