- Sunlight readable. Tell me another laptop that can do that.
- Light weight. If you drive everywhere, I suppose that doesn't matter, but even my 4 pound mac gets heavy after a bit on foot.
- Rugged. I don't have to care if I drop it. Try that with a regular laptop a few times.
- Charity. Yeah. That's nice, but not the deciding feature for me.
- One year's T-Mobile hotspots. That's the kicker. Starbucks is the only 24 hour coffeshop in town. Starbucks uses T-Mobile which costs something like $29 a month. It's a no-brainer. Now the actual financial hit I take for all the above is something like $350 less.
- Long lasting battery power!
- The only thing I need to find out is whether it will fit my adult fingers, but since I'm used to working on a Palm's foldout keyboard, I'm guessing yes.

So yeah, I'll be that guy in Starbucks with the lime green XO on my lap sipping my $1.79 coffee. Come spill on my keyboard. I'll wipe it off and keep on writing.

velncelnt

Gadgetgirl

rimplestultskin

alin0steglinski

alin0steglinski

@upokyin: First, I'm not sure that I'd describe carrying the XO as "lugging" - it's pretty small and light. Second, keep in mind that the account is free to be used with any device, whether that's a full laptop or a PDA or anything in between. So you wouldn't have to actually whip out the Kermit green XO in Starbucks to take advantage of this plan.

To your question, I'm not planning on buying one but my guess is that those who are probably are either interested in just playing with the hardware to see what it can do - y'know, you're standard linux fanatics and gadgeteers, OR folks are interested in buying one for their own kid aged 6-12. Sure those kids probably have access to a full PC, but the XO has a pretty compelling design for just being able to give it to a kid and let them hack away. It's rugged, solid-state and waterproof. I know if I had a kid I'd probably think about getting them one. I think both groups are probably going to find out pretty quickly that this is probably one of the best platforms for SNES emulation ever created.

For myself though, I guess it doesn't really fit a need outside of curiosity, and I have other uses for the $400. But I think the Give 1 Get 1 deal is a great way to encourage people to think about the OLPC project and encourage some to donate who wouldn't otherwise. The fact that T-Mobile has thrown a pretty significant perk in might help tip folks even more in that direction, so kudos to them.

weatherman

upokyin

Crim Law Geek

DeadWriter

Earthslide

Yeah, but what is it WORTH? I'd pay maybe $15.

Nervid

CYST!

CYST!

sheesh, my eee PC is on it's way from newegg, and the Christian Children's Fund already got my monthly payment for Erica (the cute helpless toddler) months ago. Just $.80 a day goes to them (or so they say). Keep Sally Struthers and her goons alive =/

discounteggroll

Oh well, at lease it still cheaper then $400. November 12th will be a interesting day.

Mixiboi

xxdesmus