Move over Ipad

I am lusting for an IPad but can't afford one. (25000 pesos/500 dollars)

An alternative is the cheaper 7000 peso (120 dollar) android computers they are promoting here for high school kids to read books on (and of course connect with their friends and play games). The only reason I haven't bought one of these is that their battery life is short. I would buy a Kindle, but they are not easily available here, and of course, there is the problem in translating my pdf file books to their system.

Now the LATimes reports that India has underpriced them both with a $10 dollar tablet computer, using a stripped down Android system.

Here, it is practical: We can't afford books. Especially textbooks.

So putting school books on tablets alone will save money. Lots of free books on line, (example LINK LINK2, LINK3) and in worst case scenerios, there is always the Pirate bay, which has medical and college textbooks to pirate.

One of these days, they will make Kindle downloads cheaper than used paperbacks, but since I can't download anything from Amazon, because of copyright restrictions, I have to wait two years to get most best sellers at our used book kiosk. They also get a lot of trade paperbacks (I've picked up books on Roman history, the Inklings, biography and even books on Turkish history or the history of the Aztecs and Incan civilizations there).

As ebooks take over the world, there is a real danger that we in Asia won't have access to buy such used paperbacks, so one hopes that someone gets the message and makes cheap ebooks for the masses.