Filed under: Laptops

I-Slate’s probabilistic chip-powered tablet PC for the OLPC set originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Laptops

OLPC eyes ARM processors for the XO-2 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OLPC-toting Rwandan students flock to airport for free WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get ready, India’s $10 laptop is set for its first unveiling on February 3rd. Ok, so it’s not quite $10… $20 actually, but that’s far better than the $100 some were estimating. It’s also much better than the $200 per OLPC XO deal that Negroponte wanted to reportedly charge the Indian government more than 2 years ago — an offer rejected by officials with a promise to young Indians to do it better and for less. According to some reports (we can’t find anything official), the laptop will feature 2GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power. The Devil’s in the details, they say, but with any luck, India will be swimming in cheap silicon within the next 6 months if the project can keep to schedule… that’s a big IF.

[Via TechTicker, image courtesy of FMCKids]

Read — Unofficial specs
Read — February 3rd unveiling

Filed under: Laptops

India’s $10 laptop coming February 3rd, take that Negroponte originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Negroponte raps about OLPC 2: ‘designed as if we were Google’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/hardware/OLPC_2_0_dual_touchscreen_mockup_surfaces_in_the_wild’; What we’re staring at here is apparently the first “in the wild” shot of the promised dual touchscreen OLPC 2.0. As far as we can tell (thanks, Mr. Blurrycam), we’d wager this is a purely non-working mockup, since that “touchscreen” looks a bit too much like “glued-on paper” to us, but we’re really short on info otherwise. What is encouraging here is that apparently someone is taking this dual screen idea seriously, and it’s hard to deny that such an improbable form factor could really end up being the shot-in-the-arm this project needs.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

OLPC 2.0 dual touchscreen mockup surfaces in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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John Lennon may have departed this planet 28 years ago, but that’s not to say he can’t still have an impact. With the assistance of technology and the consent of Yoko Ono, the heralded Beatle has returned in a new OLPC spot. In the ad, the late musician proclaims: “Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want.” If this sounds like just the inspiration you needed to get your donation on, hop on past the break to see the vid in its entirety.

[Via Laptop Mag]

Continue reading John Lennon eerily returns to push OLPC cause

Filed under: Laptops

John Lennon eerily returns to push OLPC cause originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s hardly a scientific test, but when a Cnet editor’s 8 year old daughter was given the choice between an OLPC XO laptop running Windows XP or the Linux-based Sugar UI, Sugar was the winner. As Cnet points out, either OS when properly incorporated into the teaching curriculum should serve the children of developing nations equally well. Only one, however, promises to prepare our youth for middle management.

P.S. Amazon’s Give One, Get One program will be limited to Linux according to Cnet and confirmed in the OLPC Wiki — no dual-boot for you Santa.

[Thanks, Justin G.]

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Filed under: Laptops

We knew we’d be seeing a comeback of the Give One, Get One program this year, and now OLPC has confirmed a November 17 date — just in time for the holidays, how convenient for everyone! We’re still not certain on a price, but $399 is quite likely. It’s not like they’re doing the volume right now to drive those costs down, and the component-reduced XO 1.5, which is supposed to actually get close to hitting OLPC’s $100 laptop goals, won’t be landing until next spring. Dual-booting to XP is still unconfirmed.

[Thanks, Charbax]

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Filed under: Laptops

The long wait is up, and Peru is first in line to receive the new Windows flavored XO through the OLPC program. Though not as cute as the bubbly Sugar interface, it will pack more of a real world punch where apps are concerned — each XO is fitted out with an assortment of MS goodies, including Office 2003 and Learning Essentials 1.0 for Office, served on a bed of XP Pro. Now before you get all teary eyed, keep in mind that Sugar lives on, and there’s an emulator out there with your name on it.

[Thanks, Patrick]

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Filed under: Laptops

Now that OLPC has met its One Laptop Per Child goal (in uh, Niue) it’s time to go whole-hog retail. According to Matt Keller, OLPC chief in EMEA, OLPC will resurrect its Give One, Get One XO program in late November with the help of Amazon’s big retail guns. Prices haven’t been disclosed nor has the nimble Sugar or poky XP OS selection. But if history serves, we’ll be looking at $399 for the Sugary pair just like last year.

Update: As it turns out, OLPC says that a dual-boot XP and Sugar OS XO will be shipping in the “next month of so.” Happy pappie?

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Filed under: Laptops

One Laptop Per Child. That was the lofty goal set out by NickNeg before Intel ever dreamed of a Classmate PC. Today that goal was realized although perhaps on a smaller scale than the non-profit may have hoped. The tiny, South Pacific island nation of Niue (known locally as “The Rock”) just issued a shiny new laptop to every sticky-fingered, primary and secondary school miscreant — that’s 500 in total for a island of 1,500 people. Seems, high-schoolers have been fitted with the freebie as well to go along with the free Internet access provided to all the island’s inhabitants. Luxembourg, you paying attention?

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Filed under: Laptops

Here’s the surprise of the century: Windows XP runs excruciatingly slowly on the OLPC XO. We’re shocked, simply shocked. The folks at Laptop Mag got to kick the tires on this fruit of the XO and Microsoft partnership, and while to their credit they’ve manage to build a computer that works and runs real-world applications, it’s not a pretty sight. Sure, most of the hardware is (or will be) supported just fine, though Sugar’s mesh networking is absent, but boot time off of the 4GB SD card is 1 minute and 24 seconds, and once booted into XP you don’t have access to the data on the XO’s 1GB of internal storage. Internet Explorer 6 took a mere 5 seconds to start, but Word 2003 takes 42 seconds of thumb twiddling. Even more disconcerting is that the system is pretty much locked to running one app at a time, since things just get too sluggish after that. The upshot of this is that the OLPC folks are considering a new edition of the original machine with more RAM and a new processor, but we certainly feel sorry for kids to who this existing machine will be their first taste of computing. Well, only a little bit. Back in our day…

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Filed under: Laptops

We know he’s just thinking about the children but damn, if Walter Bender’s latest move doesn’t smack of retribution for Negroponte’s XP-lust. Having successfully spun himself out from under NickNeg’s OLPC, Bender’s UI now owned by his non-profit Sugar Labs might just end up on Intel’s Classmate PC. Right, the same competing platform the OLPC camp had lambasted, repeatedly, for its “shameless” and “half-hearted” behavior in the educational marketplace. Nevertheless, Bender is quoted in an interview saying, “A community volunteer is working with Intel on Sugar for the Classmate PC. Sugar Labs helped to expedite the relationship.” We assume Bender’s loftier goals act as a lithium-salve to what must be a palpable internal turmoil.

P.S. That’s our mockup, Intel declined to comment on the usage of Sugar.

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Filed under: Displays, Laptops

PixelQi, an OLPC project spin-off headed by Mary Lou Jepsen, certainly has its work cut out for it with the OLPC XO-2, due in 2010. Not only is the laptop supposed to support dual touchscreens and consume a mere 1 watt of power, but Mary Lou is also promising better readability, multitouch, and potentially even pen usage and haptic feedback. Interestingly, the projected price for the laptop is $75, which is exactly the pricepoint PixelQi claimed to be working on when it split from the foundation. She remains coy on which OS the new laptop will favor, merely stating: “The display can use whatever software OLPC chooses.” As for partners outside of OLPC, Mary Lou won’t name names, but she says PixelQi is “working with large, tier-one laptop, cell phones, and e-book makers.” Forget 2010, give us a full color e-book tablet by the end of the year and we’ll forget all this XO nonsense entirely.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Walter Bender might be disappointed in the OLPC’s defection to Windows XP, but the former head of Sugar OS development isn’t sitting still: he’s already founded Sugar Labs, and early word is that he’s in preliminary discussions with four ultra-low-cost laptop makers to ship the kind-friendly operating system on their machines soon. Bender’s already said he’s interested in working with Intel and Pixel Qi, and he’s mentioned ASUS in passing, but no names are being confirmed, so we’ll see where this leads — Bender seems pretty driven to get Sugar out there.

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Laptops

Just when it looked like OLPC was finally getting at least one foot firmly grounded in reality with the upcoming Windows XP version of its low-priced XO, Nick Neg takes things back into the stratosphere with the unveiling of the XO 2.0. Due in 2010, the new laptop will employ dual sunlight-readable touchscreen displays in a smaller, folding e-book form factor. Sure, it looks totally amazing, but we’ll believe it when we see it. As if that weren’t ambitious enough, Nick calls a $20 pricepoint per display not out of the question, thanks to the ubiquity of LCD screens for DVD players, with a final laptop price of $75. Sure Nick, but 2010? Let’s work on getting the XO down to $100 first, shall we? Oh, and speaking of the XO, the Give 1 Get 1 program will be started back up in August or September of this year. There’s just never a dull moment with these folks.

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Filed under: Laptops

While OLPC tries to wise up to the real demands of the market and build a cheap laptop that people actually want — which means Windows XP for most — Walter Bender, OLPC’s former president of software and content for the project is taking his open source Linux-based Sugar OS and has started up a new non-profit to aid its development. Bender still has the vision of an open source learning OS, and plans to give Sugar full support for other low-cost platforms like the Eee PC. Ooh, burn.

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s been a controversial decision, but it looks like the OLPC XO has completed its transition from revolutionary education project to just another tiny Windows laptop with a useless keyboard — albeit one with a pleasantly whimsical design. Yep, it’s official: Microsoft and OLPC just put out a joint press release saying that XP-loaded XOs will be available starting in August or September, with some countries to get the machines as soon as next month. Users will get all the regular functionality of XP — it’s basically the same build as on the Eee and other ultraportables — but Microsoft’s spent over a year developing specialized drivers for the XO’s various features like e-book mode, the writing pad, and camera. (We’re pretty certain that doesn’t include mesh networking, but WiFi is supported.) XP is too big for the built-in 1GB flash chip, so it’ll come preloaded on a 2GB SD card, leaving just about 1.5GB free total for apps and media. It seems like Microsoft is thrilled about this partnership, but it’s a not going to make NickNeg’s search for new vision at the top any easier. As for Sugar? You’ll still be able to get it, but we have a sinking feeling about its future. Demo video after the break.

Continue reading OLPC XO officially gets Windows XP, children of the world to be assimilated

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Filed under: Laptops

There’s been a rash of defections at OLPC lately, with NickNeg himself looking to leave soon, so it’s nice to hear that the charitable endeavor is filling in the vacancies. Only it’s not, really. Although Negroponte has said that’s he looking for someone “similar to Kofi Annan” to lead the project, it looks like he’s just shuffling people around, instead promoting part-time CFO Charles Kane to President and COO. Negroponte is going to focus on fund-raising and promotion, while Kane will handle the day-to-day matters of actually manufacturing and distributing the laptops. That’s certainly a good first step — and perhaps Charles Kane is really Kofi Annan’s long-lost twin — but with developers suddenly miffed over Negroponte’s overtures to Microsoft and talent leaving from the top, it seems like OLPC would do well to bring in some fresh vision and leadership, no?

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