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Can Cheap Android Tablets Bridge the Digital Divide? (teleread.org)
It's now possible to buy a 7-inch Android tablet for under $50 -- for example, the Nook Tablet 7 or Amazon's cheapest Fire tablet. "Since the Fire can now easily install regular Android apps, it has become useful out of all proportion to its price," writes long-time Slashdot reader Robotech_Master, noting that for many applications tablets can replace a desktop or laptop computer. TeleRead.org is even arguing this could be what bridges the digital divide:
[N]ot just for reading ebooks and assisting in education, but for more basic tasks. People with low or no incomes could search and apply for better jobs. Students could do homework and term papers on their tablet if their siblings or parents are using the desktop.
Besides the obvious applications like email and web browsing, $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts. (You can even get your own phone number through Google Voice.) Calling the tablets "a full-fledged internet terminal... easily within reach of even the lowest-income families," the article concludes "I can hardly wait to see where these tablets go from here."
Besides the obvious applications like email and web browsing, $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts. (You can even get your own phone number through Google Voice.) Calling the tablets "a full-fledged internet terminal... easily within reach of even the lowest-income families," the article concludes "I can hardly wait to see where these tablets go from here."
" $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts."
Or just buy an empty prepaid simcard on ebay or for 50 cents, (or an actual one on the corner bodega) to receive the install SMS (on your cellphone) and install Whatsapp. (on the tablet)
I have been doing that for years for the oldsters in our family on 50$ tablets, so they can text and phone for free all around the house.
China was already pumping ~$25 android crapphones for half a decade.
Those things sell like hot cakes in South Asia and Africa.
For an even longer period, they were selling $70 arm6 based crapbooks. First ones came during netbook boom, and they are being sold to this day to the same markets I named above. You can't do anything with them other than checking email, playing mp3s, or browsing nineties level websites, but for most people there it is more than enough.
I renewed my tabs online and went to pick it up at an office once (my procrastination my fault), granted there are some transactions that can't be done online but I feel like a lot of people in the walk up line good have done their stuff online and just jumped in the Internet pickup line.
There seemed like there were 10 or 20 people in the walk up line whereas there were 3 off us in the Internet line. Maybe the digital divide exists and some just want to do it the old fashion way and wait in line.
Another similar thing was during the holidays for Santa picture taking, you could schedule online, then go to the Internet scheduled line which was pretty empty whereas the normal wait line seemed to be an hour or two.
Watching people surf on the phone while waiting in line rather than schedule online then jump in front seems weird to me. Maybe they want the full experience or feel that it is unfair to go ahead of everyone.
I've been called upon to restore apps from backup when the latest update doesn't work with the device. OS updates are usually not available for these devices. You just use it until most of your apps stop working and then buy a new one to get a more current OS. Such is a hidden cost which severely limits the life span, and increases the cost of the device.
Isn't Office 365 available for Android?
More and more printers support wireless printing from mobile devices.
Bigger issue in my experience is the dated OS results in app store updates which break functionality on the device.
Indeed. The digital divide is not about access to hardware. It is about education and network access (e.g. rural Africa). Still, I do like having some cheap hardware for reading eBooks, where it does not matter if it gets stolen or breaks.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Cheap phones can. Tablets are really only useful for consuming content. Now, cheap laptops yes. A keyboard, word processor, spreadsheets, programming environment, etc. Eg a full on PC. The truncated experience you get on a tablet doesn't cut it.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
A couple of years ago I got a cheap (~$200) 10" Windows tablet. It came with 8.1 but I was able to upgrade to Windows 10. It's not fast and it can't multitask worth a damn with only 2GB RAM but it blows any Android/Chromebook/iPad out of the water for actually doing what I need to get done. The fact Apple crippled the iPad Pro with iOS instead of a touch friendly MacOS boggles the mind. The only time I pull out my Android tablet these days is to play a game. Unless you ave a specific use case where Android works a full OS device is still a better choice.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Forget Chromebooks; if you're going to spend that much, you can get an HP Stream Pro G3 11.6" running Windows 10 Pro 64 for under $200. It's an anemic Celeron processor, and it's 1366x768, and the MMC is only 64 GB, but if you want something that's cheap and will run everything you really really need, it's fine. Very lightweight, too - 2.57 lb/ / 1.17 kg. I've been trialing it for the role of "crappy notebook that I take when I don't expect to need a real computer but might end up needing one anyway", and it has done just fine.
If you are poor, you have other concerns like a place to live, food to eat (especially something that doesn't give you diabetes at 25), somone to watch kids while you go to an interview. A cheap prepaid phone with mobile data, has not been a limiting factor for many years. It's not that tech does not help at all, it's just that the potential has been tapped out at this point and other kinds of help are needed. At least in US, obviously greater access to cell phones has important practical uses in developing countries and refugee camps.
Also, Bluetooth keyboards don't need to be re-paired each time you use them, at least as long as you just use them with a single device. They hook right back up when you turn them on. And battery life largely isn't an issue, since they don't have an energy-intensive display. The ones I've used can go for weeks of light use on a single charge.
If Microsoft knew how to "do the right thing" people wouldn't still be talking about XP like it is something anyone should ever long for the days of.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Yes. Yes they did.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Anything that old should just use Linux.
Unless you can get free or cheap wi-fi, a decent internet connection costs more than the tablet.
Perhaps this will drive making low price internet service available to low income households.
Manufacturers complaining about a lack of talent mean "I can't find anyone who can walk in the door with 5 year experience running this cad/cam/cnc that's only existed for 1 or 2 and who will work for...minimum wage...".
Or maybe the author thinks that meaningless marketing jobs like his are going wanting?
You gonna learn how to program on a tablet? n Really?
If you have no or low income, isn't that an indicator of something else like, maybe there aren't many jobs period, or good ones for people at your level of accomplishment and drive - making a bit of hardware relatively meaningless?
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Hell is something close to debugging PHP with embedded SQL on a low resolution tablet.
And yes, I have been to Africa recently, and yes I could get a P4 with a CRT and PS2 keyboard and mouse for under $50 (it did look past its prime though). I could also buy a Nigerian Guinness for about $0.30 and a nutritiously sound meal for about $1.50. An experienced local would obviously pay less than me for the meal or the computer, unless he had drunk too much Nigerian Guinness.
A lot of people there already had $50 tablets two years ago. Some even had PCs with Linux.
The problem in Africa is not access to hardware, it is, to some degree, understanding the benefits of the hardware (particularly as compared to the merits of dressing up and partying). However, you could access mainframes in 1963 here in the UK. How many people had a use for a mainframe in 1963? Hell, how many people would have known what one did, even if they were in the computer room? (it was enough to make Ross Perot filthy rich). However, the clothes and parties here in the UK in 1963 were pretty crap unless you were a cabinet minister (see Profumo).
The solution to this problem is time not hardware.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
If cheaptastic silicon can fix the "divide," than all of 3rd Worldistan would have been on Packard Bell pizza box form factor machines like fifteen years ago, complete with 72-pin EDO sticks for the RAM on a daughterboard.
Indeed. My dad bought a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and the specs claim it can last TWO YEARS between charging. It can pair to three different devices and you just switch between them on the keyboard. So awesome!
Now, I do agree that there are problems with the OS. Even with a Bluetooth keyboard paired, Android wants to erroneously pop up the onscreen keyboard for no good reason when you don't need it, and then other times when you don't have the Bluetooth keyboard handy, it's impossible to get Android to pop up the damn onscreen keyboard!
Anyway, I'm sure someone will get the software right eventually...
And yes, I have been to Africa recently...
The problem in Africa...
A bigger problem is people describing 'Africa', and giving a one size fits all solution.
It makes as much sense as talking about the Americas and assuming what's good for the US is good for Venezuela.
Anyone who wanted a cheap device could already get a used one for very low cost.
Not only is Google Voice only available in the States, it also requires a real, physical phone line (land line or mobile) to activate. I really don't think that does anything for people whose lives might be changed by a $50 tablet.
In terms of technology the Race to the bottom has been a failing proposition.
Mid 1990's There is a computer called Gateway 2000. During this time they were a bit more expensive then the other PC makers, but in general they were built with good quality components. By the late 1990's and early 2000's Gateway had more or less peaked in their market, so they tried doing little tings over time to make their products, cheaper, to a point where Gateway 2000 PC were a joke.
In the late 1990's there is a company called Dell, During this time they were a bit more expensive then the other PC makers, but in general they were built with good quality components..... I hope you get the point.
For technology, we are normally better off getting the higher end/near higher end products, which can last a few years, and when new be a bit over powered for what the software can handle.
Trying to give the equipment for cheap while it may run the current stuff, it will not support the products of the near future. So you are not really saving any money or helping out the underclass.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Will low prices contribute to getting devices into the hands of those who don't have them? Certainly.
Do tablets enable anyone to participate in a digital world? Only to an extent. Tablets, as a hardware form factor, are far better at consumption than production. Anything with audio output and a 24-bit display can consume digital content. But typing on a screen is awkward if not tedious, and touch interfaces are primitive and imprecise compared to traditional pointer hardware. It's entirely possible for Photoshop or Autocad to be installed on a tablet, but the hardware doesn't give the user the ability to interact with them properly. Develop software on a tablet? Torture, even if you managed to cobble a toolset and workflow together, which would require breaking out of the walled garden vendors want tablets to be.
The hardware, by its very nature, is why the mobile web sucks, proven every time someone apologizes for posting from their phone or tablet. No one ever did that for their desktop/laptop where there is a comfortably sized screen, real keyboard, and fully capable pointer.
Even minimally spec'd laptops would do a better job of closing the digital divide than tablets, because they're equipped for producing. RIP One Laptop Per Child.
.. to that project? One lap top per child? Their goal was a 100$ laptop right?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Also culture and genetics.
Youâ(TM)e âoecheapâ moto E LTE doesnâ(TM)t cost $50
Ken
First of all, it is a stupid idea to force poor people in the arms of big companies like amazon and google. And even, if they could buy a cheap device for mail and web, they also need Internet access. As this either requires money for a connection at home or the money of a latte at the local coffee place, this is out of scope for them financially. Also the digital divide is not only a monetary issue, but also an education issue. If you want to help, train them in how to use a library and how to read and understand (most people can only read).
Don't need broadband. Just an acceptable internet connection. The city next door has city-wide WiFi. Not to mention most smartphones already have an acceptable connection. People can get online, it's just those spoiled by their home connection who can't understand what a gift the alternatives are.
That's great in theory. Where I live there is free wifi downtown, free wifi at mcdonalds and several coffee houses, free wifi at the public library, and the school even offers free wifi to its students before and after school. The problem with this is that even the before and after school option requires actually travelling somewhere and some cheap and reliable transportation to get there. I live in a partially rural area where public transportation doesn't really exist and even some of the poor that have jobs don't actually own a car. They generally manage to figure out the bare necessities to get to work by bumming off a co-worker or something similar but actually finding a reliable way to visit the library or show up at school an hour early to use the internet is many times out of their reach. Sure, there are ways. They can walk the 5 miles into town, they can hitchhike, etc... but I think you underestimate some of the challenges the truly poor have. They are not worried about where to find internet. They are a lot more concerned about where to find this month's (or week's) rent money or the money to buy dinner tonight.
I know 4-5 people on welfare. They all have cable TV ($140+/month). Most smoke cigarettes (around here, $4-$5 per cig).
// if you smoke, you don't get welfare
///If you use EBT (food stamps) to buy anything but dried beans, rice, and canned tomatoes, you don't get welfare.
It ain't the price of a laptop + internet keeping them offline, it is the want/need that needs to be addressed.
/ gonna go on a limb here, if you can afford cable TV you don't get welfare.
I may sound like a Trumper here, but I work and pay my taxes and I'm fucking tired of supporting these leeches.
Youâ(TM)e âoecheapâ moto E LTE doesnâ(TM)
I see you don't know that Slashdot still doesn't support Unicode, but apparently you're new here.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Reading all this I came to a thought. The posters are all pathetic. Why? Because they mostly say that tablets are only good for content consumption. They all ignore the question of what the content is. Nowadays you can go on youtube and watch enough videos to get the equivalent of a bachelors in most topics. Given the choice of teachers, you can even do better then a standard university where you will be forced to learn from a couple of dud professors. You can buy any text book, or obtain it for free if you are not picky about legality. You can read a great many blogs which are more then just the common trash, and actually learn other things too. I remember the 80's and visiting Russain academics telling me how they had it hard because they would get one preprint and then they would have to read it and circulate it around. They couldn't just make a photocopy. Before you can produce content, you have to learn how to produce content. Tablets go a long way towards helping with that. Granted they are not a panacea.
peep that four-digit slashdot id, yo
moox. for a new generation.
Currently in vietnam and haven't seen an old school PC in three weeks. Tablets are really popular, and the highest end shops here have laptops, but full blown desktop PCs don't seem to exist here as far as I can tell. I saw one a week ago and it was running Windows 98.
moox. for a new generation.
I see you don't know that Slashdot still doesn't support Unicode, but apparently you're new here.
Some of us are just past caring whether Slashdot looks as incompetent as it actually is when we copy and paste.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They can walk the 5 miles into town, they can hitchhike, etc... but I think you underestimate some of the challenges the truly poor have. They are not worried about where to find internet. They are a lot more concerned about where to find this month's (or week's) rent money or the money to buy dinner tonight.
Sigh. Congratulations, you just described the digital divide. That is literally what we are talking about. Having to walk or hitch into town to get internet access is the digital divide. Just like having to wait around at bus stops and then be crammed into a shitty box with sweaty people is the transportation divide.
This is precisely why not having a cellphone with an internet plan makes you a second-class (or lower) citizen. It is taken for granted today that you will have this. If not, it makes it more difficult to do literally anything any more.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This is precisely why not having a cellphone with an internet plan makes you a second-class (or lower) citizen. It is taken for granted today that you will have this. If not, it makes it more difficult to do literally anything any more.
I have a phone without a data plan, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a second class citizen...not yet. But it's getting there.
My actual phone service is cheap, but to get a data plan the companies basically want to charge me 4 or 5 times as much.
browsing nineties level websites,
I use Gopher you insensitive clod.
They must be paired up at every use
No, they don't, as long as you don't pair them to a different device. And there are even exceptions to that.
are usually much too small
Bigger ones are available.
and are just one more battery powered device that needs to be kept charged.
Bluetooth keyboards last a LONG time on a charge, not even taking into account the ones that use AAA or AA batteries.
Add that to the fact that many schools require homework to be printed out,
Printers that support Cloud printing or bluetooth printing are a thing.
or submitted in certain propitiatory file formats and that lets out doing homework.
Google Docs and android office suites are a thing
My dad bought a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and the specs claim it can last TWO YEARS between charging. It can pair to three different devices and you just switch between them on the keyboard. So awesome!
The K480 with the dial? That thing is awesome.
https://www.logitech.com/en-us...
Though I only paid $11 for it, not $49, on clearance at Wal-Mart. I don't know why they weren't selling, it's very nice for a bluetooth keyboard.
honestly writing a term paper on a tablet sounds impossible if you consider having to have references for formatting, looking at material to source, and having the paper open all on the same seven inch tablet. Sure, if you can split screen on such a cheap device, but doing any sort of word processing on this sounds like a complete and utter cramped mess.
I'm not so sure, especially not with a 10" tablet. And you CAN split the screen with Android Nougat. Besides people were doing wordprocessing on single-tasking machines without any networking back in the 70's and 80's.
Indeed. And the original article did discuss both writing in Word formats and printing stuff as well.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
K480 is nice but kind of bulky. K380 is more mobile.
Heh. I'm reading this story on my Rooted & re-imaged 7" Amazon Fire, running lp-fire-nexus-rom-20161124 (Android 5.1). It's a nice little machine, but it took me a full day to get the Exploit that gave me control to work. Not so simple for someone on the wrong side of the Digital Divide.
Not a web designer.
I seem to recall using a sort of "null keyboard" in the past to deal with this problem...not sure what app it was, but this one came up on a search for "Android null keyboard."
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.