Skytone Alpha-680: Android Netbook!
| by Rob Jackson on April 21st, 2009 |
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Guangzhou Thienthone transmission technology is on a mission to bring technology to children in developing countries by way of their low-cost netbooks and e-education terminals. While the company’s corporate goals are states as providing, “a range of low-cost broadband terminals, so that more people can use the broadband network, reduce the digital divide and improve the problem of wealth disparity,” there is no reason we can’t ALL enjoy the fruits of their labor… especially when it includes an Android Netbook!
This Chinese company uses the “Skytone” brand and it is pretty apparent that the original website is in Chinese – click on “English” in the upper right hand corner and the new title headlining their product lineup is “Enterprise Propaganda”:
Feed us all the propaganda you would like, dear Skytone, for we are hungry for Android! A closer look at the device from various angles? Why of course:
And arguably the most important part… specs:
Not the most amazing specs in the world, we agree. But guess what the rumored price target is for this bad boy? $99 bucks. That’s right folks, an Android Netbook for $99 bucks. Granted there are a few things to keep in mind, namely this is just a rumor, the price could change or be different, the computer could totally suck, it might never launch, it might only be available in China, and the list goes on…
If this truly cost $99 and was the first Android Netbook, I would waste NO time in buying it. For a hundred bucks what do you have to lose? Are you listening Skytone/Guangzhou Thienthone transmission technology? With WiFi, 3G, capacitative touch screen and full 80-key keyboard I’m not sure how you can go wrong. Of course the 128MB RAM and 1GB of flash storage are pretty poor… but hey, we’ve got room to grow (and there is an optional upgrade to 256MB RAM and 4GB, if that counts for anything).
[Skytone.net.cn via Twitter via Joey Cupcake]
1. I-Buddie Android Netbook Gets Tested On Video | Android Phone Fans wrote on April 21, 2009
[...] we were busy telling you about the Skytone Alpha-680 Android Netbook the rest of the interwebz was bringing you news about the I-Buddie Android Netbook [...]
2. Jake wrote on April 21, 2009
Pretty Nifty looking little thing. Yeah, not the best specks but it’s bare minimum or running the interwebs and that’s it. I mean- I wouldn’t assume that anyone who has half a brain and a net book would want to play World Of Warcraft, Counter Strike, or any other type of game on a screen the size of a peanut.
3. Carmex wrote on April 21, 2009
The specs say “Capacitive TouchPad”, not touchscreen. This is just like the little mouse-replacement pads found on most laptops. I’m not saying for sure that this device doesn’t have a touchscreen; I just don’t see any evidence of it listed here. It has plenty of input buttons around the screen so I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the primary method of input when in tablet mode and this guy has no touchscreen at all.
4. Alex wrote on April 21, 2009
The “game key”s couple with the apparently ability to flip the screen over like a tablet pc make me think this could make a great hand-held gaming device. A bit bigger than Gameboy/PSP/DS but maybe that’s a good thing if the gaming area is bigger and hopefully better. Let’s just hope it’s not too heavy and that it does sell in countries other than China and as cheaply as that!
5. John wrote on April 21, 2009
Nice. It’s like someone has been listening to my requests for a 7″ convertible tablet that runs Android :-) Now they’d just fix Android’s software problems.
And, with an ARM CPU, you might even be able to make it multi-boot with Mer, or OpenPandora, for a really nice general purpose machine and/or game machine.
I hope that a) it comes to the US, and b) the RAM and Storage are easily handled with after-market add-ons (like an easy to upgrade SSD module or something).
6. ricord wrote on April 22, 2009
Big year for Google.China is a huge market,it is only the beginning .
7. Nobody wrote on April 23, 2009
No Bluetooth?
8. Ted wrote on April 24, 2009
WTH!?!?… It shows Windows XP running in the second pic of the laptop…(where it shows the Camera, Game Key 1, Game Key 2, and the Trackpad)… why?… maybe its a hoax!