i Cafe

India is a weird and wonderful subcontinent; the billion-plus population has one hand in high technology and another in poverty from another era. This massive juxtaposition has led to some impressive engineering feats, such as the development of a $2,000 car (the petite Tata), and now the introduction of a $35 tablet computer that developers hope to make available to students throughout the country.



The computer, first announced in late July, was the result of a government-fueled project created by students at the Indian Institute of Technology. The tablet (which actually seems more like a netbook) will have a memory card instead of a hard drive and 2GB of RAM, making it available for basic computer functions like Web browsing, media playback, and word processing. Some "pricier" models may even include a solar-power option for areas of the country where electricity is scarce.

The first video demonstration of the tablet prototype, above, shows that the computer will run on the Android OS instead of the rumored Linux setup. The video seems somewhat sped up, perhaps so as not to give a true indication of the using experience. And oddly enough, the tablet seems to be using a touch-stylus-interface, even for typing.

I hope this choice of interface over a more user-friendly keyboard and mouse set-up was made to achieve the amazingly accessible price rather than to seem "contemporary." Either way, giving access to technology to more parts of the world can only result in positive development. We'll know more when actual device gets into people hands. But for right now, go India!