It's not everyday that an Internet service provider outs it very own Android tablet, so you should know that Germany's 1&1 has unveiled a new Android slate targeting their home subscribers, called the SmartPad. This is a 7-inch touchscreen device that features WiFi connectivity and even has the capacity of using an external USB 3G modem for connecting to the internet.

As for the pre-loaded applications, customers should find several quite a few useful ones on the SmartPad, including an ebook reader, weather broadcast and social networking widgets, as well as a digital photo frame viewer. Additionally, the Android tablet will be sold with an optional docking station sporting a remote control and subwoofer.

Hardware-wise, the SmartPad brings a SD card slot, shipped with an included 2GB capacity model, and customers can expand memory via the USB host port. According to mobiFlip, the SmartPad operates on a 500MHz ARM11 processor, backed by 256MB of RAM and 1GB ROM. The operating system version that will be first available is Android 1.6, but 1&1 mentiones there's an upcoming update to 2.2 scheduled for September 2010.

Offered to new clients, the 1&1 SmartPad lacks access to the Android Market, and instead offers users its own application store, that for the moment only includes 100 titles. Arriving sometime this month, 1&1 has yet to mention a price for the SmartPad.



We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is