Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Govt to bring out upgraded low-cost tablet Aakash-II in April
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Amid complaints with regard to the quality of the low-cost ‘Aakash’ tablet PC, the government on Monday said it is hopeful of bringing out an upgraded version of the device, ‘Aakash-II’, by April this year. File photo
Amid complaints with regard to the quality of the low-cost ‘Aakash’ tablet PC, the government on Monday said it is hopeful of bringing out an upgraded version of the device, ‘Aakash-II’, by April this year.
“In order to cater to the huge demand, we need several manufacturers to manufacture Aakash. We are enhancing the specifications on the basis of feedback we have received from the first version of Aakash. So we want to make sure that the upgraded product caters to the need of the customers... We have involved ITI in order to upgrade it... We will be able to bring in Aakash-II by April,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Accepting that differences have crept into the relationship between Aakash creator Datawind and the Human Resource Development Ministry, Mr. Sibal said, “We believe in resolving issues rather than highlighting them.”
According to ministry sources, Mr. Sibal is going to meet the IIT-Rajasthan Director, Datawind officials and the Special Secretary to the Human Resources Development Ministry on Tuesday.
Mr. Sibal had launched the world’s cheapest tablet, Aakash, last year with much fanfare. The device costing $35 (about Rs 2,000) was developed as part of the ‘The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies (NME-ICT)’ of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
“When we launched the Aakash first version, we did not know the feedback... We distributed to several students in order to get the feedback. With that feedback, we are now enhancing the specifications,” the minister said.
The government had committed itself to a long-term and full supply of 1 lakh units of the Aakash tablet from Datawind.
“As of now Datawind has delivered around 30,000 tablets and the rest 70,000 will also have the upgraded version of Aakash-II,” he said.
The government did not issue a Letter of Credit to the company after receiving test reports from IIT (Jodhpur) that raised certain issues with regard to the quality of the tablet PC.
The last letter of credit is going to expire in January.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Apps for Aakash tablet can win you R 1 lakh!
New Delhi: As per a release by Datawind, the makers of "World's cheapest tablet PC" Aakash , a contest to develop apps for its product has begun.
Datawind has invited students from all over the country to design innovative softwares and applications (apps) that can make the best use of Aakash's potentials and productivity.
The company said that the best five applications will get an award of Rs 1 lakh and a share of the advertising revenue that is generated from their apps.
The company is also in talks to provide internet access at an affordable rate of Rs 99 per month.
The last date of submission of entries is 20th February, while the final app need to be submitted by 29th February.
Details about the contest can be found on aapkiapp.com.
Datawind ‘Aap Ki App’ Contest, Make Apps For Aakash Tablet & Win Rs. 1,00,000
Datawind, the manufacturer company of the world’s cheapest tablet Aakash, has announced a competition for app developers named “Aap Ki App”. The competition is for Indian students to show their creative energy and technical expertise.
Suneet Singh Tuli, Chief Executive Officer at Datawind, announced the competition in Toronto, Canada. Top 5 entries will win a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh each and these apps will be delivered pre-installed with the device. According to the official website, the advertising revenue generated by these apps will also be shared with the developers. This will help student to get noticed among other developers and will provide a good platform for their entrepreneurial journey. The table runs on android platform, but current apps are not supported by the device.
Tuli said that they have got a great response from the students across the nation. According to him Aakash will fulfill the dream of majority of Indian population to own a computing device and access internet. Last date to submit the entries is 20th Feb and you will have to submit the final app by 29thFeb. For more details regarding the contest you can visit the official website: www.aapkiapp.com
Last date for submitting entries is February 20th 2012.
Last day for Final submissions is February 29th 2012.
Last date for submitting entries is February 20th 2012.
Last day for Final submissions is February 29th 2012.
Datawind opposes test standard of IIT for Aakash tablet
New Delhi: IT device maker Datawind today said the proposed product testing criteria by IIT (Jodhpur) cannot be applied to the first version of Aakash tablets, the world's cheapest, supplied by the company.
IIT (Jodhpur)'s test criteria include conditions like water resistance whereby a unit of Aakash tablet will be placed in a rain chamber supplying rain at a rate of no less than 4 inches per hour.
Datawind CEO Sunit Sing Tuli told PTI that the test specifications have been proposed by the IIT after the tender document was submitted and were not a part of the original tender.
"The price point at which Aakash tablets are being made cannot be compared to USD 1000 laptop. We have supplied product with better specification than what was issued by IIT Jodhpur," Tuli said.
Test criteria made by the IIT is based on millitary specification of a rugged product, he said, adding, "We have objected to it that millitary specifications do not make sense."
IIT was given the responsibility to procure USD 35 (about Rs 2,000) tablet under 'The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies (NME-ICT) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) programme.
Tuli said that the company has communicated its view to the concerned IIT Director and he is confident that changes in the proposed test criteria will be made soon.
On recent reports of complication in the Letter of Credit issued to the company by the government, Tuli said it is valid till end of January and as after resolving issue of test criteria, it will be extended further.
"I am confident that Letter of Credit will be extended," Tuli said. The Letter of Credit will enable Datawind to get payment from banks after the government approves it and communicates to banks for making payments.
Tuli said the government is committed for a long-term and full supply of 1 lakh unit from Datawind.
College students to get Aakash 2 from Feb
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Aakash, world's cheapest tablet computer
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Datawind had already supplied 30,000 tablets by the time IIT, Rajasthan report came. The ministry held-back the order and asked the company to improve Aakash as per the deficiencies citied by the IIT report.
Ministry sources said that company was initially reluctant to upgrade the tablet without increasing the cost. However, the company agreed when ministry officials threatened to cancel the order.
Tuli was not available for comments but a company spokesperson said the product manufactured to date has met and exceeded all the specifications, features and criteria specified in the government tender.
"The product road-map and future enhancements are not 'news' and not a sign of failure," the company said in a statement.
"Not only Aakash from Datawind but all future tablets will have minimum Aakash 2 specificians," said N K Sinha, additional secretary in the HRD ministry. These improvements included a 240 minute battery instead of 180 minutes, better firmware and a 700 mega hertz (MHz) Cortex A8 processor instead of the 366 MHz ARM 11 processor.
The HRD ministry is expected to invite bids from companies to supply Aakash 2. The target is to provide about a million Aakash tablets to college students in the next few years.
Datawind has already got two million booking for enhanced Aakash tablet, sold under the brand name of Ubislate, for which it sought online booking earlier this month. The tablet is being sold at Rs 2,999, which is Rs 749 more than price of Aakash for HRD ministry.
Now 'flawless Aakash' for students at same price
New Delhi: Montreal-based DataWind, the makers of the world's cheapest computer tablet, agreed to upgrade the tablet without increasing the cost, a day after reports of the HRD Ministry deciding to put its agreement with the company on hold.
After the deal, college students will be able to get an enhanced version of Aakash tablet without paying extra cost.
As per reports, the company was initially reluctant to upgrade the tablet without increasing the cost. However, the company agreed when ministry officials threatened to cancel the order, a daily newspaper reported.
The after-sales reports of the Aakash Tablet are extremely disappointing and those who have bought the low cost gadget have only one reason to be happy- they are the privileged early users of the gadget.
According to experts, the new version will have a look similar to the Chinese tablets and have the SIM card option.
The upgraded version of Aakash, Ubislate 7+ tab will be available in the Indian market by last week of January, 2012.
Check out its configuration below:
Hardware
• Processor: Connexant with Graphics accelerator & HD Video processor
• Memory: 256MB RAM / Storage (Internal): 2GB Flash
• Storage (External): 2GB to 32GB Supported
• Peripherals: 2 Standard USB port
• Display and Resolution: 7 inch display with 800x480 pixel resolution
Software
• OS: Android 2.2
• Document Rendering
• Supported Document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP
• PDF viewer, Text editor
• Multimedia and Image Display
• Image viewer supported formats: PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF
• Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA
• Supported video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV
• Communication and Internet
• Web browser- Standards Compliance: xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant
• Separate application for online YouTube video
• Safety and other standards compliance
• CE certification / RoHS certification
http://zeenews.india.com/business/technology/now-flawless-aakash-for-students-at-same-price_37083.html
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