Hasta La Gadget!

Monkey see, monkey do – that is more or less what some folks think applies to kids. After all, haven’t we seen enough children who want to follow their dads and moms as an example, with little girls wearing make-up, while little boys doing their best to hold back their tears each time they fall down and scrape their knees? Having said that, with the plethora of gadgets and gizmos that us adults carry with us these days, it goes without saying that there will be little ones out there who would be bugging their parents to also purchase a touchscreen smartphone and a tablet. This might look cute from the outside, but the family dynamics have been altered in this way. Ematic seizes the opportunity to bring balance to families by introducing their FunTab Pro tablet.

The FunTab Pro tablet is not just any ordinary, run-of-the-mill tablet. Sure, it might come with a $149.99 price tag, but that does not mean it skimps on quality. You will find that it is made out of some rugged construction and design choices, while delivering a custom interface which offers nothing but fun, educational and parent-approved content for a safe online experience. Yes sir, with the number of weirdos stalking the Internet these days, you can never be too safe, can you?

The Ematic FunTab Pro will run on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and Roy Rayn, President of Ematic, has this to say, “Ematic teamed up with Zoodles Kids Mode to create a safe and educational online learning experience for children. Zoodles is the top app for kids, and leads your child through every step of the interface with large buttons and vocal cues.” With a rubberized texture and ergonomic design, the rubber coating ensures one has a secure grip, while the original shape fits perfectly in small hands.

Other hardware specifications of the FunTab Pro include a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal memory, a microSD memory card slot for expansion purposes, a 7” 800×480 multi-touch screen, front and back cameras, built-in WiFi, HDMI output and a claimed 8 hours of continuous playtime.

Press Release
[ Ematic takes a stab at the childrens’ tablet market copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Even though the market’s currently populated with slabs such as Archos’ ChildPad or LeapFrog’s LeaPad 2, the race to become the go-to child-friendly tablet could still be considered as wide open. Having previously introduced its FunTab for kids, Ematic’s not exactly a newcomer to this territory, and this time out the company’s looking to build on that with the announcement of a slightly more powerful “Pro” model. Inside the 7-inch, 800 x 480 FunTab Pro, parents and children alike will find an undisclosed 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, a taste of Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich and 8GB of onboard storage which can be expanded up to 32GB by way of microSD. Additionally, Ematic’s placing emphasis on the built-in Zoodles features that “create a safe and educational online learning experience for children,” plus the inclusion of pre-loaded apps like Skitch, School Assistant, Cut The Rope and none other than Angry Birds. The FunTab Pro will be available at Walmart (and other retailers) for $150 — and, yes, that includes the colorful, interchangeable faceplates you see in the gallery below.

Continue reading Ematic outs 7-inch FunTab Pro with ICS and a Zoodles mode for kids, available for $150

Filed under: Tablets

Ematic outs 7-inch FunTab Pro with ICS and a Zoodles mode for kids, available for $150 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Ematic  | Email this | Comments

Just when you thought that $89.99 for a tablet device which runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is pretty cheap, not to mention highly affordable, along comes a company like Ematic who will continue to push the bar further, although some might say that it drops the bar instead. After all, the $89.99 price point has just experienced yet another drop thanks to Ematic’s efforts with the eGlide 4 which will retail for $10 cheaper – that means it is going for a mere $79.99. I wonder what is the absolute minimum price point for Android-powered tablets in the future even as the manufacturing process becomes more efficient?

Well, the Ematic eGlide 4 might be dirt cheap, but does that mean Ematic has decided to sacrifice quality and performance in the process? This is definitely something that we will need to look into, especially when you consider the fact that one’s dollar bill can only stretch so far in these economically challenging times. Let us take a closer and detailed look at the eGlide 4 in the extended post.

Just like the Matrix One Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, so too, will the Ematic eGlide 4 come with a 7″ touchscreen display that makes it easy for you to carry it around on a single hand without having it lead you to experience cramps later on. The processor underneath the hood is slower than what you will find in many of the higher end smartphones of today though, as we are looking at just 1GHz of clock speed, but if you are going to use the eGlide 4 for basic functions like checking your email, replying them, updating your Facebook and Twitter accounts, while typing out a document on Google Docs, it might just be enough to pass by.

Forget about using this as a dedicated portable gaming machine, the hardware certainly does not seem capable of living up to expectations. As for storage space, you will get 4GB of internal memory that is accompanied by 512MB RAM, while you can make further use of the provided 5GB of cloud storage with each purchase. Just in case all of that is not enough, make full use of the microSD memory card slot that will help bump up the final memory count by another 32GB.

The eGlide 4 has an edge for students as it will feature a built-in voice recorder, allowing one to snooze at the back row of class while the eGlide does the job of recording down whatever your lecturer is saying. An Office Suite application has also been thrown into the mix for opening up essential Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files that are widely used by just about anyone. Any takers?

Product Page

[ Ematic helps plunge Android tablet prices further copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Ematic has a tendency to release a lot of tablets, so what’s one more? In the case of the eGlide Pro X, quite a bit. The newly shipping model uses a 9.7-inch, 4:3 ratio display that will be quite familiar to some, but which is still quite rare in the narrower, 16:10-happy world of Android 4.0. It’s thankfully more than just superficials that get the boost. We’d say that the Pro X is just that slightly more pro than its XL Pro ancestor through a faster 1.2GHz processor and a doubled 8GB of built-in storage. A microSD slot, HDMI, Kobo’s book app, and Ematic’s own Google-replacing software all show their familiar faces. The $220 price currently makes this latest of eGlides a good bargain, but we have a hunch you might want to wait until Google I/O — you never know what you might get.

Ematic unwraps 9.7-inch eGlide Pro X tablet, widens its Android 4.0 horizons in a literal sense originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Ematic  | Email this | Comments