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Some manufacturers lock down their devices. Others try to appease the developer community through tools that void any warranty. Auraslate puts the Android tinkerer first. The new tablet is designed to honor the open nature of Android, shipping completely unlocked and ready to handle anything and everything up to Ice Cream Sandwich. Two models are available, a 7-inch version (726B) and one measuring 10 inches in screen size (1026).
Priced around $130 bucks, don’t expect to be blown away. The Auraslate is a typical Chinese-made budget slate running on the ARM Cortex A9 platform. Its real value comes from its freely available source code, open hardware, and community tools built for developers to discuss ideas and swap code. The tablet may be less useful for someone looking to cook up the latest and greatest Android 4.0 ROM than it would be for a developer simply looking to test an app for tablet compatibility across a variety of OS builds.
The folks behind Auraslate should easily be able to woo some Android devs, but we can’t say for sure if it will cut it for most. Now if only we could see this sort of support from the larger manufacturers.
[Auraslate via TechCrunch]
Cool. I hope the screen is capacitive.
It is. http://www.auraslate.com/page6.html and http://www.auraslate.com/page7.html.
Memory is a little tight at 512MB RAM, 4GB Flash and I’m pretty sure it’s single-core. For the price, not bad at all.
I see no information about wi-fi, either. Or did I miss that?
Yeah… ●WIFI 802.11 b/g
Where exactly did you see the information on WiFi? I see one picture of a screenshot showing wifi configuration, but nothing on the website, blog, support section or in this story that says anything. Can you provide a URL?
Bottom Right… just above Price…
Technical Specifications●7inch LED Touchscreen LCD/Capacitive Multi-Touch●Aspect Ratio is at 4 by 3, and not the ugly 16 by 9 widescreen●Screen Resolution is 800×480●Battery: 3200mAh / up to 4.5 hours ~ 6 hours●WIFI 802.11 b/g●Bluetooth 2.1●Processor ARM 9 Cortex, 800MHz ~ 1000Mhz●512MB DDR2 Mobile Memory●4GB Internal Storage●MicroSD Slot, Expandable memory up to 32GB●Front End Camera for pictures or Video chat●HDMI mini out , can be plugged right into your LCD TV●Mini-USB Slot●Microphone 3.5mm Audio Out slot●Side Buttons for volume, power, home , menu and backhttp://www.auraslate.com/page6.html
Ah, I see your reference, but I was referring to the LifePad 1026. There is no line item in that description that contains wifi. Perhaps it is just an oversight on the webpage, but if not, that is a BIG non-starter for me.
No problem. I was just referencing the link that had been included prior for others. =)
Hmm.. I too wish more manufacturers took this approach.
They won’t. They are the bitches of content providers and carriers.
Make one with ICS and a Tegra 3 and I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Just install it, it’s for developers and the drivers and everything is there.
I doubt it has the Tegra 3 chipset.
well with an tegra3 chip it probably would have a hard time competing with motorola, samsung, acer etc :) as the article says, this device is for developers who love to tinker with stuff not the average Joe :)
My in-laws are fixated by the digital screen my wife and I bought them 3 years ago. Problem with that is that while we spent the extra $ to get it connected to wifi, it is still not a push device and every time I visit I have to do “frame maintenance”.
For $130, that is cheaper than the original frame we bought them and I can set it up to push from the cloud and add pics remotely.
I can also teach my father in law all about Angry Birds now.
The ASUS MeMo 370T seems like it will still be more desirable even if it is harder to tinker with. It has generous specs and won’t be too much more expensive.