Just received next weeks ad (7/25-7/31) and the front page shows a picture of the tablet for $149.99. Description says "Google Android OS. Read ebook. Watch a video and listen to music. Wi-fi built in."
That's not it. That's the same tablet that Kmart had for $89 earlier in the week. It runs off of Linux, not Android.
I haven't heard of this Augen Android tablet. Hopefully it's promising and the specs are a little better than the junky Chinese ones flooding the market right now. The guy they have running the tech support forums at Augen seems to be on his game and answers all spec questions fairly fast. Maybe someone should post over there and see if we can dig up some more info.
Thanks for the tip, guys. Any way you could get a picture of the ad uploaded? Does it still have the keyboard? I'm curious how it compares to my Pandigital Novel.
djspray said: Thanks for the tip, guys. Any way you could get a picture of the ad uploaded? Does it still have the keyboard? I'm curious how it compares to my Pandigital Novel.
From the pic in the ad, it does not appear to have a keyboard.
DarkScout said: ProppaT said: It runs off of Linux, not Android.
And my MacBook Pro runs off of MachKernel, not OS X. My Dell runs NT Kernel, not Windows XP. Sheeva Plug:Linux:not Debian etc..
Come on man, you know what I mean. It runs off of Linux kernel x.x.x, not a specific flavor. The other e-reader is a very stripped down Linux OS made for a few specific tasks. Android is based off of Linux, but it's an extremely specialized OS based off of Linux.
ProppaT said: DarkScout said: ProppaT said: It runs off of Linux, not Android.
And my MacBook Pro runs off of MachKernel, not OS X. My Dell runs NT Kernel, not Windows XP. Sheeva Plug:Linux:not Debian etc..
Come on man, you know what I mean. It runs off of Linux kernel x.x.x, not a specific flavor. The other e-reader is a very stripped down Linux OS made for a few specific tasks. Android is based off of Linux, but it's an extremely specialized OS based off of Linux. In fact, Android is Linux base O/S, specifically customized for mobile devices...& smartphones. Does anyone have a specs...Yep, it's a good price, indeed.
afaiktoit said: Lets see a scan of that thing!This is not particularly useful (yet) but it looks like this is the page where they will announce this new product: hhttp://www.augenus.com/indexhome.html/GENTOUCH.html
Their website makes it look like at least one of their products will support the android market (they link to it). I wasn't aware that google licensed the android market to tablet's but perhaps that is changing?
They online tech support is unavailable now (they are on the east coast). I may try to bother them tomorrow to see if they will release any details of the actual specs...
ProppaT said: Come on man, you know what I mean. It runs off of Linux kernel x.x.x, not a specific flavor. The other e-reader is a very stripped down Linux OS made for a few specific tasks. Android is based off of Linux, but it's an extremely specialized OS based off of Linux.Generally speaking, at least according to wikipedia, anything using the linux kernel is referred to as linux, so it's just another distro AFAIK.
lyeinyoureye said: ProppaT said: Come on man, you know what I mean. It runs off of Linux kernel x.x.x, not a specific flavor. The other e-reader is a very stripped down Linux OS made for a few specific tasks. Android is based off of Linux, but it's an extremely specialized OS based off of Linux.Generally speaking, at least according to wikipedia, anything using the linux kernel is referred to as linux, so it's just another distro AFAIK.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) calls Android an operating system. Yes it is based upon the Linux kernel and yes you could say it is linux. It is both. I don't see why you have a problem with people calling it the Android OS which is how it is branded by Google (in order to stamp their print on it).
PS: Can we please stop the pointless discussion of what to call the OS and please focus on the merits of this potential deal?
I'm returning the Pandigital Novel to BBB and trying this over the weekend. The Pandigital is really slow and unstable even with their latest firmware dated 7/18/2010. Also was considering the Eken M002 from PandaWill but you never know what you'll get when you buy directly from China.
Anyone knows what's the return policy from Kmart for this type of item?
theman2 said: lyeinyoureye said: ProppaT said: Come on man, you know what I mean. It runs off of Linux kernel x.x.x, not a specific flavor. The other e-reader is a very stripped down Linux OS made for a few specific tasks. Android is based off of Linux, but it's an extremely specialized OS based off of Linux.Generally speaking, at least according to wikipedia, anything using the linux kernel is referred to as linux, so it's just another distro AFAIK.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system) calls Android an operating system. Yes it is based upon the Linux kernel and yes you could say it is linux. It is both. I don't see why you have a problem with people calling it the Android OS which is how it is branded by Google (in order to stamp their print on it).
PS: Can we please stop the pointless discussion of what to call the OS and please focus on the merits of this potential deal?Every linux distribution is an OS. The point is that anything using the linux kernel is called linux.
Android differs from a conventional Linux distribution in that it uses its own app runtime (Dalvik). Android is not designed to allow developers to port or run standard Linux software. Which, is why it is not correct to say that Android and Linux are one and the same.
Android just uses Linux for the underpinnings, just like Mac OS X uses BSD for its underpinnings. There can be some crossover compatibility, but it's minimal and not intended for mainstream users.
And that, is why, you don't want an e-reader that just says it runs Linux. You don't know what you're going to get... except a high chance of disappointment.
Edit: Considering Augen's size and stature, I wouldn't have high hopes that this is the first revolutionary, economy Android tablet that everyone has been waiting for. If they had something like that, odds are they would have leaked it themselves by now to generate hype.
OK- Augen support has no idea when the Tablet is going to be released!! So OP we need that scan- to make sure that it is not the eReader that we are fussing about instead of the Tablet.....
juh said: •Screen: 7" diagonal 800 x 480 i know it's cheap, but that screen is useless. depends what you want to use it for.....color Reader, net-'social'-tablet etc etc...sounds ok to me.... Definitely nothing more than you-tube type content...SD res etc...nothing high def....but I guess $145 is a fair price-tag for that
BklynJim
New Member
posted: Jul. 23, 2010 @ 1:30p
Just had a Chat with their support (see below). He claims the Gentouch is months away.
Jim: HI Ari: hi sir jim Ari: welcome to the live chat Jim: Do you have any information on the gentouch tablet? Ari: sorry if i respond a bit slow Ari: i'm still engaged in a call\ Ari: the gentouch tablet has not been released yet Jim: is it andriod 1.6? Ari: we are still in contact with the producers to verify the unit's specifics Jim: When can we expect to see it? Weeks or Months? Ari: i apologize Ari: it is a android operating system but Ari: we are not informed of the version yet Ari: it has not yet been cascaded to us Jim: No problem, Thanks for your time. Ari: it will be out in a few months from now Jim: OK Thanks again Ari: the unit that just has been released is the ebook reader "the book" Jim: is that the one at Kmart? Ari: the gentouch tablet has not yet been cascaded to us yet by the productions department that is why Ari: yes Jim: OK thanks.
BklynJim said: Just had a Chat with their support Ari: the unit that just has been released is the ebook reader "the book"
Yeah- thats basically what I was told earlier too - he seemed to think it would be the eReader since they did not have a release date/details on the tablet yet. Although, as I understood our conversation, it could be possible that Kmart (resellers) receive the product directly prior to the web/store......so dont know what to make of it...but unless OP posts a scan, I'm planning to visit the closest Kmart and check it out myself.
Went to my local Kmart and they just received their truckload for this weekend but no Gentouch, they already have the UPC label for it priced at $169.99 on the display cabinet. They should get it anytime soon based on the person working at that dept.
Since no specs are available for this unit could expect the same kind of quality as their The Book eReader, but what we need now is rival company that it will bring down the prices even further like this $35 tablet from India.
JSquare293 said: Went to my local Kmart and they just received their truckload for this weekend but no Gentouch, they already have the UPC label for it priced at $169.99 on the display cabinet. They should get it anytime soon based on the person working at that dept.
Since no specs are available for this unit could expect the same kind of quality as their The Book eReader, but what we need now is rival company that it will bring down the prices even further like this $35 tablet from India.
There wouldn't be much of a market for that $35 tablet here, even if they could bring it here for $35. No one wants a tablet that's slower than their cell phone. They might as well use their cell phone and deal with the smaller screen. That's been one of the major issues with these cheap tablets so far...the hardware just sucks. The specs don't even come close to cell phones floating around from a year or two ago.
As far as the Augen eReader goes, I've heard good things about the physical hardware, it's just the processor and OS that are lagging. I really hope that this Augen tablet is a small cut above the cheapo Chinese ones out now and not a rebranded Eken model. I'll buy the first one of these tablets I see with a capacitive screen and a somewhat modern mobile processor. I don't NEED a super fast tablet, but I want one that's not so slow that I get frustrated trying to do simple tasks.
JSquare293 said: Went to my local Kmart and they just received their truckload for this weekend but no Gentouch, they already have the UPC label for it priced at $169.99 on the display cabinet. They should get it anytime soon based on the person working at that dept.
Since no specs are available for this unit could expect the same kind of quality as their The Book eReader, but what we need now is rival company that it will bring down the prices even further like this $35 tablet from India.So you are saying that they have a UPC label for the Gentouch, right? That means, according to K-mart, it should be released soon.
I'm lowering my expectations on this devised based upon the price and lack of any information on this product. I'm guessing 400-600 Mhz CPU, 3 hour battery life, okay but not great screen, and Android 1.6. If it can get access to android marketplace, I'd probably buy it still.
asuka said: Android differs from a conventional Linux distribution in that it uses its own app runtime (Dalvik). Android is not designed to allow developers to port or run standard Linux software. Which, is why it is not correct to say that Android and Linux are one and the same.I never said Linux and Android were one and the same. Linux refers to a kernel, not software or an OS. Any OS using the Linux kernel is characterized as Linux.
Wikipedia said: Linux (commonly pronounced /ˈlɪnəks/ LIN-əks in American English,[4][5] also pronounced /ˈlɪnʊks/ LIN-ooks[6] in Europe and Canada) refers to the family of Unix-like computer operating systems using the Linux kernel. Wikipedia said: Cell phones or PDAs running on Linux and built on open source platform became a trend from 2007, like Nokia N810, Openmoko's Neo1973, Motorola RAZR2 v8, Motorola ROKR E8, Motorola MING series, Motorola ZINE and Google Android. The popular TiVo digital video recorder uses a customized version of Linux.
asuka said: Android just uses Linux for the underpinnings, just like Mac OS X uses BSD for its underpinnings. There can be some crossover compatibility, but it's minimal and not intended for mainstream users.OS X uses Mach, BSD is it's own OS. Android does use the Linux kernel, which is why it's generally (at least AFAIK) considered Linux.
lyeinyoureye said: asuka said: Android differs from a conventional Linux distribution in that it uses its own app runtime (Dalvik). Android is not designed to allow developers to port or run standard Linux software. Which, is why it is not correct to say that Android and Linux are one and the same.I never said Linux and Android were one and the same. Linux refers to a kernel, not software or an OS. Any OS using the Linux kernel is characterized as Linux.
Wikipedia said: Linux (commonly pronounced /ˈlɪnəks/ LIN-əks in American English,[4][5] also pronounced /ˈlɪnʊks/ LIN-ooks[6] in Europe and Canada) refers to the family of Unix-like computer operating systems using the Linux kernel. Wikipedia said: Cell phones or PDAs running on Linux and built on open source platform became a trend from 2007, like Nokia N810, Openmoko's Neo1973, Motorola RAZR2 v8, Motorola ROKR E8, Motorola MING series, Motorola ZINE and Google Android. The popular TiVo digital video recorder uses a customized version of Linux.
asuka said: Android just uses Linux for the underpinnings, just like Mac OS X uses BSD for its underpinnings. There can be some crossover compatibility, but it's minimal and not intended for mainstream users.OS X uses Mach, BSD is it's own OS. Android does use the Linux kernel, which is why it's generally (at least AFAIK) considered Linux.This is not a discussion that is relevant to this deal (or hot deals in general). Would you please move your 'what to call the OS argument' outside of hot deals so that we can continue to discuss the value of this potential deal?
TechyMike
New Member
posted: Jul. 23, 2010 @ 4:52p
No I heard it will have Android 2.1 OS.
TechyMike
New Member
posted: Jul. 23, 2010 @ 4:53p
No I hear it has the Android 2.1 OS, far more superior.
I would not return the Pandigital Novel quite just yet versus this thing. We don't know the specs, for example. The PDN is an ARM6, runs Android 2.0 and has 256MB of RAM (allegedly), so it could run Froyo in theory. I also think that the PDN is not very slow, assuming you hack the CPU frequency to get it above the anemic 66 Mhz that the OF uses.
If this Augen has the same specs, or better, than the PDN and it's already using a base Android ROM at 2.0 or higher, then I would seriously consider replacing it over the PDN. But we just don't know, yet.
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