New $35 tablet computer released in India

Empowering the disempowered with affordable technology in India (ctv.ca)

India launches $35 tablet computer aimed at world's poor

NEW DELHI (USA Today) - India introduced a cheap tablet computer today, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty.

The computer, called [the] Aakash, or "sky" [actually "space," which includes all the visible sky] in Hindi [akasha in Sanskrit], is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include [the world's cheapest computer with alternative power,] $2,040 compact Nano car, a $15 water purifier, and $2,000 open-heart surgery.

Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers. In comparison, the cheapest Apple iPad tablet costs $499, while the recently announced Kindle Fire will sell for $199.

Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India's hope of getting its 220 million children online.

Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal called the announcement a message to all children of the world. "This is not just for us. This is for all of you who are disempowered," he said. "This is for all those who live on the fringes of society." More

Apple Bans Bikinis (no more sexy apps)

Apple gets rid of "too sexy" apps
(Sun) The Apple app store is massively popular among iPhone users with three billion apps being downloaded since it was launched. What will it ban next?

• Apple bans some apps for sex-tinged content (NY Times)
• Apple, there's pornography on my iPhone. The app is called Safari. You made it. (Washington Post)
• What is Apple ban on sexy apps about? (NY Breaking News)

1984: Amazon sued over Kindle deletion

SEATTLE – A high school student is suing Amazon.com Inc. for deleting an e-book he purchased for the Kindle reader, saying his electronic notes were bollixed, too. Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos has apologized to Kindle customers for remotely removing copies of the George Orwell novels 1984 and Animal Farm from their e-reader devices. More>>

• Video: Kindle gets a competitor (ABC News)
• Space shuttle lands safely after 16 days, 6.5 million miles
• Invasive surgery another thing to sell migraine sufferers?
• More: Popular • Odd

"1984" Today (Amazon.com's Kindle)

(WQ) One of the often overlooked details about the visionary and fateful Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (a classic must-read few seem to take seriously nowadays) is that at that time in the future (the year is not known), in that dystopia, all information is subject to constant revision: The main character (Winston Smith) works at the Ministry of Truth, overseen by an invasive, citizen-spying, totalitarian government known as "Big Brother." His full-time job is to retract, revise, and re-issue "reality" (Pravda-style) for official purposes. Facts are fabricated. History is altered. Inconvenient people are erased. Irony of ironies, Kindle (Amazon.com's new electronic-book distribution platform) is set to do the same thing as it proved today. Geekbrief TV reports.

"Amazon caused all kinds of controversy today when it took back books Kindle users had bought. The books in question were George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 from publisher MobileReference. Amazon later released a statement..." (GBTV Episode 597).