Gizmodo: olpc xo

Pedal-Powered OLPC Tested in Afghanistan: Free Power (and Killer Calves) For All

Danny Allen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:50:00 EDT

OLPC's Give One Get One initiative has delivered around 11,000 XO-1 laptops to Afghanistan schools alone. But power is a problem when you get off the grid, so the team there has had to think outside the box.

They've developed this prototype human powered machine that can charge an XO-1 laptop while in use, and it's easy enough for most 3rd graders to pedal. The OLPC Freeplay hand crank is connected to pedals underneath, and no backup battery is required.

They hope is to shrink the idea down, and deploy it to the many rural areas where under-privileged kids don't have electricity. Nice work…I wonder how much peddling it would take to read Gizmodo? [OLPC Afghanistan via OLPCNews via CrunchGear]

India Buys 250,000 OLPC Laptops After Own $10 Laptop Project Didn't Quite Work Out

Dan Nosowitz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:00:00 EDT

In a bit of an about-face, India has placed a huge order for 250,000 OLPC XO laptops for their schools. This is a huge victory for the OLPC project.

India had previously done a test pilot of the OLPC and decided they could make a better, or at least cheaper, laptop themselves, but after their $10 laptop turned out to produce a product that was not a laptop and could not be made for $10, they appear to have come back to the fold. The quarter-million OLPC XOs will go out to about 1,500 schools, though we're not sure if they'll be getting the newer versions with the upgraded processor, memory, and storage. Congrats to OLPC; they've had a rough go of it but we're always in favor of weirdly adorable computers for the less fortunate. [Ars Technica]

OLPC Ad Goes For the Jugular With Child Laborers, Child Prostitutes, Child Warriors

John Mahoney — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST

I like this move: The OLPC team, tired of their message being co-opted by geeks worrying about what operating system to install, have raised the stakes in a new web video.

I don't think the OLPC folks are advocating doing the ol' switcheroo—XO for AK-47—to eradicate such horrors as the ones depicted on the spot. No, I think the ad does a great job in reminding us that, hey, this project was started for a serious reason. It's not OLPC's fault that they spawned an entirely new laptop category with plenty of consumer frenzy and ridiculousness behind it in the process.

The ad is, apparently, only intended only for the internet. Although I kind of wish they'd run this next to the iPod Touch and BlackBerry Storm ads in the coveted Office/30 Rock hour for tech advertisers. [OLPC Ad on Daily Motion via Laptop, Gadget Lab]

Windows XP On OLPC Gets Slowly Tested

John Mahoney — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:30:00 EDT

We showed you the first footage of an OLPC booting the official Windows XP installation back in June, but now Laptop has given the XP-sporting XO a quick round of testing, and unsurprisingly, things are a bit sluggish. The XO's hardware has gone unchanged for the XP edition, so Windows boots off of an SD card which also packs Office, IE, and other apps. While IE fired up in five seconds, the OS took 1 minute 24 seconds to boot, and no one should be surprised that multitasking on the little guy's 256MB of RAM was not fun. Mesh networking is also not making it to the Windows version, unfortunately, but kids can still dual-boot into the Sugar OS for that. [Laptop]

OLPC To Become Colombia's Finest Import

Adrian Covert — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:30:00 EDT

OLPC has agreed to supply 65 thousand XO computers to the state of Caldas, Colombia, providing an injection of technology to a rural area of the country. The first 15,000 will be distributed throughout the most remote areas of the state by the end of 2008, while the remaining 50,000 will be offered in the capital, Manizales, and other remaining areas of the state by the end of 2009.

This is one more step towards Negroponte's goal of getting technology into third world and developing countries. It also marks the first move into Colombia. And no, including a copy of "Dope Wars" on every Colombian OLPC would NOT be OK. Shame on you, reader, for suggesting that. [OLPC on Giz]

COLOMBIA SIGNS AGREEMENT TO PURCHASE 65,000 XO LAPTOPS
Cambridge, Mass., May 29, 2008 - One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization focused on providing educational tools to help children in developing countries "learn learning," announced today that the State of Caldas, Colombia, has signed a purchase agreement for 65,000 XO laptop computers to be distributed to children in one of the country's most important coffee-growing regions.

Upon signing the purchase order, Caldas's Governor Mario Aristizabal, said, "My government and our State legislators are fully committed to giving each and every child of primary school age the same opportunity to access knowledge as the most privileged children in New York, Berlin or Tokyo. The One Laptop per Child program is the right vehicle to reach that goal and its potential socio-economic impact cannot be under-emphasized."

"We are very pleased that Colombia has committed to working with us to in order to bring a modern education to their primary school children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "OLPC is now gaining good traction in signing up countries to undertake significant deployments."

The first wave of 15,000 units to be deployed later in 2008 will be in Caldas's smaller towns and rural areas. For the capital Manizales, a separate agreement is being discussed so that total coverage of the State is achieved. Governor Aristizabal is spearheading a local team that will provide support and implementation capabilities to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project. The remaining 50,000 units will be deployed in 2008 and 2009.

Windows XP on OLPC XO Laptop Now Official

Adrian Covert — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:10:06 EDT

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows XP is coming to the OLPC XO with trial runs beginning as early as June. This comes after months of discussion and speculation of when the move would happen. The operating system has been specially modified to run on the computer and support its ebook reading mode, writing pad and camera. And according to the press release, the plan is to have both Windows and Linux running on the machines, to let users decide what's best.

The price increase for the OLPC loaded with XP will be about $3 on top of the $200 price tag. Users who want a dual boot version to the OLPC will pay $7 extra. The XP operating system will come preloaded on an additional 2GB flash chip, offering 3GB of storage space total (1.5 usable after OS install).

After months of opposition by Bill Gates, talks of the joint venture began at CES 2008, where both men were attending. Widespread distribution of the machines is expected to happen in August or September. Check out the video demo below. [Microsoft and NY Times]

Asustek To Build $249 Classmate PC

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 04 May 2007 10:30:00 EDT

It would seem that the shorties in developing countries are a hot new market indeed. Last month, we reported that Asustek, makers of the Asus-branded laptops, would be introducing a flash-based $199 laptop. Well, economics being how they are, the price is now looking like $249 (at the low-end, on up to $400), and the models are confirmed to be based on Intel's Classmate PC design: a 7" LCD at 800x480, an Ultra-Low Voltage (ULV) Celeron M 900 with no L2 cache, and 256MB of DDR-II, presumably with a version of Windows embedded in memory.

According to Ars Technica, Asus will first build its own edition in July; Asus will begin the official Intel Classmate PC production in September. There's no mention of the quantity of installed flash-memory, but Ars does say that the Classmate PC may give the OLPC XO a run for its money:

Although the lower cost and specific design features make the XO laptop a good fit for poor nations, the Classmate PC reference design will almost certainly outperform the XO in many scenarios.

I guess the good news is that, if salesmen do descend upon the youth of the Third World to pitch their wares, a price war could inevitably drive the prices even lower, in spite of the cost. (Heck, they may even try selling them to you, not that you'd want one.) – Wilson Rothman

Asustek to launch $249 Classmate PC design in July [Ars Technica]