olpc

A dual-touch-screen XO-2 laptop was a fantastical concept. But it's nothing on One Laptop Per Child's XO-3, a dream of a tablet.

The concept design, via Fuse Project, is all semi-flexible plastic, multitouch, and backlit. It functions as a color-screen e-reader and a camera. It's thinner than an iPhone, waterproof, and $75.

In other words, it's everything people have been fantasizing about in a tablet--durable, thin, multitouch, and multiple-screen modes for computing and reading--but for just $75.

Nicholas Negroponte, head of the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, wants it by 2012.

Remember, this is the organization … Read more

It's been years since the concept of a digital convergence was seriously debated. Today, it's rare to see a single-function electronic device.

Digital still cameras can record video, and camcorders can take still photos. Even cheap cell phones include cameras. There are Web browsers in cell phones, cameras, televisions, and digital picture frames. In fact, it seems like it's only a matter of time before everything with a battery or power cord will be connected to the Internet.

So it's a little startling to see a new gizmo that does nothing but display text, especially when … Read more

The One Laptop Per Child operating system is now available for free downloading for "any" PC or Netbook, according to its maker.

Sugar Labs, responsible for building the low-cost device's XO-1 operating system, released it online last week for loading onto any USB flash drive greater than 1GB.

Called "Sugar on a Stick v1," Sugar Labs hopes it will help spread the use of the OS in classrooms, without the need for the OLPC machine.

An IDC analyst said earlier this year that the OS would be one of the OLPC's more attractive aspects … Read more

Dr. Kiki from This Week in Science joins us to talk tech and science, and we realize that we will all soon wear solar-powered Gundam suits and travel the Earth. That is until they become self-aware and eject us and kill us all. We also take NASA to task and tell you when to get a new Windows PC.

HTC Hero running Android and Sense UI http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/24/htc-hero-details-begin-leaking-from-htcs-own-website/

China not backing off despite filter code post … Read more

Ivan Krstic is upgrading from working on $100 laptops. Beginning this week, the former security architect for the One Laptop Per Child project is working for Apple.

He wrote about the move to Apple on his personal blog. Krstic was the architect of the Bitfrost security specification used by OLPC for passwords, hard drive encryption, machine authentication, security updates, and prevention of data loss. He will be working on core operating system security in Cupertino.

Though OLPC isn't a large platform that hackers are known for targeting, it's likely the way that Krstic thinks about security that attracted … Read more

Specifically marketed with kids in mind, PeeWee PC is a site that offers not only kid-friendly PCs, but also laptops customized for your ever-growing child.

On Wednesday, PeeWee PC is rolling out the Atom-powered PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop. The 3-pound PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop--which is more of a tablet Netbook than a laptop--sports a rotating screen that converts between a normal notebook orientation and a touch tablet.

Kids can use either a keyboard or an included stylus to interact with their favorite programs or games. The unit features a rugged, spill-resistant case that's designed to endure the bumps and knocks the younger generation has to offer. So, parents, when your child goes into a temper tantrum and flings the machine around, you might be knocked on your a**, but know that your investment has sustained the fall from your head to the floor.

Kidding aside, the PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop runs Windows XP on a 10-inch screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 2GB) and a 60GB hard drive. In addition, the tablet has two USB 2.0 ports, an SD/MMC media card reader, a VGA port, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 1.3-megapixel Webcam. Reminiscent of Intel's Classmate PC in 2007, the Pivot Tablet has a carrying handle that's removed by taking out the battery and then removing the four screws that affix the handle.

The PeeWee Tablet Laptop ships with game titles for pre-K, early elementary, or upper elementary students, plus a free Walt Disney Windows XP theme, and a proprietary security suite so parents have complete control of how and when kids use the notebook--parents can also view browsing histories, block sites, take screenshots, and control the system remotely. … Read more

The One Laptop per Child project's XO laptop will switch to a Via processor as part of a general hardware refresh.

Generation 1.5 of the XO machine will have the same industrial design as the original model, but will use a Via C7-M processor, John Watlington, OLPC's vice president of hardware development, wrote in a post on Friday. Currently the XO, which is aimed at educational markets in developing countries, uses an AMD Geode processor.

"The design goal is to provide an overall update of the system within the same ID and external appearance," Watlington … Read more

I got an e-mail from the folks over at O'Reilly Media mentioning that keynotes and other presentations from the company's ETech 2009 conference, held earlier this month, were now online at the ETech 2009 site. I missed that show, but I was interested in one of the keynotes, so I surfed on over to take a look.

The keynote I was looking for was indeed online: Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO of Pixel Qi and formerly CTO of the One Laptop Per Child organization, talking about "Low-Cost, Low-Power Computing." You can watch a video of the presentation … Read more

Whitebox vendors in the Asia-Pacific region may warm up to the One Laptop Per Child's decision to open its design, according to market research analyst IDC.

Multinational PC makers, on the other hand, will continue their focus on mini-notebooks, Reuben Tan, IDC's senior manager for personal systems research in the Asia-Pacific region, told CNET News sister site ZDNet Asia in a phone interview.

Earlier this month, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte announced the organization's intention to open-source its hardware design and invite commercial PC makers to copy it. In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Negroponte said the … Read more