The time has finally come that the ultra-cheap tablet is up for sale. Yeah, you guessed it right! Aakash Tablet is up for sale on the official website for just Rs. 2,500/-(~50 USD). Moreover, it’s selling with a delivery time of seven days if shipped in India and is available with payment of cash on delivery.

You might just be thinking that there could be nothing better, but hold on, now is the final time where when you ought to decide, whether to buy this tablet or not.

We all know that this tablet provides a lot of features at the minimal cost, but the dilemma that still lies is whether to buy this tablet or not, when the company manufacturing the tablet itself assures that the upgraded version of the tablet will be up in a couple of months.

Above all, this upgraded version of Aakash, known as Aakash 2 or UbiSlate 7  will have much better specifications than its predecessor and will be available for just Rs. 3,000/-(~60 USD).

Datawind, the manufacturers of both these tablets have also stated a comparison table on their website.

This chart shows that the UbiSlate 7 will be running on a much better processor, clocked at 700 MHz compared to that of Aakash which runs at 366 MHz. UbiSlate 7 will also be having much better battery backup compared to Aakash as the capacity of the battery has also increased around 1.5 times.

UbiSlate 7 will run an updated Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, compared to the out-dated Android 2.2 FroYo, running on the Aakash tablet. One more feature that might be appealing to the customers is the inclusion of a SIM card slot which allows the users to use their tablets as a smartphone. This feature will also impart GPRS functionality to the device.

Datawind has not revealed the complete specifications of UbiSlate 7; it has just revealed only a few of the specifications of the device while comparing it to its elder sibling, Aakash. So not much can be said about other anticipated features like a front facing camera for video chat. There is also no word about the inclusion of 3G but we think the tablet will not have 3G capability inbuilt and will support 3G, only through an external USB dongle.

As far as we are concerned, we suggest you better wait for a couple of months and get hold on the newer UbiSlate 7 than going for Aakash. As far as the configuration is concerned, even the UbiSlate 7 is poorly configured, but the only reason to wait for UbiSlate 7 is that it has almost twice the power of Aakash and costs just Rs.500 more.

As far as value for money factor is concerned, buying any of the two tablets would be a win-win deal.

Rajat Kapoor

A teenage Tech Freak with quite an obsession for the latest in Tech, 'Gadget know-how' is his best intellectual asset till date. Albeit his love for music and movies, all his interests take a back seat when some highly anticipated gadget leaks out on the web! He usually covers gadget news on CostPriceIndia and is the latest addition to TechPluto Editorial team.

Are you at wits’ end, trying to figure out what to get the ‘techie’ in your life? Unless you’re a techie too, one gadget pretty much looks similar to the next in line.

Whether it’s for your significant other, your teen, business partner or friend, there is something out there for everyone.

Here’s a list of some of the coolest gadgets out there, that will put you on the “Oh man, you rock!” list.

• MiFi 2200 Portable Hotspot
  Shopping for someone that’s always on the go and can’t stand not being connected? Well, you won’t find a better gift for them than this self-contained WiFi router which is small enough to fit in their pocket. Plug it in and they’ll be up and running wherever they land.
• Powermat
  Tech-addicts have so many gadgets, it’s hard to keep track of them all, let alone keeping them charged. Help clean up the jumble of power cords by charging up on the Powermat. Power up to 3 devices at a time, at home or on the go with this portable folding charger, minus the cord jungle.
• Handpresso
  Looking for something completely different? This portable little gadget makes premium espresso on the go. Just add water and a coffee pod and they’ll have an instant shot of caffeine. Perfect for the java lover in your life that likes cool toys.
• Dell Inspiron duo – What can be cooler than having a tablet that can flip out and switch to a laptop in seconds? Not much! Go from work to entertainment using the same tablet, enjoying every minute. What’s even better is that, with Dell coupons, it makes the buying all that much easier.
• Dots Gloves
  Cold weather is here, and with it come covered fingers. What is a person to do when they need to use their touch screen to answer a call or send a text? Bring on the toasty warm Dots Gloves. They are touch screen friendly and they don’t make the wearer look like a complete geek!

Holiday gift ideas, and shopping for them, really don’t have to totally try your patience. With a little help from techie friends, you can find the perfect gift. The next thing you know, you might be adding some of these to your list.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

‘Kindle Fire’ has by far been the most successful(on the basis of pre-orders and early sales figures) Android tablet in the short history of Android tablets and the demand is still holding strong in the western countries, especially U.S.

And while the ‘west’ is boasting fast adoption of tablets such as iPad 2 and Kindle Fire,  there’s another tablet called ‘Akash’, better defined as ‘World’s Cheapest tablet’ from Indian soil, that’s silently making waves in an acute tablet market in India.

India, being a fast growing market in technology landscape has shown that new age Internet-enabled devices such as tablets are more than welcome, given the ‘price’ is right.

Datawind, the company behind ‘Akash’ tablet has recently announced that it has received more than 3 lakh(0.3Mn) pre-orders for the super-cheap tablet, for its commercial version and this pre-order is seperate from lakhs of tablets that the Govt. of India has already purchased for distribution among Indian students for enabling access to Internet for the Indian youth.

Given the price tag that’s attached to Akash tablet, Indian tablet market is certainly going to boom in the time to come. Datawind has in fact indicated that the price for the commercial version, which is currently hovering around Rs.3000,  can still go down, as and when demand increases and mass production begins.

Akash 2, the next version of Akash tablet has already been carved out as well and this next upgrade will come packed with 2x processing power and a capacitive touchscreen at the same old price tag of Rs.3000.

Will ‘Akash’ be bought outside India ?

Price conscious Indian sub-continent is an ideal market for a tablet like Akash but will the West like it over the feature-packed rivals such as iPads and Android tablets ?

Although price is a crucial factor for any buyer but users in western countries are habitual of faster, feature rich consumer devices and ‘Akash’ is unlikely to impress anyone, who has had his hands on an iPad or a Galaxy Tab before.

In fact, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, would probably be a better option(read value for money) than Akash tablet, if one would want a feature-rich and non-sluggish tablet device at an affordable price tag.

But tablets like ‘Akash’ and similar others(such as Reliance Tab) are sure to disrupt fast-evolving Indian market and Apple, Samsung and other tablet veterans are going to have a hard time selling their high-end tablets to Indian customers in near future.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

And just like any high-profile product launch in tech industry, this upcoming tech event is already the talk of the town with fresh(& sauced up) iPhone rumors making their way to tech news ticker, every now and then.

Some of the rumors do make sense while others sound complete bullshit and made up. And this time, there has been such an overflow of iPhone related rumors that it’s quite hard to have some solid estimation of what to expect from Apple tonight. In a way, all these rumors have taken the curiosity levels to a new high, not just of iPhone fanboys but other tech enthusiasts too.

In case, you have not had time to catch up with flurry of iPhone rumor junk during past couple of weeks, here’s a quick look at all those rumors, both good and the bad ones. It’s on you to pick the most befitting iPhone rumor among these.

Rumor 1: There’s going to be a cheaper, 8GB iPhone 4, that will primarily be focused on targeting the mid-range section of smartphones, wooing back Android owners in US and selling millions of these cheaper iPhones in developing nations.

Rumor 2: iPhone 4S is for real. There has been several mentions found by tech media from various channels, clearly quoting ‘iPhone 4S’ as an upcoming iPhone model.

Rumor 3: iPhone 5 is very much a possibility at launch as well. Looking at iPhone 5 cases and estimating the next iPhone’s hardware through the case design, there’s a good chance that we will see a bigger, faster iPhone 5 during Apple event.

Rumor 4: There are couple of rumors regarding the possibility of contract-free iPhone, that is, iPhone with pre-paid plans, which is quite prevalent in Asian countries. This rumor stands in strong support of early rumor of cheaper iPhone as cheaper, contract-free iPhone is what Apple might be aiming to sell in developing markets.

Rumor 5: The latest of the rumors is the weirdest of all. According to some sources, the next iPhone is going to be an exclusive phone to Sprint customers. In other words, the next iPhone will be exclusively sold at a subsidized price with a binding contract with Sprint. For this exclusivity deal, Sprint will be shelling out a sum of $20 Billion and make Apple richer than the richest, which it already is.

Plenty of other rumors are about the specs with which the next iPhone will launch. Take a look at iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S rumored specs, if you want to get into details. And yeah, this could be the best time for you to sell mobile, lying in your pocket for the best possible price and prepare yourself in advance to grab the next iPhone, as and when it hits retail stores.

And if you’re done with the rumor stuff, tune in later today as we will be covering all the latest from Apple event, as the event unfolds. It’s only hours before everything will be over and out!

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

The company behind this internet tablet, Fusion Garage, is currently in a tussle with TechCrunch, a highly infuential technology blog that brought up the whole idea of an Internet Tablet, some 1.5 years back. TechCrunch named the internet tablet as CrunchPad, and kept updating the media on the progress of the CrunchPad with pictures of the prototypes built, every once in a while.

It was the last day of last month, when all of a sudden, CrunchPad collapsed. And soonafter JooJoo took a fresh lease of life.

The latest update over the entire controversy is that TechCrunch has filed a Federal lawsuit against Fusion Garage, with causes of legal action as Fraud and Deceit, Misappropriation of Business Ideas, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unfair Competitition and Violations of the Lanham Act.

As promised by Fusion Garage founder, the official website of JooJoo has started taking Pre-orders now. The pre-orders are currently limited to U.S. only. The cost of the device is $499 with additional $30(optional) for JooJoo Stand(the only accessory with JooJoo). According to the site, it will take 8-10 weeks for them to ship the JooJoo to your doorstep, once pre-ordered.

The device is undoubtedly cool and unique for plenty of reasons. The 12.1” capacitive touchscreen, 9 seconds boot time, staggering UI and HD Video experience are its main attractions.

Now comes the BIG question….Is it worth it  ? Should you pre-order JooJoo ?

Honestly, its a BIG NO from us. We DO NOT recommend any of the crazy freaks out there to go pre-order JooJoo and there are several reasons for it. Here are three major reasons why NOT to buy a JooJoo !

1. As pointed out by TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington in his recent post, Fusion Garage is almost out of funds. They’ve exhausted whatever they had raised this far and they’re suffering from alarming level of debts right now. Now, TechCrunch is a trusted source, except few cases when it screwed up things too badly so there’re reasons to believe them, especially when it’s about their own brainchild, the CrunchPad (now JooJoo).

Now as you’re not getting the device right away(it’s a a pre-ordering) and Fusion Garage gets busted within coming weeks, your money is gone ! There’s no reason putting your hard earned money at such a risk.

2. JooJoo, the company behind it (Fusion Garage) and the founder (Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan) are all under huge controversies at the moment. Lawsuit has been filed against Fusion Garage and JooJoo is being ubiquitously criticized for plenty of reasons by tech fraternity. All of this makes JooJoo, a bad device for pre-ordering, atleast for now.

3. JooJoo is way too costly. We agree, its unique in many regards but that doesn’t justify its cost ($500) at all.

And if you’re still interested in exhausting your $500 for JooJoo, take one last suggestion of ours….Go right here and better donate $500 to Wikipedia. In return, expect some tax deduction and a whole peace of mind.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

In our of our recent posts, we wrote about surging sales of consumer electronics, lead by dirt cheap smartphones and HDTVs. Now, we would dig more into HDTVs and talk in-depth about various available options that are up for grabs.

The two most prevalent options under High Definition Television(HDTV) are LCD TV and Plasma TV. Technically, there are notable differences between LCD and Plasma technologies but the visual output appears to be similar. Only if one goes into finer details, there appears differences that makes one option outweigh the other one.

The first among the two technologies, LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) is commercially more successful and cheaper compared to Plasma technology. As technology keeps evolving, it was pretty much expected that Plasma would offer more advancement over LCD but parallel advancement in LCD made things a little tougher for Plasma to completely outplay LCD.

To make it less technical and more judgmental, here’s what can expect if you opt for a Plasma TV over an LCD TV.

• Rich, sharp colors and deep black levels
• Relatively better performance with different viewing angles
• Rarest possibility of screen burn-in, almost null possibility to happen with latest models.
• Plasma screens are more likely to reflect room lights, hence perform excellent when viewed in dark room.
• Ultra thin models
• Meant to serve like a mini home theatre

If you’re interested in opting for Plasma TV then don’t forget to survey online about the latest offerings and Plasma models from major available manufacturers. Check out available Plasma TV Reviews and see if that fits your requirements or not. In festive season, you are sure to come across cost-effective Plasma TV offers so better grab the one that seems a Value for money deal.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

The bestsellers are most probable to remain consumer electronics as they allure folks from all ages and generally offer most lucrative and festive offers to their customers. Among consumer electronics, smartphones and HDTVs are expected to rule this season.

When we talk about smartphones, iPhone and most recently launched, Motorola Droid, will hopefully lead the way to massive sales but when it comes to LCD Televisions, the competition isn’t going to be so predictable. All major brand names such as LG, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba are making no mistake in offering customers, best deals on multiple variants of televisions such as LCD, Plasma and most recent, LED TVs.

To be fair, it’s quite a tough task for an end customer to figure out differences between LCD, Plasma and LED TVs. All these technologies have advanced to a stage where any of these variants don’t make a huge difference, specially when somebody is busy watching his favorite show on any of the Televisions. The factor that matters the most is the Pricing.

Before making any buying decision, one needs to look around and check out dedicated consumer electronics websites such as LCD TV reviews on web and choose the one that suits the pocket and also comes with the best feature set. Market competition is favoring customers so well that some of the LCD TV deals are actually being priced at surprisingly low cost.

So be it LCD TV, Plasma or LED TV, the price tag and the brand name will be one of the most important factors for any buyer before taking a decision of buying his dream television this fall. Anyways, it appears that the consumers as well as product manufacturing companies are about to get a new life after struggling all this year.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

As the business communication is also getting increasingly dependent on Internet, staying connected to Internet is nearly equivalent to staying connected to your business. And to serve this important business need, computing machines paired with high-speed internet accessibility are slowly becoming the pre-requisites of every tech-savvy businessmen.

While on the go, Mobile businessmen prefer a laptop or a Netbook for serving their computing and web based needs. People also prefer keeping a PDA or smartphone to get onto the web & e-mails lightening fast. 3G and WiMax service subscription is a default to these smartphones as they are specifically meant to facilitate Mobile Web.

We will talk about each one of the Mobile Businessmen pre-requisites in details below.

Laptops : The first and the most popular portable substitute for Desktop PCs has been Laptops. Laptops are powerful, efficient, portable and durable, a perfect way to carry out your business activities and computing work, anytime, anywhere. On the flip side, most laptops aren’t small-sized and light-weight, which makes it tough for them to be carried along just about anywhere (coffee shop ?). Laptops also cost you more than a desktop PC with similar hardware configuration.

When are they best suited…

• If you majorly work offline than online
• When you’re travelling for longer periods
• When you’re used to running multiple applications simultaneously on your work machine

Netbooks: The latest entrant in computing hardware industry, netbooks have been gaining instant popularity, majorly among the web-savvy crowd. As the name suggests, these machines are particularly designed for surfing internet and running light-weight desktop applications. It’s major advantage over laptops is Pocket portability. It might sound a little exaggerated that Netbooks can fit in your pockets but they are extremely light-weight and handy computing machines.

You can carry it without any bag and it will get you on the web within a minute or less after boot-up. The processor capability is relatively less but who really needs that extra efficiency when all what you’re doing is surfing web.

When are they best suited…

• When you want to move around and desire a hassle-free way to get onto the web any moment.
• When you’re supposed to do just web surfing, nothing much. That’s because Netbooks aren’t meant to facilitate heavy resource consumption (powered by cheaper, less powerful processors). More simultaneous applications mean poor Netbook performance.
• When you want a cheaper alternative to laptops

Smartphones/PDA : We’re all used to Mobile handsets for more than a decade now and have been using it mainly for the purpose of voice communication. It’s only been a couple of years when hi-end feature-rich Mobile phones have actually started creating waves in cellphone industry worldwide. Almost all major handset manufacturers are now selling Hi-end mobile phones, aka smartphones across the globe and over the years, the unit cost has gone quite affordable, thanks to over-saturated cellphone industry that keeps putting pressure on the cellphone OEMs to cut cellphone costs for surviving the tough economic times.

Considering the capability and hardware configuration that smartphones are coming up with, one can certainly say that smartphones are no less than Mobile Computer. Most smartphones come with 3G, Wi-Fi support and big touchscreens for better web browsing experience.

When are they best suited…

• When you don’t want to carry a netbook/laptop, just for checking emails on the go or twittering aside
• When you’re about to dump your old cellphone and looking for a better and affordable handset
• When you want another digital platform for keeping up with your web based work on the move

All these Hi-end gizmos have made it possible for the end users to live on the web, anytime, anywhere.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+