OLPC XO 3.0 tablet to debut at CES: 8-inch configurable with Pixel Qi display and Android starting under $100

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  • January 7, 2012 at 4:51 am

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OLPC XO 3.0 tablet early concept

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has just announced that the organization’s promised under $100 XO 3.0 tablet will be shown off at CES 2012. OLPC will also be delivering its first XO 1.75 laptop orders in March to school children in Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, announced the XO tablet over four years ago, however the development process overrun the 2010 initial delivery date. The XO 3.0 tablet was designed by Yves Behar, who’s also designed the XO laptop and the B&N Nook Color. Above is the initial concept render of the XO 3.0, though the design may have now changed.

Based on preliminary specs the XO 3.0 tablet will have an 8-inch 4:3 1024 x 768-resolution display configurable as either a standard LCD or a dual-mode Pixel Qi sunlight-readable screen. It will run on a Marvell Armada PXA618 SoC, with either 512MB or 1GB DDR3 RAM and 5GB to 16GB of NAND storage. Approximate weight will be 0.5kg (around 1lbs).
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B&N Nook Tablet announced, $249 shipping November 18th, a paler shade of grey (video)

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  • November 7, 2011 at 1:29 pm

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B&N Nook Tablet

We already saw all the details of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble’s response to the Amazon Kindle Fire last week. Barnes & Noble has today officially unwrapped its Nook Color successor, and things are looking good for the book retailer.

The Nook Tablet shares the same unique Yves Behar design like the original Nook Color (which by the way is now selling for $199), save for a lighter grey paint job, and a slightly slimmer design. Inside however it’s been vastly improved. The Nook Tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread underneath, but like its predecessor, the experience is very customized and is content and book centric.

It’s donned with a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS VividView touchscreen display and runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage and a micorSD card slot for up to 32GB additional space, trumping the Kindle Fire. You can check out how the Nook Tablet fares against the $199 Kindle Fire in our comparison. The Nook Tablet weights 14.1oz and is 0.48 inches thick. Battery life appears to have been boosted with a claimed up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video.

The Nook Tablet comes with Netflix and Hulu Plus out of the box, and is capable of playing 1080p HD video. Other loaded applications include, Pandora internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends and email. As with the Nook Color, you will not have access to the official Android Market, but rather B&N’s own Nook apps market — though it remains to be seen how fast this can get hacked and loaded with custom ROMs for full market access, like the Nook Color. Barnes & Noble is offering a new ‘Nook Cloud’ free storage service with the device and free trials for Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark.

You can pre-order the Nook Tablet today for $249 from B&N, shipping on November 18th. The Nook Simple Touch device, with an E-Ink display, is now just $99 (from $149) and has received improved rendering software for faster page turns, while, as we’ve mentioned, the Nook Color can be had for $199 (from $249).

A host of presentation videos are after the break.
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Nook Color Review

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  • February 20, 2011 at 3:05 pm

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Barnes & Noble Nook Color

It’s been almost three months since this e-reader / tablet landed on our doorstep and I’ve already spent several hours of quality time with it. Barnes & Noble has taken a different approach with its second e-reader device, donning the Nook Color with a full 7-inch color touchscreen and doing away with E-Ink. Despite this move, unsurprisingly, the Nook Color is still a book centric device out of the box.

This review of the Nook Color centers on its suitability as an e-reader device. Despite this I must note that the Nook Color has great potential as a full-fledged tablet and, the never-tiring Android hacking community has really embraced the Nook Color and continues daily to unlock its potential. A follow-up review will be posted soon that will look into the Nook Color as a tablet.

Moving right along, I must say from the kick-off that B&N has created a really great e-reading device that is a pleasure to take everywhere, hold and use and is offering it at a very attractive price, $249. However the Nook Color is not without frustrations and the software experience is still rough around the edges; with each over-the-air update, however, bringing it closer to perfection. Despite these, it still might not be the device for everyone, and we will try to convey both the shortcomings together with the benefits of this device. Hopefully by the end of this lengthy review you should get an idea if this is the right device for you. So read on to find out.
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