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CUSTOMISED: Beetel Teletech Executive Director and CEO Vinod Sawhny at the launch of tablet in New Delhi on Wednesday

Bharti Group firm Beetel Teletech on Wednesday entered the tablet market by introducing its feature-rich Beetel Magiq, loaded with high-end features and priced at Rs.9,999.

With Android 2.2 operating system, Beetel's first tablet has customised applications to attract Indian customers.

Beetel Magiq with SIM calling feature has a 7.0 inch screen, 2 Megapixel front and rear camera, and 8 GB internal memory that is expandable to 16 GB. The device has long battery life and is equipped with 1 GHz processor for advanced multimedia experience that also supports WiFi and 3G. Beetel Magiq is being manufactured by China's Huawei Telecommuni- cations.

Stating that the company has no immediate plans to start its manufacturing in India, Beetel Teletech Executive Director and CEO Vinod Sawhny said: “Our tablet is not only about affordability but also about advanced features that were previously available in the high-end devices and not within the reach of the majority of Indian customers.” Stating that Beetel would introduce affordable and feature-rich mobile devices soon, including Android-based smartphones, Mr. Sawhny said: “Our design and development team is working on prototype devices which will change the landscape of the Indian mobile market.”

Almost 1.5-crore mobile phones are being sold in India every month, around 10 per cent of which are smartphones. “Sale of smartphones is gradually increasing and it will have an impact on the sales of tablets too,” Mr. Sawhny added

Sony shocks with budget PSP E-1000: A step too far?

With the global economy in a dubious state, this year’s GamesCom has been all about austerity so far, with huge cost cut already revealed. The Sony PSP is the latest to join the budget ranks, with the new PSP E-1000 set to take on the newly affordable Nintendo 3DS.

The Sony PSP E-1000 is the latest games console to head out of GamesCom, and it looks suspiciously like the old Sony PSP 3000. Same shape, same design, with only a new lick of matt black paint to distinguish it.

Internally, Sony has made a huge change to help it dip below the 100 Euros mark, and the company hopes this will be enough to help it compete with the Nintendo 3DS until the PS Vita is launched in 2012.

Unfortunately, the change is the omission of Wi-Fi, and it could well be enough to put most people off. It means you won’t be able to battle online in some of the latest titles, for a start, and the lack of internet connection also means you won’t even be able to download the latest titles straight from your PSP.

You will still be able to download games – but it’ll involve a computer, aUSB cable and a lot of faffing around.