Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Datawind Not Blowing Smoke: $38 Tablet Coming To the US

Posted by Soulskill on from the should-rename-it-to-weatherpad-and-market-to-old-dudes dept.

BigVig209 writes "In a follow-up to a story we discussed in May, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that London-based Datawind it will begin selling its $38 UbiSlate tablet computer in the U.S. early next year. 'The $38 7-inch touchscreen UbiSlate 7Ci tablet runs on Google's Android 4.0 and features a 1-gigahertz, single-core processor. It has 4 gigabytes of storage with microSD card slots for additional storage. The 7-inch display offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels.' The specs aren't the greatest, fastest, or most powerful, but, for under $50, they're still pretty decent."

15 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. classroom tools by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With those being cheaper than most textbooks, I think we can see more e-textbooks being popular in the future.

    1. Re:classroom tools by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you priced E-Text books lately? Maybe it's because I'm looking at college level stuff, but they get a LOT of money just to let you use their book for 6 months and a whole lot more to get the book forever. I just don't see that happening until the publishers back off the rental prices.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:classroom tools by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

      Which will of course be FAR more expensive than the textbooks were.

      I don't get the impression that e-textbooks ever actually save anybody money as the publishers just jack up the prices.

      I knew someone who worked in a library, and they got all excited about e-books, only to realize they spent about 50% or more of the annual book buying budget to get it set up and get just a half a dozen e-books. They ended up with far far less than if they'd bought traditional books, because they'd have been able to buy hundreds of books for what they spent.

      At the end of the day, it makes more money for the publisher, but a small community library got absolutely burned in the process, and only ended up with a handful of books, and limited benefit

      I can't imagine school boards would fare any better.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:classroom tools by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Informative

      The last ebook I purchased for school was $20, compared to the print copy that was $210, then again that was 5 years ago

    4. Re:classroom tools by steveha · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm hoping to see a trend where professors or graduate students write new textbooks and just contribute them to the public domain. Inexpensive tablets plus free textbooks means inexpensive education.

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4123035&cid=44658533

      It's still early days with ebooks, really. The publishers want to keep the prices high, but the barriers to entry into the market are low. Free textbooks will disrupt the pricing model.

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    5. Re:classroom tools by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The last 'ebook' I bought was for an astrophysics class. A mandatory $190 license to access a textbook online for three months. By Pearson of course. No one should be pleased with how things are going.

    6. Re:classroom tools by narcc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, because of course people will do hundreds of hours of work for free.

      They will, as it turns out. You'll find countless examples on the internet. Not everyone is as selfish as you.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    7. Re:classroom tools by steveha · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, because of course people will do hundreds of hours of work for free.

      It would be deliciously ironic if you used a free software web browser such as Firefox to type the above comment.

      Graduate students and professors need to "publish or perish". I'm hoping that at least some of them will use at least some of their publishing time to write free textbooks.

      And, anyway, people are already writing books and giving them away. Take a look at BookBoon:

      http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks-ebooks

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    8. Re:classroom tools by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So everyone who doesn't donate hundreds of hours of work for free is selfish?

      In my opinion, yes. Everyone should make time in their life to improve the world in some way.

      Just out of curiosity, what do YOU donate?

      1. I spend several hours a week teaching Scratch programming to 3rd-6th graders.
      2. I volunteer as a math tutor at my son's elementary school for two hours per week.
      3. I am a member of the "Ten Gallon Club" at the Red Cross blood center (80 one pint donations).
      4. I have written several free educational apps for iPads and Android Tablets, and plan to write many more.
      5. My wife and I funded a scholarship for two Naxi girls to attend a university.

  2. Always late by evilviper · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Datawind is always late to the party. They make big annoucements about incredibly inexpensive items years in the future to generate interest. Then by the time they're actually selling something, everyone else has passed them by. Even now, you can pickup a tablet with similar specs from walmart for $50. By the time we see any DW tablets on the shelves, several companies will be selling $40 tablets, or better.

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  3. Garbage by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've purchased two barrel-bottom-scraping androids so far (not this model), with the expectation that that should be able to satisfy very basic needs like ebook reading.

    I was wrong.

    These 'landfill android' devices garbage in every possible way. Battery life is so poor that you can't even even expect it to last a day on stand by. Yet performance is so poor that you have to wait a good several minutes just for the damn thing to boot up, so forget about quickly pulling it out while on the bus to read a few pages.
    And the wifi is so bad that it can't pick up a signal unless you have a router in the very same room, and even then you somehow don't get full bars.

    The only use I can see for this class of devices, is in BDSM scenarios:

    Master - Check my email, slave!
    Slave - Yes Master, thank you master! Oh, I can't connect to the server!
    Master - Are you telling me that you're failing me, you miserable wretch?
    Slave - Nuh Matha! Ih I puf mah tong oh he corneh, wifi worgs!
    Master - Good slave! Now play Words With Friends!
    Slave - *whimper*

  4. Not garbage in EVERY way... by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Devices like these, and the equivalent devices in the phone arena, help keep Android "market share" figures nice and plump!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re:Capacitive or Resistive? by unrtst · · Score: 5, Informative

    Has no one here shopped online?

    Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3DC17C8972
    It's $44. Granted, that's $6 more, but that's certainly in the same ballpark, and it has (arguably) better specs (dual core, dual cameras, android 4.2, etc).

    Or here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0EJ-0019-00005
    This one is just $34.99. It's only 4.3", but it has a 1.2GHz A8, and Android 4.2.

    I don't know why this is making slashdot... 'el cheap-o tablets are already here in every form you could ask for. Most of the cheap ones sacrifice battery life first, which sucks, but corners must be cut if you're going to be the cheapest thing with a touchscreen... and in some cases, a short battery life is not a deal breaker (ex. car computer; kitchen wall mounted touch display; media controller; etc).

  6. More storage than an iPad by timeOday · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has a MicroSD slot. Funny how only low-end devices are expandable these days.

  7. Re:Capacitive or Resistive? by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Informative

    That "$44" tablet has a shipping price of $23.

    Granted, shipping usually isn't free (even when listed as such it's built into the price of the item), but a $20+ shipping price is just a lie. They're building most of the item price into the shipping price to make it look cheaper.

    Yes the 4.3" device is actually $35 shipped but at that size I consider that a touch screen media player rather than a "tablet".

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain