Tablet startup Kno has created a single screen slate specifically for students in the hopes of making electronic textbooks a widespread reality on college campuses.
The tablet will have a 14.1-inch screen, making it the biggest slate to become available. It will have a touchscreen and a stylus to take notes on the device.
In June, Kno showed off a dual-screen device that would have two 14-inch LCD touchscreens that fold in like a book. The idea behind the device was to make textbook pages fit perfectly across the screen and flow from one digital page to another.
The company plans to ship both the single and dual-screen tablet by the end of the year. However, it hasn?t announced pricing for either of the products. The dual-screen version was expected to cost ?under a $1000.?
?Our new tablet will be absolutely cheaper than the dual screen version,? Osman Rashid, co-founder and CEO of Kno said at the TechCrunch Disrupt event where the device was introduced.
Detailed specs for the single screen tablet are not yet available. But it is expected to be powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor. The tablet will also have a stylus for handwriting recognition, a full browser and support Flash.
Apple?s iPad has led to renewed interest in tablets. Companies such as Dell and Samsung have released tablets in the last few months. But most of those devices are targeted at general consumers. Kno bills itself as the first tablet created exclusively for students.
But Kno?s competition is likely to come from iPad apps. For instance, a startup calledInkling has created a rich, beautifully designed iPad app that delivers textbooks to students. Inkling is working with publishers to offer coursework and texbooks in areas such as biology, management and engineering. Users can pay for just a chapter of a book or buy an entire textbook through the app.
The Kno tablet, says Rashid, will help students do more. The device lets users draw, take notes, create stickies on it, highlight text and collaborate with other students.
Kno, which was started in September last year and now has more than 90 employees, says it has written its own software that will ?normalize? books in the PDF format. It will also add interactive elements to the books and allow students to make notes and annotate the margins of an electronic textbooks.
Similar to Amazon?s Kindle, Kno hopes to have its own bookstore.
The company has inked deals with four major textbook publishers, including McGraw Hill, Pearson and Wiley.
Check out more photos of the Kno:
Kno tablet has a touchscreen and a stylus
Students can take notes and highlight text on the tablet.
See Also:
- Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook
- Kno Releases Details and Video of Multi-Screen Reading Tablet ?
- Toshiba Dual Screen PC Folds Like a Book
- Startup Gives Digital Textbooks the Ol? College Try
- Startup Plans Pocketable Dual-Screen E-Reader
Photos: Kno
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