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Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

arstechnica.com

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Re: Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

#12

Post by robinhouston »

There seem to be a few sub-standard Android tablets around at the moment. A high-street clothing retailer in the UK recently released one for £180, which was also entertainingly panned by the press:

“All in all, a disastrous piece of gadgetry.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010...

“If this were a car it would be roughly in the category of a Robin Reliant from a couple of decades ago.” http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2010/10/next-10”-tablet-rev...

A common concern is that these products will damage the reputation of Android as a platform, and I suspect that’s true.

Re: Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

#13

Post by ctkrohn »

bsk wrote: post #6

I'd guess there were similar reviews of Altair 8800 in 1975/76 ;-)

Well, the Altair was the first of its kind. Despite its flaws, it was a revolutionary product that sparked an entire market. This tablet, on the other hand, comes after the iPad and other less shoddy Android competitors. If there's innovation in the tablet space, it's not going to be kickstarted by cheap knockoffs.

Re: Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

#15

Post by elblanco »

Splines wrote: post #10

I learned about the Nook Color over the weekend. It has the potential to be a really good Android tablet ($249, 800MHz A8, 8GB storage). Only thing is that it's restricted to running apps approved by B&N, and it's running 2.1.

I wonder how long till it's rooted?

Re: Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

#17

Post by mike-cardwell »

I'd be tempted to use one of these as a device which simply displays a custom written webpage which fetches and displays information. Once you've got it running it does nothing other than display a webpage. Put it on the desk, plugged in constantly. It could show my calendar or weather/traffic data.

Re: Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

#18

Post by pronoiac »

nuclear_eclipse wrote: post #2

I pity all the uninformed consumers who buy this, or even worse, people who receive this as a gift from those uninformed consumers...

I'd considered getting one for a six-year-old to bang on. As I started reading, I was thinking "maybe with alternative firmware," but the OOBE sounds atrocious.
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