We will\’t say we\’ve heard of Augen before, but the company certainly sparked our interest (and that of Kmart circular readers) this weekend with its $149.99 7-inch Android tablet. Oh yes, you heard right shoppers — the small Florida-based shop is bringing an Android 2.1 tablet with WiFi, 2GB of storage and 256MB of RAM to a store near you for just 150 buckaroos. And in step with an Augen spokesperson, it’s going to have access to the Android \” Market App Store.\” That sounds pretty awesome for the cost, but we — in conjunction with a considerable number of readers we\’ve heard from — haven\’t been ready to locate the 7-inch tablet at any Kmart retail location just yet. (Yes, we even spent an attractive ten minutes on hold with our local store while they checked the inventory.) We\’re told by Augen that the device ought to be hitting shelves later this week, though the company was unsure it’s going to ever land on Kmart\’s online store. Besides the 7-inch tablet, Augen has also released its $89 TheBook e-reader with an identical 7-inch LCD. It doesn\’t run Android, but you may inspect an in-depth analyze its Linux OS within the eReader\’s video review after the break. We\’ll be keeping an ear to the ground on the provision of the tablet and should be seeking to get one in our hands to substantiate the preloaded Market, but let us know inside the comments in case you\’ve had any luck yourselves.
[Thanks, Matthew]

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