Although Panasonic first introduced its new Android-run tablet / eReader hybrid to the media during this year’s e-Book Expo in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago, the company unfortunately didn’t reveal any other information. That’s all changed now however; as Panasonic has recently announced more details for the upcoming device including specs, release info and a price.
According to a recent article by Serkan Toto over on the techcrunch.com website, the device — which has now been officially named Raboo — will be going on sale as from August 10th, although it will only be launched in Japan. There has been no word at this stage on whether the tablet / eReader hybrid will be available anywhere else in the future, but we will keep you updated.
The Panasonic Raboo will run on the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and although it won’t provide access to the Android Market, it does come with 16 apps pre-installed. The device — which weighs in at 400g and measures 206 x 133 x 13.9mm – comes with a 7-inch LCD touch-screen color display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and DIGA / VIERA link.
It also comes with 8GB of internal memory, although Sovan Mandal over at goodereader.com states that only 4.5GB of that will be available to the user. The Panasonic Raboo tablet / eReader also comes with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 500mWx2ch speakers and a battery life of up to 6 hours (up to 10.5 hours with music only).
Although the device doesn’t come with an HDMI port, it does feature a USB port and microSDHC / SDHC card slots. The pre-installed apps include Adobe reader, browser and mail client. The upcoming device will not only feature XMDF file support, it will also have the ability to playback audio and video files such AAC, WMA, MP3, H.264, WMV and MPEG-4 files.
The Panasonic Raboo — which is in fact short for Rakuten Books (Japan’s biggest e-commerce company) — will provide users with access to a library of 10,000 e-books from the word go. As for the price, the Raboo will be priced up at 34, 800 Yen (roughly around $445). We’ve embedded a video below this post, so you can see the tablet / eReader in action.
Would you like the Panasonic Raboo to be available outside of Japan?
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