Skip to main content

Philadelphia newspapers offer $99 tablet with Gingerbread to subscribers

arnova 10 tabletPhiladelphia’s news junkies will have a chance at a $99 tablet deal courtesy of the Philadelphia Media Network, the parent company behind the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com. The subsidized tablet requires subscription to the Philadelphia digital papers and will come equipped with apps specific to the company’s publications.

Philadelphia Media Network’s promotion to embrace the digital was announced back in July. The subsidized tablet promotion is currently in beta, so it will be limited to the first 5000 who want the product. Along with the pre-installed newspaper apps, subscribers will get access to a multimedia app with expanded picture galleries and videos. The promotion begins September 13 and may be expanded when Black Friday comes around.

Recommended Videos

To get the tablet for $99, you’d have to sign up for a two year subscription to the Inquirer and Daily news at $9.99 a month—which comes down to $339. You can also get a $129 tablet for a one year plan at $12.99 monthly—totaling $285.

The actual tablet that PMN settled on is the Arnova 10 G2, an ANDROID 2.3 Gingerbread tablet manufactured by Archos. The Arnova 10 G2 has itself a 1 GHz porcessor, 512 MB of RAM, a screen resolution of 1024 by 600, 4GB of online storage as well as Flash support.

Is Philadelphia another harbinger of a paperless future? The Tribune also announced a transition to the digital via tablets this month. However, rather than using existing tablets as PMN did, the huge Tribune news corporation is having Samsung build a unique tablet for them and expects to have a trial run soon.

Print publishers are also in talks with Amazon about a creating a digital library of books, with a Netflix-like subscription service. Another print publisher, DC comics, recently announced a reboot of its entire line of titles to make itself more relevant to the digital age. It seems like only a matter of time before paper and ink are relics in our history e-museums.

Phillytablet.com via TechCrunch

Jeff Hughes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a SF Bay Area-based writer/ninja that loves anything geek, tech, comic, social media or gaming-related.
This one iPadOS 26 feature has me excited for the iPhone Fold
Semi-open state of a foldable iPhone concept

Samsung is set to launch the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold book-style folding phone this Summer, but its biggest rival is yet to show its folding phone hand. Apple has long been expected to unveil an iPhone Fold, and the latest rumors suggest that it will launch next year.

I’ve used almost every folding phone released globally, with some exceptions for extremely obscure ones. While I've always been curious what an iPhone Fold would look like, I was fairly certain that Apple shouldn't build it, as I wasn’t sure they could deliver on one necessary feature.

Read more
These are the 4 best alternatives to the Google Pixel 9a
A person taking the Google Pixel 9a out of a pocket.

The best cheap phone race has been reignited by the Google Pixel 9a, which brings the Google Pixel 9 series experience at a significantly lower price. Starting at $449, Google’s latest Pixel offers the flagship processor of its siblings for flagship-level performance, an excellent camera, and long-term software support.

Yet, Google’s software experience won’t be for everyone; there are obvious tradeoffs in the specs sheet to enable the low price; the camera bar design is somewhat polarizing for long-term fans, and there’s no telephoto camera. 

Read more
Apple and Samsung rivalling phones, earbuds and more due at huge July event
The OnePlus Summer Launch Event has five new products, including the Nord 5 and Pad 3 Lite
Five OnePlus products launching in July 2025

OnePlus has confirmed it will host a bumper launch event on July 8, where it will announce five new products, covering phones, headphones, wearables and tablets.

The range of new devices will join the OnePlus 13, OnePlus 13R and OnePlus Pad 3 which arrived earlier this year as the Chinese firm fills out its product offering to compete against Apple, Samsung and co.

Read more