An interview with Valerio Cometti, the founder and managing director of V12 Design, confirmed that the upcoming version would support multitouch input and that a microphone would be built into the design for voice commands. Unfortunately, the image pictured above is the first gen version and no images of the current Canova design have been released. However, if they are on target with their prediction, we could have one in our hands by 2010. [V12 Design via Laptop Mag]

To get both operating systems to run, the BIOS has been modified to behave more like standard PCs (rather than Macs or Linux machines). The original BIOS for the XO was originally conceived for AIX and Solaris servers, all running variants of UNIX.

In Windows, the screen flipper and directional pad both work fine, and I'm told by Michail Bletsas, OLPC's connectivity guru, that the camera is also not a problem, as the drivers were available for XP even before they were available for Linux.

You'll note that even sped up 3X what it actually took, Windows still seems a little slow to boot. Michail says it takes a little over a minute for Windows to boot on the XO with 2GB of onboard memory. 2GB of space is needed for Windows XP, though one gets the impression it would do a lot better with 4GB. The machines still have only 256MB of RAM.

And in case you're wondering what that red OLPC is doing in the background, we explained that last Friday. [One Laptop Per Child]

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.

When asked about the possibility of tactile feedback for the keyless device, the spokesperson revealed that the company was "working on it." The second generation of the child-oriented budget laptop, announced last week, is more ambitious than the first, claiming full multi-touch capability and a price target of $75. The OLPC XO-2 release date is projected to be no earlier than 2010, but its design direction offers look into possibilities for near-future display tech. [Laptop]

Interestingly, in this clip from Laptop Mag, Negroponte says that part of the reason they're unveiling the design so early is that they're hoping people will copy it—a radically different stance from the first time around, when riffs on the concept of a cheap subnotebook by competitors basically slew the original XO. Good to see a more enlightened view. In other OLPC news, Give 1, Get 1 will start back up in August or September. Man, I want one of these, and I'm not even in a Third World country. Or Alabama.

Cambridge, Mass., May 20, 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 work is already underway on a second-generation version of its revolutionary XO laptop computer. Leveraging new advances in technology, the primary goal of the "XO-2" will be to advance new concepts of learning as well as to further drive down the cost of the laptop so that it is affordable for volume purchase by developing nations.

"Based on feedback from governments, educators and most important, from the children themselves, we are aggressively working to lower the cost, power and size of the XO laptop so that it is more affordable and useable by the world's poorest children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "The delivery of the first generation XO laptop has sparked tremendous global interest in the project and provided valuable input on how to make the XO laptop an even better learning tool moving forward."

"One Laptop per Child and the XO laptop are crucial to the fulfillment of the proposed UN Ninth Millennium Goal: to ensure that every child between the ages of 6 and 12 has immediate access to a personal laptop computer by 2015, said, Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament. "It's only through access to education that young people will be able to develop the skills necessary to compete globally and to develop the solutions required to break the cycles of poverty, disease and malnutrition. Learning unites the child with the world, binds the village into a community, and joins that community to the global village."

The first generation XO laptop went into production in early November 2007, and there are approximately 600,000 units in deployment in a number of countries including Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the US and Canada (as a result of the Give One Get One charitable giving campaign that ran last November 12 - December 31, 2007). Key goals for the XO-2 include:

Cost Reduction - Set in early 2005, the original target price of the XO laptop was $100. Although that target has not yet been met (it is now at $188), it is clear that OLPC must aim for an even lower target price of $75. New developments in display, processor and other hardware and software technologies will make it possible to achieve the $75 target in the future.

Lower Power Consumption - While the first generation XO laptop already requires just one-tenth (2-4 watts versus 20-40 watts) of the electrical power necessary to run a standard laptop, the XO-2 will reduce power consumption even further to 1 watt. This is particularly important for children in remote and rural environments where electricity is scarce or non-existent. Lowering the power consumption will reduce the amount of time required for children to generate power themselves via a hand crank or other manual mechanisms.

Smaller Footprint - The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry with them to and from school or wherever they go. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors that allow children to personalize the laptop as their own possession.

Enhanced Book Experience - Dual-touch sensitive displays will be used to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of One Laptop per Children and a leading expert on display technology.

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]

In order to be eligible for the price cut, tech firms need to be making low-cost PCs that limit their screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80GB and under. The computers must also not have more than 1GB RAM or a 1.0 GHz single-core processor, and come without touch-screen technology. These limitations help ensure that the ultra cheap laptops won't eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista.

Microsoft will charge $26 for XP in emerging markets such as China and India, and $32 for developed markets like the United States. What do you guys think—will the price cut destroy the inroads Linux has been making into the consumer market? [ ComputerworldUK]

The CPU apparently runs unruffled at speeds of 566MHz, a 30% speed-up. The memory is accessed at 233MHz versus the stock 166MHz, and also seems to run smoothly. Ubuntu even appears more responsive, so the overclocker claims, though significantly he "did not notice if battery life was noticeably affected." We suspect it will be.

But more importantly, we wonder is overclocking the passively-cooled little green machine a good idea? We're not sure: speeding the processor up is certainly going to generate a wad more heat. "Overclock at your own risk." You wouldn't want it to catch fire, would you? [OLPC News]

Replacement is not the right word. We have no CEO. I have never held that title nor used it. I will continue to do what I do, no real change.

And in other news, the Windows version of the XO laptop should be released in less than 60 days, depending on how talks with Microsoft and OLPC go. [Laptop Mag]

So, even if they miraculously have one to send to you, it's late 'cause they don't know where to send it. It's telling that while they tout that 80,000 people donated to Give One, Get One, OLPC won't say how many people have actually gotten them yet. I think it's time to hand the org's reins over to some cigar-smoking monkeys in fedora hats. That way, even if everything was all screwy, it'd just be hilarious instead of you know, sad. [PC World]

Okay, we remember how far OLPC spiraled way past its $100 laptop goal. So how can XO's designer—who should know as well as anyone the difficulties involved in cranking out uber-cheap machines—except to slash 25 percent off a price OLPC couldn't touch?

Because Pixel Qi stands to make beaucoup bucks from licensing tech to commercial companies, subsidizing its low-cost laptop, a far more effective business model than hoping wishy-washy governments maintain their closed-door promises to buy your wares while getting courted by your frenemy at the same time. (More on this at Valleywag.)

While Pixel Qi might provide components to OLPC "at cost," if it really puts a laptop on the marketplace that costs almost a third of XO's current price, XO is probably donezo. [Yahoo!]

OLPC prez Walter Bender said that Intel's efforts to build an XO Laptop with one of its chips were "seemingly half-hearted" and that its brass was more interested in OLPC for PR reasons:

"The only thing they were interested in was ... helping them make marketing statements about how Intel's approach to learning was different from OLPC's approach to learning," Bender said. "They weren't interested in how we can learn together and make something better for kids."

On the other hand, the market being flooded with ton of cheap laptops (which might be better than XO) for developing countries ultimately goes toward OLPC's goal to bring computers to everyone, so it's a bit off to say it is the One True Way, even if Intel really is a child-hating, PR-feeding douche. That said, we hope OLPC gets its act together soon. The only thing worse than a train wreck is one carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of children. Or something like that. [CW]

It all seems pretty straightforward, but as they stumble through basic tasks like getting the Wi-Fi going, you wonder if it's them or the notebook. Either way, it leaves Fake Steve "at a loss for words." I've got three for these two: Don't have children. [via Fake Steve]

It's appropriately rugged, with a kiddy-but-pukey periwinkle rubber case sleeve, and the keyboard/touchpad are solid. Despite not being a powerhouse machine, apps like Office load with reasonable speed and the battery life's nearly biblical (3h40m). But the Windows and Office install gobbles up space, leaving just 1/2 a gig for storage, and it weirdly runs kinda hot. Still, perhaps more importantly, it's cheaper than the other hype-grabbing ultra-cheapie, Asus's Eee and not too far off of OLPC's mark at $300.

Throw in the Microsoft goods—which, love or hate, is what some places are looking for to be on a level playing field—and you've got an OLPC-killer, especially if they could chip the price down a bit further. [Gadget Lab]

It won't be offered to anyone in the US or Canada, even quasi-philanthropists participating in the Get One, Give One program. But, we're guessing the anti-copying measures won't be particularly hardcore, meaning it'll probably make its way to the internets not long after launch. Bootable Windows on an SD card would be pretty nice on our side of the world too, actually. [CNET, CNET]

Yes, Lagos Analysis Corporation has "filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division holding at Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria against Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPC) and its enablers in Nigeria." What'd Negroponte do? Well, according to LAC, he reverse engineered and stole their multilingual Shift2 keyboard tech, which features four (count 'em) shift keys to allow for more fancy character typin'. Specifically, we're talking about these KỌnyin keyboards that are available globally.

In fact, Solicitor Ade Adedeji says that "The willful infringement of our client's intellectual property is so blatant and self-evident in the OLPC's XO Laptops. We will have no problem establishing the facts of our client's case against OLPC in any court of law." Yikes, Negroponte. Yikes.

I don't understand the finer subtleties of Nigerian court codes, but one presumes this is more lousy news for the OLPC camp. We'll keep you updated as to the results of this, the trial of the century. [MarketWire]

[Joy of Tech via All Things D]

Even though it's bulkier and heavier than Eee, XO's durability and clever, colorful design with antenna locks, a swivel screen with a power-conserving black & white mode, and resistance to 120-degree temps and four-foot drops unshockingly bring home the design category. But, XO wins in just two more: Connectivity, thanks to its mesh networking capabilities for daisy-chaining Wi-Fi and collaboration, and price (obviously). It loses in UI, learning curve, apps and specs.

In their conclusion, Laptop kicks XO in the nuts, and hard:

...Its designers may have outthought themselves; in their quest to create a laptop that adults could teach children to use the world over, they forgot that it's children who usually teach the grownups how to use new gadgets. Barring its unique form factor and mesh networking features, we wonder if the XO couldn't have been better served by an operating system and programs more akin to the Eee PC 701.

To date, only 2,000 students have gotten their XO Laptop, and Uruguay's the only solid national deal with 100,000 ordered. Nicholas Negroponte says Peru's on the hook for 250,000, but we know how that's gone. And less than 300,000 will be pumped out of Taiwan by the end of this year. At most, 1 million a month will roll off of conveyor belts next year. The WSJ's penchant for understatement is comically beautiful here: "Mr. Negroponte's goal of 150 million users by the end of 2008 looks unattainable."

So what gives? The non-$100 pricepoint—caused in part by the smaller volume produced— and the lack of Windows. Consequently, Intel's Classmate, for one, is killing them. After the price climbed over $100, Libya, Nigeria and Pakistan went with Classmate, in part because it runs Windows XP. Libya's technical advisory committee chair said flatly: "The Intel machine is a lot better than the OLPC. I don't want my country to be a junkyard for these machines." It bought 150,000 Classmates. Russia's buying a "low-cost" laptop from Asus (presumably the Eee) to lojack with $3 Windows that Microsoft's offering bootleg-prone countries.

Given the hostile, competitive world market, "Mr. Negroponte has abandoned his initial strategy of trying to persuade a half-dozen developing countries...to buy one million laptops each." So we're seeing them in our own Third World backyard and being given longer to give one and get one. The official numbers for the first nine days, btw, are 45,000 laptop pairs. While impressive, it's a far cry, even with those sold to Peru, Uruguay and school systems thrown in, from the expected "initial orders of five million to eight million."

Still, Negroponte sounds surprisingly gracious and hopefully sincere in his sentiment that

"From my point of view, if the world were to have 30 million" laptops made by competitors "in the hands of children at the end of next year, that to me would be a great success," he said in a recent interview. "My goal is not selling laptops. OLPC is not in the laptop business. It's in the education business."

They've also opened up bulk ordering for "educational purposes," with quantities of 100-999 going for $300 a pop, 1000-9999 running $249 and anything above 10,000 dropping it to $199.

And if for some reason you wanna give one but not get one, starting next year you'll be able to do that too. During Give One, Get One's bonus time, they'll "solicit input and transition to a program of giving only at the beginning of 2008." I hate to be cynical (it's officially the holidays, after all), but I have the feeling a "give one, get nothing" program isn't going to pack quite the same fundraising punch.[Business Wire, Thanks John]

"We are making the XO available to U.S. and Canadian consumers as a financing scheme for the developing world, to trigger global demand and government closure," Negroponte told LAPTOP Magazine. He added, "I have, to some degree, underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written."

Orders shall be taken for two weeks, between the 12th-26th November, 2007, which shall guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. Though the intention is super, is it not slightly patronizing to force customers to donate to charity? Your thoughts, oh trusted readership? [OLPC News]

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.

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

Say what you will about evil empires and what not, Bill Gates has been lauded for trying to help the developing world for some time now. Nevertheless, he had been known to say a nasty thing or two about the OLPC project. Now, it seems his concerns about the computer's decency could be subsiding.

Is it any surprise that this Windows-compatibility news comes on the heels of Gates' announcement that (legal) copies of Windows XP plus Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 would be available to developing countries for $3 a pop? Called a generous offer, a shrewd business move and a clever way to combat piracy, the $3 kit seems ready-made for OLPCs.

If things work out, Microsoft will have hitched a ride on a comet. The OLPC project needs orders totaling 3 million units to get started, but already seven countries are lining up—Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya—with Peru and Russia starting to mull it over. Perhaps more importantly at the get-go, 19 state governors in the US have expressed interest in OLPCs for poorer families. Originally Negroponte said no, but he may change his mind.

The question is, does this new cozy relationship between OLPC and Microsoft spell trouble for the cute XO operating system? Or was XO doomed to fail from the start? Let the debatin' begin. – Wilson Rothman

'$100 Laptop' to Cost $175 [AP/Chicago Tribune]