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"LAPTOPSDESKTOPSTABLETSPHONESSOFTWARECAMERASHDTVSPRINTERSMORE  Top SearchesOnline BackupWindows 8AndroidiPad TrendingiPhone 5CDMA vs GSMWin 8Sports Headphones HomeProduct GuidesLaptops & NotebooksTabletsBudget-Friendly Tablets for School Budget-Friendly Tablets for School Can't cough up the half-grand to tote a new iPad around campus this semester? These six very capable Android tablets come at a fraction of the price. By Eugene Kim August 22, 2012 0 CommentsGoogle 1 Share 29 Tweet 18 Submit 9230 Share 0 Pin It 0 EmailPrint It's that dreadful time of year again. Your beach tan is slowly fading and the warm days of carefree existence are quickly slipping away-it's time to get back into the school groove. A shiny tablet, like the New Apple iPad, might help cure those back-to-school blues, but that $500 entry price likely has your student checking account shuddering in fear. The thing is, though, you can get a very capable tablet that lets you watch videos, hit Facebook and Twitter, read books (even textbooks!), and do much more, for less than half the price of an iPad. The first question is: Do you even need a tablet? The short answer is probably not. If your intentions are strictly academic, which, ahem, I'm sure they are, then a simple laptop should do you fine. Tablets lack physical keyboards, have relatively small screens, aren't very good at multitasking, and have limited printer support-all crucial needs for the budding scholar. But there's more to school than academics. In between all those carbonated beverages, you'll want to unwind with your favorite TV shows, movies, music, and games-and that's exactly where tablets excel. They're lightweight, easy to use, fast and responsive, and perfect for media consumption. Plus, there's an ever-growing selection of apps at your disposal to help your tablet do even more. There are plenty of cheapo tablets out there, with shoddy builds, aging hardware, and outdated software, but there are also some excellent bar

The next wave of that impact won't come from iBooks 3 or the new version of iBooks Author, which are both nice, but relatively minor updates. If anything from Tuesday's event will help push digital textbook adoption forward, it's the hardware. Specifically, the iPad Mini. By offering a $329 tablet, Apple suddenly made iPad adoption notably more affordable for cash-strapped school districts. Apple also released the fourth generation 10-inch iPad, which should help drive down the price of the company's older devices as well. 

"It's that last part that intrigues me, however. I know that many, many families and schools will be hard-pressed to digest even the 16 GB Wi-Fi model at $329 in K-12 --  educational discounts notwithstanding. As we know, Mr. Cook likes to brag about how well the iPads are doing in schools, but two factors remain missing: a really affordable price and strong corporate initiatives in the K-12 marketplace. Is Apple missing an opportunity?"

Hawaii's proposed budget for the next biennium, which the Ed Board approved last week, calls for spending more than $14 million next fiscal year and about $22 million the following year to buy laptops and tablets for students.