Tablets at just Rs 25 for Goa Students

Are you a student from Goa ?? If yes then there is a great offer for you, the state government is offering the Tablet at just Rs 25 for all the students.

In a significant move to digitally empower school students, the state government of Goa is all set to provide tablets or notebook to school students for just Rs 25. Not only this, as per the officials, the state government is working to purchase nearly 50,000 notebooks and tablet PCs for distribution amongst the students.

Anil Powar, additional director education, stated, “The digital largesse is a part of the Goa government education department’s initiative to familiarise Class V and VII students with computers in order to “prepare them for the life ahead and get them curious about the e-systems."

“General category students will have to pay only Rs. 25 while SC and ST students will have to pay Rs 10 to register for the scheme," added Powar. The official said that the state government was making arrangements for purchasing nearly 50,000 notebooks and tablet PCs for distribution.

“All the computers will have a special e-learning packages. After a day in class, the students will now be able to revise their tutions at home over the tablets,” Powar said, informing that a provision of Rs 95 crore had already been made for the purchase of the computers in the last budget presented by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

In order to ensure that there is no misuse of the computers for pornographic purposes and other questionable and suspected Web applications, all the systems will be pre-installed with inbuilt security systems. Not only this, the education department will also take an undertaking from the student’s parents before handing over the computers. "It is a no objection certificate saying they are OK with us giving them the computers. The parents should also be in a position to both goad the students to logging onto the right websites," he said.   

Sources: Efytimes 

Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet at Ultrabook Price

Microsoft is going to release its Surface pro Tablet next month at the same price as that of ultrabook.

The device will go on sale in the United States on 9 February starting at $899, or about £565, without a Touch Cover keyboard.

It did not announce plans for a British launch, saying it will use a "phased approach" for the Surface Pro, with "additional markets to follow in the coming weeks and months".

The Surface looks very similar to the Surface RT, introduced in October, but contains a more powerful x86 processor to run the full version of Windows 8, allowing owners to use the full range of Windows apps. It also has a high definition screen and comes with a stylus.

The Surface RT contains power-efficient ARM-based processor and runs a slimmed down version of Windows 8 that only runs apps designed for tablet computing.

Although slightly thicker and heavier, the Surface Pro therefore has significantly shorter battery life of about four and a half hours.

Commentators have expressed doubts as to whether Microsoft can convince customers to pay as much for a tablet, albeit a powerful one, as they would for an ultrabook.

“The end result is a product that does a big chunk of what a tablet can do and a big chunk of what a PC can do, but it's not a perfect replacement for either,” wrote Peter Bright of Ars Technica.

“If Surface Pro is held up against conventional tablets, the result will be catastrophic, but the comparisons with Ultrabooks aren't clear-cut either.”

Microsoft is yet to release sales figures for the Surface RT, its attempt to respond to the iPad in the consumer market. UBS this week halved its estimate for the quarter to one million.

Apple sells tens of millions of iPads each quarter.