Auraslate launches two new open source Lifepad tablets

Auraslate, a recently established company which is also part of Wacom Corporation, has reportedly unveiled two new tablets, called Lifepad 726B and Lifepad 1026 aimed at programmers, hackers and alike. Essentially, the idea behind the project is to provide the previously-mentioned professionals with an open source device that they can experiment on.

The Lifepad 1026 is supposedly capable of running Android’s latest 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and offers a single-core ARM Cortex A9 central processing unit with a frequency of 800MHz (overclockable to 1GHz). Furthermore, the slate sports a Mali-400 graphics controller and is equipped with a 4:3 capacitive multitouch-enabled Corning Gorilla Glass display (1026-by-768 pixels native resolution) that measures 10-inch in diagonal.

This model also houses 512MB of internal DDR2 RAM, 4GB storage capacity (up to 32GB through the integrated microSD card reader slot) and a 6000mAh Lithium-Ion battery that presumably has an autonomy period of up to 5-6 hours. Other features include built-in Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 2.1 modules, mini-HDMI output for viewing Full HD content on an external HD monitor or an HDTV, mini-USB 2.0 port and a front-facing VGA web camera for video calls.

The Lifepad 726B has pretty much the same specs except for a smaller 7-inch display (no Gorilla Glass here) with a resolution of 800-by-480 pixels. More importantly, the two tablets are available as part of two development kits that include the slates, power adapters, usb cables, Aura Forum access, Aura ROM updates and a source code disk. Price starts at $139 for the 726B model and $250 for the higher-end Lifepad 1026.

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