Mayur's Posterous

India's 35-dollar tablet will come out 11-Jan-2011

India will launch its much anticipated ultra-cheap tablet PC, the Sakshat, on 11 January 2011, the ministry of Development has announced. The tablet, which will cost no more than 35 US dollars (or 27 euros), is aimed at students and low-income groups in India. The announcement of the launch date came as a surprise to many, as some experts say a PC this cheap is simply impossible.
 
India's Development minister Shri Kapil Sibal (pictured, with a prototype of the tablet) looks determined to turn this project into a success, despite the criticism. "We are constantly customising the device to the needs of our target groups, students in particular," Mr Sibal told reporters earlier this week. "So the machine simply does what the user requires. This has enabled us to keep the price as low as possible."
 
Sceptical
But even with a launch date now set, many people remain sceptical about the Sakshat project. "There is no 35-dollar PC," says Satish Jha of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in India, which distributes cheap laptops in schools in India for approximately 100 US dollars per laptop. He told RNW: "It is not clear who is producing the device. The government can always buy any number of pieces and subsidise it and ask any manufacturer to create it. Such a product can only be sold at a subsidised price."
 
Realistic?
Mr Jha also wonders whether it's actually up to the government to create this kind of technology. "To try to do this without a track record of virtually any product seems impossible," he says. "It raises questions about the ability of those behind the project to understand how technologies evolve and how products get created. We hope they'll be a little more realistic about the expectations they generate."

Watch a promotional video of the Sakshat here (story continues below):

 


 

Features
Despite its unusually low price, the Sakshat apparently carries many features that can be found on any (tablet) PC - a 7-inch touch screen, connections for wi-fi and USB and a 2GB storage capacity. Its use of Android software enables it to browse the internet.

  With its 35-dollar price tag it will be the cheapest computer in the world, but Mr Sibal thinks the price could go down even further. "I expect the price will gradually drop down to 20 dollars and ultimately to only ten dollars," he said.

  Rural areas
If successful, the Sakshat provides internet access to millions of Indians who until now, simply couldn't afford even the cheapest PC. It is part of the Development ministry's drive to bring technology to low-income groups, especially in rural areas.

  But the Sakshat may not be what some people in these target groups actually need, Mr Jha warns. "The Sakshat is aimed at universities. During the course of our OLPC project, we have discovered that what's good for university students may not be good for schools. What is good in privileged environments may not work in the villages and for the underprivileged. Hopefully the decision makers will keep those two tracks separate."

  Mobile banks
Another example of bringing technology to low-income groups is the government's scheme to introduce "mobile banks" to all parts of India by 2015, as announced by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday. Customers will have access to bank services through specially equipped vans that will travel to even the smallest villages.

  Incidentally, India - one of the world's fastest growing economies - is making a name for affordable consumer products. In 2008, the cheap Tata Nano car was introduced with only a 2,000 dollar price tag attached to it (6,000 dollars in Europe). Despite initial reservations from the automotive industry about the success of the project, it is still the world's cheapest car.
 
 
 
 

via rnw.nl

 

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Notte Sento (English subtitles)

A girl misses her train to Milan and is set to wait overnight in Rome until dawn. However, a chance encounter with a guy changes her plans and the night lights of the capital turn into the background to a tender love story. An extraordinary chemistry made of knowing glances and small gestures fills the few instants that separate them both from the sunrise.

Short film made with 4500+ still photographs. Shot with a Canon EOS 30D camera.

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Boeing gets $89M to build unmanned aircraft that can stay aloft for 5 years

darpa/boeing solareagleOne of the more unique unmanned aircraft took a giant step toward reality this week when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) inked an agreement with Boeing to build the SolarEagle, a plane capable of remaining at heights over 60,000ft for over five years.

Boeing says the first SolarEagle under the $89 million contract could fly as early as 2014.

12 mad science projects that could shake the world

The SolarEagle is built under DARPA's Vulture program.  The idea is to build a single aircraft that could support traditional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance functions over country-sized areas - while at the same time providing an unblinking eye over a critical target, monitoring that target night and day, day in and day out, month after month - providing unprecedented high-value intelligence. Vulture aircraft will also be able to provide communications capabilities available today only from geostationary satellites - offering opportunities for new, more flexible, expandable and relocatable communication architectures at a fraction of the cost of dedicated satellite capabilities. The challenges with Vulture include developing solar cell, energy storage, and reliability technologies that will allow the aircraft to operate continuously, unrefueled for over 44,000 hours, DARPA stated.

Under the Vulture II agreement, Boeing will develop a full-scale flight demonstrator, including maturation of the critical power system and structures technologies. Key suppliers for the program include Versa Power Systems and QinetiQ. 

During testing, the SolarEagle demonstrator will remain in the upper atmosphere for 30 days, harvesting solar energy during the day that will be stored in fuel cells and used to provide power through the night. The aircraft will have highly efficient electric motors and propellers and a high-aspect-ratio, 400-foot wing for increased solar power and aerodynamic performance, Boeing stated.

Boeing has been on a roll this week.  Earlier it had announced a marriage with outer space tourism proprietors Space Adventures to offer low Earth orbit (LEO) flight services onboard Boeing's future commercial crew spacecraft.  Under the agreement, Space Adventures will market passenger seats on commercial flights aboard the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft.

Boeing's (CST)-100, which is under development, can hold seven and is bigger than NASA's Apollo orbiter but smaller than NASA's Orion.  Boeing says the ship will be able to launch on a variety of different rockets, including Atlas, Delta and Falcon. It will use simple systems architecture and existing, proven components, Boeing stated.

Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: nwwlayer8  

 

 

 

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