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Wednesday, May 21, 2008 $100 Laptop Gets RedesignedThe new machine will have dual touch screens--and cheaper hardware. By David Talbot
Tossing aside its iconic green-and-white laptop with its distinctive antennas, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is pursuing a smaller 2.0 version, scheduled for release in 2010, in which dual touch screens will replace the keypad. The new version will have lower power consumption and a $75 price--a figure that OLPC claims is achievable despite the fact that the current model, the XO, sells for nearly double the sum mentioned in its "$100 laptop" moniker. With its hinged dual display, the new version could be used as a book, as a laptop with a touch-screen keypad, or as one continuous display when folded flat. "The display is going to get better and better, and it's key to the next generation," Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, said yesterday at a launch event at the MIT Media Lab. The redesign is OLPC's latest effort to revitalize global adoption of its machines. Last week, OLPC announced that the current version will soon have the option of running on Microsoft Windows; previously, the machines only ran on the GNU/Linux operating system, plus a custom interface called Sugar that emphasizes collaboration among children. With the addition of Windows, OLPC hopes to boost sales to countries, such as Egypt, that already use Windows software in schools. Pixel Qi, the display-technology startup founded by former OLPC chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen, will collaborate in the development of the new computer. Its smaller size will make the laptops easier for children to carry than the previous, larger version, Negroponte said yesterday. And despite the smaller size, the display will be larger--when both screens are used--than the one on the current version. Because the machine will have no keypad, there will be fewer mechanical parts to break. And whereas the current XO consumes only two to four watts--one-tenth of the amount consumed by a conventional laptop--the next-generation version will use as little as one watt. But until the new machine comes online, the existing XO will continue to be sold. Only about 600,000 hard orders have come in--a far cry from the 100 million that, two years ago, Negroponte said he was hoping to obtain by 2008. And last week's announcement that the XO will have the option of using Windows or the existing Linux-based operating system has led to some debate among education officials. Yesterday, Oscar Becerra, a Peruvian education ministry official who directs the OLPC deployment under way there, says that he sees little value in adding Windows for computers in primary schools. |
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Doubling Laptop Battery Life
06/13/2008
Comments
MakeSense on 05/21/2008 at 8:56 AM
67
Here's an interesting comment: "Proprietary software is under the power of its developer, and it puts the user under the power of the developer. This is like handing out samples of an addictive drug--not something that schools ought to do."
Aren't most people who say such things ranting on street corners that the end is nigh? I can't even make sense of that jibberish.
johnalphonse on 05/21/2008 at 9:34 AM
78
SVE on 05/21/2008 at 10:59 AM
42
dmm on 05/21/2008 at 11:54 AM
137
nekote on 05/21/2008 at 1:05 PM
115
A keyboard that is really a display.
So much like the wall and desk / countertop versions seen in Star Trek the 2'nd Generation!
So cool.
Looks like each half will simply be a mirror of the other.
Gonna' be a lotta' fun, ganging numbers of the basic unit into bigger widgets!
mdjosephkim on 05/21/2008 at 10:38 PM
2
bkf11 on 05/22/2008 at 2:11 AM
6
Definitely cool
Benjamin
Tysto on 05/22/2008 at 3:04 AM
16
leonbloom on 05/27/2008 at 1:06 PM
1
Leon
hachi on 05/24/2008 at 1:09 AM
22
Where are the first world governments buying it up? It makes it cheaper, and easier for everyone.
rasummers on 05/26/2008 at 1:48 PM
1
I visited my son and family in Lima this past February/March and became aware of the problems of the local public school system. My granddaughter has been attending a good private school in Lima - an option not available to poor families. Let's hope the laptop project really takes off and succeeds.
(My son has been working with a micro-capital organization and my daughter-in-law has been teaching advanced English to Peruvian lawyers.)
Bob Summers,Sc.D.,'54 (AA-XVI)
imcampos on 05/29/2008 at 10:43 AM
3
So far, people are being asked to believe (i.e., have faith) in the project's claims, without being given any empirical evidence. And that comes from MIT, where one would expect the scientific discipline of argument to be second nature.
Never mind, now that Microsoft is on board, the journey ahead is easily predictable, for the next release (there will always be) of OLPC Windows will require more powerful processors to support it, and everyone will have to replace the old ones "to keep up with the new, wondeful technological developments".
Government officials on tight budgets (actually, all Windows users) have been experiencing this cyclical phenomenon with ordinary PCs, and many have migrated to Linux as an obvious alternative. They now have a new, even stronger reason to be cautious about the (so far untested) educational claims of the OLPC project, and this is really all I would ask of them.