India on Thursday unveiled a prototype tablet computer that would sell for a mere 1,500 rupees, or $35, with the price possibly dropping even further as R&D efforts continue.

Kapil Sibal, the country’s Minister for Human Resource Development, showed off the super-cheap touch-screen device in New Delhi as part of a push to provide high-quality education to students across the country. The tablet also comes with a solar-power option that could make it more feasible for rural areas.

The Linux-based computer at first glance resembles an Apple iPad and features basic functions you’d expect to see in a tablet–a Web browser, multimedia player, PDF reader, Wi-Fi, and video conferencing ability. It has 2GB of RAM (but no hard disk, instead using a memory card) and USB ports and could be available to kids from primary school up to the university level as early as next year.

Students from several branches of the Indian Institute of Technology co-designed motherboards for the computer, which the ministry would like to see dropping to $20 and possibly getting as low as $10.

Sibal called the as-yet-unnamed device India’s answer to MIT’s famed OLPC laptop aimed at children in developing nations, which started off five years ago with a projected cost of $100, but ended up going for $200. In May, Marvell Technologies announced that it would partner with the OLPC foundation to create the hardware for a proposed OLPC tablet, currently named the XO-3, that would go for around $100.

But while the extremely low price of India’s newly unveiled tablet is generating much hoopla, the gadget still faces hurdles before it lands in the public’s hands.

“This is just a prototype,” education expert Zubin Malhotra told Newsxlive. “We need to find people who will be able to manufacture these devices at these price points and continue to develop them going forward.”

The tablet is part of a larger initiative aimed at improving India’s educational system through technology. Nearly 8,500 colleges in the country have already gotten broadband connectivity, according to the Ministry for Human Resource Development, and some 500 Web-based and video courses are available for upload on YouTube and other online portals, with more in the works.

Via: CNET

WASHINGTON (NNS) — Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, for the second time successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed a threat representative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while in flight May 24 at San Nicholas Island, Calif.

This marks the first detect-thru-engage laser shoot-down of a threat representative target in an over-the-water, combat representative scenario.

A total of two UAV targets were engaged and destroyed in a maritime environment during the testing, the second series of successes for the U.S. Navy’s Laser Weapon System (LaWS) Program.

Members of NAVSEA’s Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) Program Office (PMS 405), Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), Raytheon Missile Systems, and NSWC Dahlgren fired a laser through a beam director on a KINETO Tracking Mount, controlled by a MK 15 Close In Weapon System (CIWS). This brings to a total of seven UAVs destroyed by the Surface Navy’s first tactical development for fielding a Directed Energy weapon system.

More…

It’s been a long time coming, but after countless delays in getting the auction underway, bidding on nationwide 3G spectrum in the world’s second most populous market has ended — and four companies appear to have come out on top. Most of the Indian markets only had three licenses available, so you’ll likely be doing some roaming if you travel much, but Reliance, Bharti, Aircel, and Tata have all come away with significant swaths of airspace. And how much did it end up costing for the privilege of delivering high-speed wireless ’round these parts? After kicking off India-wide bidding for one slot at 35 billion rupees (about $773 million), the auction wrapped up at 167.51 billion rupees ($3.7 billion) after some 183 rounds of bidding in just over a month. Now, the hard part: actually building those 3G networks.

The iPad sucks! That’s what I said to myself after watching Steve Jobs reveal what was said to be the most important device of his career. I felt let down! I expected so much more from this tablet. Maybe I expected too much from it. The iPhone has set the bar so high that we are now used to being amazed and surprised by Apple. This announcement sure was a reality check! More…

The MetalStorm technology allows multiple rounds to be loaded into, and fired from, a single barrel. This makes a much more compact weapon than competing MGL² systems such as the Milkor. The weapon has been designed to be within the same tolerances as the M203/M320 and so achieves similar range, velocity & accuracy. It makes use of standard 40x46mm grenade warheads which are inserted into the MetalStorm ‘tail assembly’. This would make the system much more attractive to nations which currently use the standard 40x46mm rounds.

The grenades are fired electronically as fast as the trigger can be pull and the barrel is capable of 720 rounds per minute! I asked Mark, MetalStorm’s armorer, about battery life and he told me that the 2xAA batteries is uses will last as long as the barrel does.

In its stand-alone configuration (not attached to a rifle and with its own stock) it weighs 5 lbs – less than half the weight of the 11 lb Milkor MGL.

The future of TV’s is here and it is OLED, or Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLED panels are basically phosphorescent colored particles that are fused to a substrate – be it glass or a metallic screen. These particles then light up by themselves when being injected with electricity, meaning unlike LCDs, they do not required a backlight and can be made extremely thin. LG has jumped on it, mainly through a partnership with Kodak to produce some of the first consumer OLED flat panel TVs, and their design is as stunning as the images they produce. To give you an idea of costs, a Sony 11-inch OLED TV is now on the market for a cool $2500, so a 15-incher should go for even more. And if you’ve got money to burn, there are rumors of a 40-inch OLED TV in the works, but we’ll have to wait for IFA 2009 for all this be officially announced. More…

If your an avid reader of the Engadget Blog then you will have read many of Nilay’s post.  These post in most cases concentrate on excessive Netbook updates/releases & also numerous random phone paraphernalia additions that if people made these additions it would really turn your phone into a 1984 Apple Lisa.  We will be keeping track of Nilays posts on Engadget, here’s a recent entry from Nilay’s Engadget blog roll:

“Say hello to the iUnika Gyy, which manages to shave its price down to €130 ($176) by using a slower 400MHz MIPS processor and ditching that costly XP license for Linux. Yeah, it’ll run like a dog. On the other hand, just like the Impulse there’s something delightfully appealing about a el-cheapo laptop that weigh just 1.5 pounds, and if the company manages to produce its promised €160 ($220) solar-powered version, we could totally find ourselves picking one up on a whim.”

(CNN) — Remember the dire predictions surrounding the “millennium bug?” The doom-and-gloom scenarios bandied about by security analysts on how computers could act when their clocks turned to January 1, 2000?

Well, researchers are hoping that a potential April Fools’ time bomb — the Conficker.c that is supposed to hit computers on April 1 — turns out to be equally unfounded.

But realizing that hope alone is not a prudent option, here is a primer on the worm so you can adequately prepare yourself — and your computer. More…

Portugal has long been renowned for its year-round warm climate including over 300 days of sunshine and its endless Atlantic coastline, two elements that have made it a firm favourite for overseas property investment. However, these elements are now being harnessed in a major drive to boost Portugal’s economy. More…

Well looks like, for once Nilay’s not going to tell us about Netbooks….

It’s been a while since we first caught wind of the mysterious Toshiba Camileo S10, but the pocket camcorder has finally broken loose, and it’s looking like a pretty solid competitor to the Flip Mino HD and the Kodak Zi6 — it amps up the video resolution to 1080p and also takes five megapixel stills. That’s pretty impressive for a pocketcam spec sheet, but the best part is the price — if this thing lands Stateside for close to the £130 ($181) UK pricetag, we’d have to find reasons not to snap one up. Pocket-lintgot a few hands-ons photos of the little bugger. Nilay Patel.

Jeee thanks Nilay for introducing a pocket Camcorder, now not only will sites like MySpace & Facebook have an over-load of thousands of people taking pictures of themselves & others connivingly doing stupid things; But you -Nilay have shown us how we can now video record those same stupid moments with this very secretive handy camcorder. I cant wait to use my friends log-in to see this excitement!

If your an avid reader of the Engadget Blog then you will have read many of Nilay’s post.  These post in most cases concentrate on excessive Netbook updates/releases & also numerous random phone paraphernalia additions that if people made these additions it would really turn your phone into a 1984 Apple Lisa.  We will be keeping track of Nilays posts on Engadget, here’s a recent entry from Nilay’s Engadget blog roll:

“Given the furious pace of Eee PC updates and the industry’s general standardization around nine- and 10-inch netbooks, it’s not exactly shocking news that ASUS is phasing out seven-inch Eees, but it’s still sad to see the original of the species shuffle off this mortal coil. According to ASUS CEO Jonny Shih, the company is going to be focusing on 10-inch models like the new Eee 1008HA, and although the company previously said the 8.9-inchers were due to axed as well, Shih says they’re not going anywhere due to demand from telecom providers and emerging markets. Oh, and the company is also changing the meaning of the Eee acronym from the original “easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play” to “easy, excellent, exciting.” Honestly? This changes everything.” Nilay Patel

Jeee Nilay, it looks like theres going to be less ASUS netbooks for you to talk about, I cant wait!