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Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week

By | July 27, 2010, 2:15am PDT

Summary: There’s another tablet computer on the loose, and this time it’s a 7-inch Android-based slate from Augen with a nice looking price tag at Kmart.

There’s another tablet computer on the loose, and this time it’s a 7-inch Android-based slate from Augen with a nice looking price tag at Kmart.

Also referred to as the Gentouch78, the tablet runs on Android 2.1 out of the box. The processor is unnamed, but it runs at 800Mhz. The specs are on the budget side of the spectrum, such as the 800×400 resolution TFT touchscreen, 2GB of storage space and 256MB of memory.

But there is a SD/MMC expansion slot that allows up to 16GB of more space, built-in Wi-Fi, an included leather carrying case, and users can watch 720p HD videos. Unfortunately, battery life remains a mystery.

Best of all, this gadget only costs $150 over at Kmart’s online store.

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K Mart, Android, Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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good idea about android
gavin.chan 1st Oct
A good post. Thanks for sharing.Hi, do you own a tablet pc? We supply kinds of tablet computers, including 3g wifi tablet . Buy a nvidia tablet pc from China at wholesale price.v0N5t
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RE: Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week
boomchuck1 27th Jul 2010
I hope this turns out to be a good quality machine. Apple needs some quality competition in this market. Competition is good for the market and good for the consumer. Without it we'd probably all still be using Apple ][ and PC DOS systems!
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RE: Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week
petem@... 27th Jul 2010
for that price.. it is almost worth just getting one to test out....!
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RE: Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week
kyron.gustafson@... 27th Jul 2010
Their e-book reader has a 400mHz ARM9 processor. I would guess this is using the 800mHz ARM9 processor.

I wonder why storage is limited to 16GB SD card? The e-book reader (The Book) supports up tp 32GB.
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Every Kid (young and old) in the Family can have one!
i2fun@... 27th Jul 2010
Augen is not new to computer devices and it must be an Arm chip. So if it's an Arm and it's running Android 2.1 it's most likely overclockable. Kick that baby up to 1ghz and load up Opera Mini and you'll be cruising the Web in style!


Here's correct specs:
800x480 color TFT touch panel screen
? CPU: 800 Mhz
? Ram: DDR2 256mb
? Internal Memory: 2GB
? Expansion Slots: SD/MMC card slot up to 16GB
? Wi-Fi Connectivity with Full Web Browsing Capability
? Supports Ebook Formats: Text, PDF, E-PUB, HTML
? Supports Media Formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC
? Supports most popular E-Book formats
? Picture Viewer in JPEG, BMP
? Video Player
? Rechargeable Lithium Battery
? Carrying case included

Augen Gentouch Homepage:
http://www.augenus.com/indexhome.html/GENTOUCH.html

So it has Lithium-ion Battery and same 256mb Ram as iPad. The screen relative to it's 7" size with GPU capable of displaying 720P means it's at least as capable as the SGX530 in iPad and most likely is one. So as PC's were the Mac Killer putting one in nearly every household, this could be the iPad Wifi killer putting two to three for the price of one iPad in every household! I imagine these are going to sell like HOTCAKES! grin

BTW..... with one USB port (which I imagine it has) you can make it 3G capable. At least in Europe. But you can buy the small USB 3G module from UK and put in your own sim card. Those can also be purchased on ebay for T-Mobile and AT&T Pay As You Go! In Europe they're cheap and you can get one with cheap USA roaming there and knock down the cost below getting local data service!
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RE: Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week
BigRonW 27th Jul 2010
Sub $100 7" Android tablets have been around on Ebay for a while. I wondered how long it would take ZD Net to notice! The "RobotPad" I bought for my 82 year old Mother arrived with me (here in the UK) today. Admittedly not nearly as good as an iPod... but for a mere fraction of the price, they're "quite good enough", and represent excellent value for money. They won't appeal to the "Look at ME! I've got a solid gold wristwatch" iGizmo crowd. But to the vast majority (to whom cost really IS an issue) a genuinely affordable iPad equivalent will be a hot seller. I bought it as a dirt-cheap eBook reader with built-in WiFi and access to a plethora of cheap-or-free Apps that are VERY easy to install.
Can't speak for this particular model, but many of the new "aPads" (short for "Android Pads") DO NOT WORK with European 3G "Dongles." (Huawei pretty much has the European dongle market sewn up) However, I hear that made-for-China dongles WILL work, if fitted with a working SIM card. Do some research before parting with cash!
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Kmart's
janitorman 28th Jul 2010
Ereader "the booK' was a bust, they're not available. For 90 bucks, it would have been an acceptable e-reader IF I COULD FIND ONE.
Bet ya that because of the shortage of screens, they won't produce very many of these, either. And c'mon.. KMART? I stopped shopping there years ago with the Martha debacle.
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RE: Augen Android-based tablet headed to Kmart this week
rocknrob@... Updated - 28th Jul 2010
@janitorman

Perhaps if you were to frequent your local Kmart, you would see for yourself that times have changed since the good old days of Martha and Kmart. As far as "The Book" goes, they are still available and I've sold two to customers last week without any whining about the price. Yes, I work in the electronics dept. Far from a bust, the eReader has sold rather well in my local store. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Augen Android will do. By the way, we're just called Kmart now. No longer "The Big K". P.S. Blue Light Specials are back too.
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good idea about android
gavin.chan 1st Oct
A good post. Thanks for sharing.Hi, do you own a tablet pc? We supply kinds of tablet computers, including 3g wifi tablet . Buy a nvidia tablet pc from China at wholesale price.v0N5t

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