[ARABNEWS] The first tablet in the Kingdom with the Saudi hardware "KTAB" is soon to appear after seven years of research. It is made in blue and produced by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).Suggested marketing theme: "You can tell it's new, it's blue."
KTAB was produced in partnership between KACST and Mesbah Saudi Technology Company, a large team of engineers and developers. The team who helped to make this innovation a success is headed by Yasser al-Usaifir, CEO of Mesbah Tech.
The picture at the link shows what looks like an Arabic language tablet. The Home, Back, and Windows buttons are identically placed to the ones on mine. It is in fact blue and the logo has a stylized pair of wings and the (Latin) letters KTAB.
The specifications and details of the first Saudi tablet "KTAB" (Kitab is Arabic for "book") were revealed to Arab News in a special interview with al-Usaifir.
Among recognizable icons are a calendar, popup notes, contacts, and Google translate. There's a red one that says English, and a yellow one that says Learning.
The idea behind KTAB arose from the passion of creating a platform for smart devices in the Kingdom to be a research and development base for future technology projects.
Unless it is Android-based, which I'm pretty sure it is, the apps won't transport. That's what killed Blackberry's excellent Playbook.
First, many analyses and surveys were carried out regarding students’ problems and needs regarding carrying heavy devices that did not support all educational aids.
If the KTAB should go the way of the Commodore 64, and you really, really need one, buy an Acer or Samsung. You can change your display language to Arabic from the Settings app. You can also change the keyboard settings so that you can type with Arabic characters. If you use "OK, Google," you can adjust the voice settings to recognize and speak Arabic. Probably, if you own a KTAB, you can do about the same thing in reverse, only to Saudi software engineering standards.
The product also aims to reduce the consumption of paper used in printing. "KTAB is an educational channel, not a substitute for the teacher or the books, but a complementary and supportive educational tool, especially for young students as it aims to encourage them to use technology in a useful way," said al-Usaifir.
Or if you have a granddaughter, she can spend lots of time watching Peppa Pig on YouTube.
| Pigs are forbidden to Muslims, as I recall... |
I use my Androids mostly as book readers. I do have a nicely tactile Logitech Bluetooth keyboard, and I used to have a Bluetooth mouse until one of my grandchildren lost it. It turned the tablet into a Qualcomm processor-powered PC. KTAB has Bluetooth as well.
It includes an educational encyclopedia, educational browser and contains dozens of educational sites and application videos with tutorials and explanations. "Note that these applications and their content can be customized according to the needs of the user," al-Usaifir said.
By golly, that's something you can't find on an Android!... No. Wait.
Never mind.
"It is a Saudi tablet, but there are partnerships with foreign international companies to build the tablets in a suitable way until the technology is properly settled and localized."
So they've made it China. If you really want one, go to Alibaba and order it, with free shipping.
KTAB supports 4G and quad-core processor, 2G RAM, 16 GB internal storage capacity, 128 GB capacity, 6000mAh battery, 10x 1920x1080 high-resolution display, 8MP front camera and 2GB front end.
My latest tablet ($64.00, free shipping, natch) also supports 4G. They call them Phablets, because calling them Tlones is linguistically clumsy unless you're an Aztec. I could pop in a SIM card, sign up or prepay with Cricket or AT&T or somebody and it would be a seven inch phone as well as my e-reader. I've got a 128GB mini-SD in it with eight or ten movies my granddaughter likes and lots of room for more.
"Currently, it is sold to government and private agencies and is not available to the public," al-Usaifir said.
Check with Alibaba anyway. They'll sell anybody anything, as long as the credit card goes through.
The technology is wide and can be re-used as needed. The device can be re-allocated for use in many areas, including civil defense, traffic, passports and many government departments. "We are ready to work and develop any hardware or software specialized in a particular area with high security and quality," said al-Usaifir.
In other news, Saudi Arabia has invented what they call a "wheel." I have no idea what it does.