Aakash 2 to be launched in India today

[mmadhankumar]

India's low cost tablet Aakash-2 will be officially launched here on Sunday.

According to reports, the new and improved Aakash 2 tablet will be launched at a function organized in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi where the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee will unveil the device. Thousands of teachers are expected to virtually participate in the launch event through online video conferencing.

The new version of the tablet PC will feature one Ghz processor, four-hour battery time, capacitive screen and Android 4.0 operating system.

Meanwhile, Suneet Singh Tuli, Indian-origin CEO of Datawind, the maker of India's low-cost tablet Aakash, has been named by Forbes magazine among the 15 "classroom revolutionaries" who are using innovative technologies to reinvent education for students and teachers globally.

Datawind had won the tender in 2010 to supply one lakh Aakash tablets for a price of around 49 dollars per unit.


http://zeenews.india.com/business/gadgets/gadgets-news/aakash-2-to-be-launched-in-india-today_64210.html

 

[Bapun]

Aakash-2 set to storm campuses

With President Pranab Mukherjee set to dedicate Aakash-2, the cheapest tablet in the world and also a much-improved version of the earlier Aakash, at 11.30 am on Sunday, campuses across Kerala are joining the national euphoria.

Manufactured with the support of Union ministry of human resources development with the avowed purpose of promoting education in the country, Aakash-2 has cost the maker Datawind Rs 2,236 a piece.

The new avatar of Aakash is working on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and generates power from 800 MHz. It has a 7-inch multi-touch screen. The Union government is planning to distribute 1 lakh tablets free to engineering colleges initially.

Meanwhile, fifteen engineering colleges in Kerala are part of 244 in India that have been selected as remote centres for “Aakash in Education” programme, coordinated by IIT-Mum-bai under the National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT). The programme will cover all engineering colleges in due course.

According to Rajesh V.G, principal of KMEA Engineering College, Edathala, here, which is one of the remote centres, the tablet would make teaching much-more efficient. “We will have live classes from IIT professors and can also interact with them on real time,” he noted.

The 2-day workshop on “Aakash in Education” began in all remote centres on Saturday and President Pranab Mukherjee will interact with the participants through video conferencing during Sunday’s launch of the tablet. The KMEA College has received the first set of 20 tablets.

Aakash-2 set to storm campuses | Deccan Chronicle