[photopress:olpcintel.jpg,full,center] The first OLPC story of 2008 isn’t exactly positive. It seems Intel has left the initiative, claiming the OLPC camp, lead by the cocksure Nicholas Negroponte, wanted it to stop producing chips for its own low cost PC and for other companies’ low cost PCs (like the Eee PC by Asus). Intel wanted none of that so it left. Exactly how true this is we don’t know just yet, since the OLPC group has yet to refute the claims, but it certainly doesn’t look good. OLPC is already fighting a battle with people who say things like, “you can’t cure hunger with a computer.” It’s amazing that the group that is actually trying to help people is up against such resistance. Intel leaves the OLPC after dispute [CNET News.com] → Read More
Nigerian company LANCOR is suing the OLPC project for infringing on their Nigerian keyboard design, causing us to wonder if some sort of 419 spamming virus hasn’t infiltrated the Nigerian judicial system, rendering completely useless. The suit holds that the OLPC uses extra keys to allow users to type using the Nigerian alphabet. While this is clearly a case of insane people suing a charity, it could put a damper on OLPC’s plans in Nigeria. It seems LANCOR has a “registered design” and not a patent for a similar keyboard and is requesting $20 million in damages from the OLPC project in order to recoup the “damage” caused by their infringement. There is some talk that this is backed by Intel, makers of the OLPC-alike Classmate. I just think it’s junk litigation. News about LANCOR v. OLPC [Groklaw] → Read More
The OLPC XO laptop seems to be a hit in Peru. The country placed the largest order for the machines (272,000) and it’s already enjoying success in many of the smaller rural villages. One village in particular, Arahuay, is featured in an Associated Press article published on Monday. It’s an interesting read about how the computers are being used in daily life and how positively the people in the village — children and adults — have responded to the project. → Read More
Dear Foreign Couple in this Video: This is the OLPC. For you to read the instructions and wonder what this “does” and hoot in mad-eyed wonder when you see a colored man on the screen makes me puke a little. You should be able to turn this thing on and make it work, mostly because it’s made for kids who have probably never touched a computer in their lives. Your failure hurts all poor children, everywhere, and you two should probably stick to the old “girl hating the guy, for some reason unknown to everyone, whenever they’re getting ready to go to a party and then making everyone feel awkward until they leave” routine rather than the operating of computing machinery. via Giz → Read More
The OLPC XO isn’t the only tiny, small, dwarven laptop making news this month. the Eee PC is the most wanted laptop under trees this year, and other manufacturers have taken notes, if not exception, with the popularity. Everex, makers of all Peecees super-cheap, has what it thinks is a competitor on its blueprints. They’re calling it the Cloudbook, and it’s pretty hot, in a super-cheap and weak kinda way. → Read More
We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the OLPC project, and the resultant XO laptop. That’s because the project is ambitious as it is important, putting laptops into the hands of those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to them, thus bridging the digital divide. They’ve been in design, in theory, in limbo, and now, finally, in the hands of students who they’re meant for. Uruguay this week becomes the first recipient of XO laptops for its school kids, and so far reactions seem ecstatic. → Read More
Photo from this guy’s Flickr. Microsoft is hard at work porting Windows XP for the XO Laptop. That’s good news for any number of reasons, not least of which because it gives an air of legitimacy to the laptop. (Reports have suggested that some governments are weary of the XO because it runs Linux. For better or worse, the perception is that you need to run Windows.) It’s not easy porting over XP, though: Microsoft says it’s difficult to fit its OS on the XO’s tiny flash drive, so much so that Microsoft wants the One Laptop people to add a standard SD Card slot to it. All told, some 40 engineers, both in-house and otherwise, are working on the project. Now cue the XO hating. Microsoft trials XP on XO laptop [BBC News] → Read More
Now with free carrying case. How did I miss this? One of our favorite curmudgeons, John C. Dvorak, hits the nail right on the head with his assessment of the OLPC — send $200 of rice to poor countries, not a $200 computer. The inventors and backers of the OLPC project trust and believe in education as a way out of dire circumstances. Fine, but isn’t a laptop a bit useless if you don’t have clean water or a well-funded school in your town? The question is not whether or not kids need computers — they do — but whether this effort ignores more prevalent structural problems within a country. → Read More
All day we’re inundated with news about this One Laptop Per Child project. I write up story after story about how these do-gooders are spreading technology to the third world, how interconnectivity and self-organizing networks will change the way these people communicate and allow otherwise deprived children to grow up capable of interacting with computers and thriving in a modern environment. But I have to ask, how exactly do they figure this is going to work when the OLPC hardware is not Vista-Capable? → Read More
Whuh oh. There’s something called the Konyin keyboard that basically has a second shift key function which allows its typist to use the different letters and symbols of Latin-based alphabets from around the world. The company that developed the Konyin keyboard, Lagos Analysis of Nigeria, is now claiming that Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC project bought a pair of the keyboards "with the express purpose of illegally reverse engineering the source codes" in order to develop a similar keyboard for the OLPC XO laptops. That’s a pretty bold claim and, if true, could spell even more trouble for the project. Natick-Nigerian firm sues Cambridge-based One Laptop Per Child [Cambridge Chronicle] → Read More
LAPTOP has thrown the OLPC and Eee into a battle of wills and found that (sorry to spoil it for you) the Eee is the superior machine for the money. Just barely, though. The OLPC takes the cake for the Design, Connectivity, and Pricing categories while the Eee cleans up in the User Interface, Learning Curve, Applications, and Specs/Performance departments. OLPC XO vs. Asus Eee PC 701 [LAPTOP] → Read More
Whatever the reason — lackluster sales or a true "outpouring of support from the public," according to Nicholas Negroponte — the One Laptop Per Child project will be extending its Give One, Get One program until the end of the year. For $400, you can buy two OLPC machines. You get one, and a deserving child in a far away land gets one. I think it would make sense to just keep this program going for a long, long time instead of making the units unavailable to the general public next year. Sure, it’d free up more OLPCs to go directly abroad but the current program lets people over here foot the entire bill and help out those less fortunate. Seems like a win-win. OLPC Extends ‘Give One, Get One’ Program [PC World] → Read More
Ah, the gift of giving. And getting. ‘Tis the season (for buying), and those savvy philanthropists at the One Laptop Per Child project have decided to extend the length of their one-for-me, one-for-you, tax-deductible computer sale. Still haven’t decided whether you want one of these sweet little gadgets? Well, now you’ve got a little more time to cogitate, ruminate, and eventually allocate the $399 you’ll need to send one to a needy kid and keep one for your needy self. As an added bonus, you also get a year’s worth of T-Mobile Hotspot access, so you can check CrunchGear while you’re at the airport Starbucks. One Laptop per Child Extends Give One Get One Program Through December 31 [Business Wire] → Read More
Watch out, kid. OLPC is gunning for you. Wait a minute, people. I know babies need their laptops, but the OLPC program is charging $24.95 for shipping. In fact, ZDNet blogger Larry Dignan got “hit” with the shipping charge, leading to mass hysteria over at the old Dignan house while daddy Dignan raged through the basement looking for his hidden whiskey and meth while Mrs. Dignan and the kids hid in a closet upstairs. The absolute nerve of some people, charging $24.95 for two $200 laptops, one of which goes to needy kids overseas. I’ll tell you what: let’s boycott those snakes and crooks over at OLPC and make our own Windows-based OLPC called the VUOLPCPCH2KBRATWGFS (Vista Ultimate One Laptop Per Child Provided that Child Has $2000 But Rest Assured They Will Get Free Shipping). That’ll stick it to those dirtbags. Buying the XO laptop: The shipping may sting [ZDNet] → Read More
AP image Five years after it was announced, mass production of the One Laptop Per Child/XO laptop/thisweeksnewname laptop has finally started. The laptop, which was originally promoted as a $100 computer that would change education in the developing world, now costs around $188. Uruguay purchased 100,000 laptops last month, much to the chagrin of its mortal enemy Swaziland. Would you Give 1 [to] Get 1 for a free year of hotspot access? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t, mainly because I can’t be bothered with charity work. It’s thankless. Those third world kids are in for a real treat if they think the Internet is educational. It has devolved into a collection of lolcatz, porn and lolcatz porn. ‘$100 laptop’ begins production [BBC News] → Read More
Feeling generous? T-Mobile will give anyone who participates in the OLPC “Give 1 Get 1 Program”—for $399 your child and a child in the developing world gets a OLPC laptop—a free year of hotspot access. From November 12 to November 26, should you choose to drop the $400 to give two kids the gift of lolcatz, you’ll get the T-Mobile HotSpot service. That way, you can hang out at the local Starbucks, pay hand-over-fist for a cup of coffee, and make clever posts to tech blogs. You’ll be living the dream! Give One Get One OLPC, Get Free Year of T-Mobile HotSpot [Notebooks.com] → Read More
Real life kids have been getting their hands on the highly anticipated (?) OLPC. And you know what? For all the nay-sayers out there, the kids like it. According to one twelve-year-old who writes better than pretty much all of us here It was cleverly designed, imaginative, straightforward, easy to understand (I was given no instructions on how to use it. It was just, “Here. Figure it out yourself.”), useful and simple, entertaining, dependable, really a “stick to the basics” kind of computer. It’s the perfect laptop for the job. Great for first time users, it sets the mood by offering a bunch of entertaining and easy games and a camera. The OLPC is so kid-friendly that the youngsters in the above video were able to replace the motherboard in just a few minutes. I wish the PowerBook were as easy to repair as the OLPC, seeing as though I just destroyed my own workhorse trying to replace its hard drive. And really, OLPC haters, what is so wrong with introducing kids to an affordable laptop in their formative years? They seem to like it, so that’s all that should matter. Children’s Reviews of OLPC XO Technology [OLPC News via Slashdot] → Read More
You know those $100 laptops part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program? You know, the ones that are supposed to generate clean water and optimal living conditions with the turn of a crank? In less that two years they’ll only cost $50, according to the initiative’s CTO. Good news, everyone. I’m not even going to pretend to know anything about non-profits. So I will sit here, quietly, and applaud the OLPC group for at least trying to improve the lives of needy people around the world. Happy feel-good Friday! OLPC ASP to ultimately shrink to US$50 [Digi Times via Tech Tear] → Read More
The boys in Redmond got sent a few OLPC test models recently and are trying to get Windows up and running on them. Though the article points out that “the OLPC has 512MB of flash memory and Windows XP requires 1.5GB minimum”, Microsoft may not be trying to get Windows XP on the OLPC. Microsoft has multiple OS solutions for all sorts of devices on the market and I doubt they’ll limit themselves to just one particular version of their OS. If anything, Microsoft would take Vista and strip it down or try a light version of Windows 2000. Perhaps Microsoft is even working on a unique, embedded solution that no one has a clue about. I also doubt that Microsoft would charge for the version of Windows for the OLPC given the considerable involvement Microsoft has in charities. Either way, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this one. Right now the OLPC runs on a custom version of Fedora Linux, which seems to be working just fine. Microsoft Looking to Run Windows on OLPC [Slashdot] → Read More
For the past year, we’re sure that the OLPC team has been hard at work designing the $100 laptop for poor kids in Africa. We’re proud that they’re so committed to the job, but everyone needs a break once in a while. In comes the classic FPS Doom to keep the team entertained. Seems Christopher Blizzard (total porn name) and his buddies over at the OLPC offices threw Doom on the OLPC and had a ball. Doom looks, sounds, and plays great on the OLPC and the controls are sweet thanks to the d-pad on the side of the laptop. Peep the video above to see a bunch of dorks shooting up Imps whilst giggling like schoolgirls. Doom on the OLPC XO [OLPC News via Boing Boing] → Read More
