Details Emerge About Spark Linux-Based Tablet

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday February 5, 2012 @10:27PM from the check-it-out dept.

MojoKid writes "There's a new tablet in town called the Spark. The Linux-driven tablet, based on the Zenithink C71 and KDE was unveiled by developer Aaron Seigo recently. The tablet will be available for pre-order this week and will start shipping worldwide in May. In terms of specifications, the 7-inch (800x480) multi-touch slate will run a 1GHz AMLogic ARM processor and Mali-400 GPU, sport 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage (with a microSD slot for expandability), 802/11b/g WiFi, a pair of USB ports, a front-facing 1.3MP webcam, and an audio jack. The UI of choice is Plasma Active and there will apparently be a content store where developers can peddle their wares and users can snag software."

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Re:Rise of Linux by loufoque · 2012-02-05 22:53 · Score: 5, Informative

Try the Linux phones Nokia made before being bought by Microsoft.
Re:Rise of Linux by MrHanky · 2012-02-06 00:23 · Score: 5, Informative

Untrue. Nokia still develops Qt for use with future phones, both Symbian (which is being phased out in a few years) and cheaper 'feature phones' targetting what Nokia calls 'the next billion' internet users. Nokia has stated the Swipe UI of the N9 is going to live on, and obviously not in Windows phones.
Re:Preorder... by MtHuurne · 2012-02-06 02:30 · Score: 5, Informative
There is always some risk in preorders, but I think this one is relatively safe:
- Aaron Seigo is a long time high profile KDE developer and he was president of their foundation for two years.
- The hardware already exists: they're re-using an Android tablet.
- The software already exists: you can already download images of Mer with Plasma Active. It's a work in progress, but it's not vapourware.