First Ubuntu Tablets To Launch This Autumn

For about three years, sensing the move from the desktop to the mobile device, Canonical have been making Ubuntu more tablet-friendly. Now we hear that tablets (and smartphones) are due to ship with Ubuntu OEM soon.
I've been a fan of Ubuntu for a long time, and if you'd like to try it out to see how easy-to-use free software operating systems are, you can do it online here: http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/ (Tip: full-screen your browser and it's like you're running it natively on your machine.)

Building the XO Learning Tablet | www.morphoss.com

This is a great project that I'm keeping an eye on: a kiwi company that has built a management interface for Android tablets. The big features for educators are parental controls, app curation and deployment, all of which will help educators who want an alternative to iPads, but also want a way to manage multiple devices and stay sane.



"Freeing an idea by One Laptop Per Child, based around a graphical design by The Fuse Project, Morphoss has spent the last year developing & building the user interface and related software for the XO Learning Tablet.

The project to build the XO Learning Tablet was a complex and demanding one, requiring us to delve deeply within the Android OS in order to provide parental controls, support tracking of usage by multiple children. Outside of the direct user interface development we also built web-based administration software to help OLPC track the inclusion and classification of over 100 third-party educational applications. At the same time we also contributed code and translations back to the free software community for a number of projects which are used within the product.

We're proud to have been a part of this process and look forward to continuing to work with One Laptop Per Child as the tablet revolution evolves and develops.

Visit http://www.xotablet.com/ for more information."

All I want for Christmas is an Android tablet

Here's a 'ruggedised' Android tablet designed especially for younger students. The design might be more Fisher-Price than MOMA, but the fact that it's being sold by Toys-R-Us is an indication of how far touchscreen tablets have come in the last two years. Do you think I could buy one and pretend it's for the kids? US$199

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/10/2551758/toys-r-us-nabi-tablet-kids-199-99-price-availability