The Camangi WebStation, an Android powered tablet device, goes on sale in December. Interested parties have two days left to submit their info for a discount voucher good toward the purchase of one of these tablets.
What exactly is the Camangi WebStation? It’s a tablet device running Android OS 1.5. It sports a 7″ 800×480 resistive touch screen. Via wi-fi, it does much of what your Android phone does, minus the phone functionality. In other words, it’s the perfect laptop device for light web use around the house, and it does it in a 5″ x 8″ 14 oz. package.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzkODn9WEzM
Drawbacks to the Camangi WebStation include the screen being resistive instead of capacitive, and application memory being limited to 256 megabytes. This is an especially big drawback as Android does not allow apps to run off the SD card, so once you’ve filled your 256 megs, that’s all she wrote. The 8 gigabyte SD card will accomodate your music, movies and photos, but it won’t do you any good for applications.
Camangi is also producing an app store for the WebStation, similar to what Android phone users enjoy. Via the app store, WebStation owners will be able to add applications and games to their WebStation. Most of the Android Market apps are free, and the few commercial examples are usually only $1-$5. If Camangi follows through and populates their store with Android Market apps, WebStation owners will have a big plus over owners of similar android devices as the Android Market supports phones only. Owners of similar Android tablets are likely to be stuck with what the device maker gives them. This makes the WebStation much more similar to its handheld cousins, and that’s a Good Thing.
Drawbacks aside, this is a great little device for light web use around the house. I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that tablets are going to kill off laptops and netbooks, but I do think there is a huge market for tablets. We are going to find out in 2010, as the Camangi WebStation is only the beginning of this flood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLqXPyBWr0g
Camangi WebStation not for you? Keep an eye out, as there will be many devices like this hitting the market in 2010. From 5″ to 15″ resistive and capacitive screens, and varying CPU and memory combinations.
