Preview Of The $100 Laptop

cynical writes "Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman, founder of GeekCorps and Global Voices, got a chance last week to drop in on Nicholas Negroponte and get a preview of the $100 laptop Negroponte has designed for students in the developing world. Zuckerman talks about both its hardware and the One Laptop Per Child project, and asks the readers for suggestions for innovative ways the $100 laptop can be used." From the article: "The mockup I saw was about the size of a large paperback book. There's a stiff rubber gasket around the edge of the machine, which can double as a stand. The keyboard on the mockup was detachable, but will probably fold out on a hinge ... Two trackballs, surrounded by four way buttons, on each side of the screen act as controls, and function keys on the back act as additional buttons.)" We've previously reported on this device here on Slashdot.

Comments

Has this already been obsoleted by cellphones?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Has this laptop already been rendered obsolete by cellphones?

Just look at the kind of information people are sending and retrieving from these low-power, sub-$100 devices already...

Re:Has this already been obsoleted by cellphones?

[EnronHaliburton2004]

sub-$100 devices already

Most cell phones are not really sub-$100 devices. Their true cost of a web-enabled phone is often well over $100, but the true cost is hidden somewhere in the 1 to 2 year contract with the provider.

Plus, the interface on a Computer is superior then the interface on a mobile phone for many tasks.

Re:Has this already been obsoleted by cellphones?

[Senes]

Cellular phones require a lot of expensive infrastructure and service. A fully self-contained computer would be a lot more suitable for bringing technology into the developing world; think of it like the difference between giving someone one free month of subscription-based software and giving them a working copy on CD that they can use as long as they want.

Draw the line

[jacem]

Where do we draw the line between a very small laptop and a large PDA. The price point is good for a PDA especially if you add the price of a detachable keyboard but really what is the point.

$100 per child?

[Ossifer]

What educationally useful things will the child do with the laptop?

As an ex-CS college professor, let me suggest that it would be better to spend that $100 on the developing world on more teachers, education for teachers, roof for schools, etc.

Technology is not the answer to every problem. Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?

Re:$100 per child?

[SensitiveMale]

Technology is not the answer to every problem. Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them

Are you forgetting the huge information boom of the 90's and now the 00's?

Re:$100 per child?

[rctay]

As an ex-public school teacher that ran a lab full of Apple lle's, I can honestly say very little. There was almost zero funding after the initial equipment purchase for maintenance and upgrades. Almost every teacher at the school were technophobes, and only planned class sessions in the lab to have a free period off. After four years the lab was scrapped and the computers was placed in the classrooms to gather dust. A few kids learned a few lines of basic for display tricks. The technology was just pushed too soon to inexperienced administrators.

Re:$100 per child?

[nine-times]

While I agree that thoughtlessly throwing computers at kids doesn't provide much value, I wouldn't say they're necessarily useless. First of all, it seems to me that there may be value in electronic text books. Kids would have less to carry (laptops are heavy, but not as bad as a couple text books), text books could provide multimedia, interactive activities, and tests, and they might be cheaper, all things considered (especially so if we get some decent open-source text books. Does anyone know if there are gratis electronic text-books?)

Beyond that, the fact is computers are becoming a part of our daily lives, and a certain level of computer knowledge is, more and more, becoming a job requirement. They also allow for free expression (more easily), and allow people to connect from around the world. Kids who can't get access to computers and the internet will find themselves at a disadvantage when trying to survive in relation to 1st and 2nd world countries.

No, not every activity needs to be pushed onto computers. Computers aren't replacements for teachers. Computers shouldn't even be top-priority. However, if used properly, they are a great tool. As with most of the cases of technology misuse in the '80s and '90s, the whole problem comes when people who don't understand how these computer-things work start deciding that they'll be a cure-all for every situation. Of course, this problem persists today, but we can hope that as computers become more common, more people will understand that computers are tools to create solutions, and not solutions in themselves.

Re:$100 per child?

[Nijika]

Those labs were the only thing that kept me interested as a child.

That being said, your point is not only well taken, but valid. These laptops could be a leap forward, but they aren't much use if the children they are designed for don't also have food, clothing, and shelter to start.

Nice gesture, but it's a long way off.

Re:$100 per child?

[hoggoth]

Well, as a eigth grader I needed to draw circles on the screen, in 6502 assembly language. Of course there were no drawing primitives, just setting a bit to turn on a dot. So I had to research how to plot circles. I found lots of trig answers with sines and cosines, but I didn't have sines and cosines in assembly language and as an eigth grader I didn't really understand them. Then I found an old paper describing Bresenham's algorithm that only used addition to draw circles and arcs. Very fast, very easy to impliment, even for an eigth grader.

That was one example out of hundreds. I learned a lot about math, about research, and about logic from computers. Of course now a days kids don't program, they run prepackaged applications. Using Word and playing Reader Rabbit aren't the same as trying to figure out how a computer works.

Re:$100 per child?

[hkb]

Uh yeah, I learned how to use computers (TRS-80 Model 1s) when I was too poor to afford a decent one (eg. non-Timex Sinclair). I also learned how to use word processor programs, and how to program in BASIC. It was also a natural meeting place for all of us kids interested in computers, and we'd meet during free periods of time to socially network and play on the computers, show each other our latest programs, and other related trivia.

Re:$100 per child?

[drinkypoo]

Personally, I lived in a place that could afford teachers, so no, all I learned from computers was computer skills. I didn't really learn shit about history or social studies, though, because I was a precocious little bastard and they couldn't (wouldn't take the time to) keep me busy, so I mouthed off and made a nuisance of myself. There are few disservices we do our children as serious as forcing them to learn at a pace too slow for them. No child left behind == no child excels.

Re:The non-existant $100 laptop!

[garcia]

Let's try that again: The demo was yesterday afternoon, and while it didn't include a functioning prototype, I learned a great deal more about machine than I have from previous articles, or Negroponte's talk at Pop!Tech. He was able to answer a whole set of questions for me, and raise an entire set of new ones, which, I suspect, will take a number of years to answer accurately.

I'll wait for this to be actual news. I'm filing this under the "proposed" WiMax killer. I accidentally clicked "Submit" instead of "Preview". My bad.

If they made a $200 version

[Marxist Hacker 42]

They could use the profit from selling it at Fry's and CompUSA to pay for free laptops for the kiddies- and the increase in manufacturing demand might even lower the price more.

How will this help

[Ironsides]

My questions largely had to do with how the laptop would be used in the classroom. I made the mistake of asking a question of how the laptop would be used as "a teaching tool"... like Papert, Negroponte's a big believer that students simply need access to technology and can use it to teach each other and to make discoveries themselves.

I'm inclined to agree with the writer that Negroponte's response is lacking. How will every student having a laptop help them in any way?

Too many moving parts?

[Barkley44]

The keyboard on the mockup was detachable, but will probably fold out on a hinge ... Two trackballs, surrounded by four way buttons, on each side of the screen act as controls, and function keys on the back act as additional buttons). Sounds like more moving parts than a typical laptop, won't that be an issue when things break, how easily can they get them fixed?

Re:Sneak preview pictures

[MyLongNickName]

If anyone could photoshop it showing Tux on the "computer", it'd garner at least a +5 interesting...

Why Not the US Too?

[Mean_Nishka]

If Negroponte is able to mass produce this thing at a true $100 cost it will be revolutionary.

I wonder, however, why he only plans to offer this device to the developing world when millions of children (and their school districts) in the United States could also benefit from such a device. $100 laptops could save school districts millions in textbook costs alone!

Hell yes.

[RandoX]

I grew up in one of those labs, on a Vax. Today I'm a professional software engineer, and I credit it all to the seeds planted in my youth trying to extend the capabilities of DCL batch files to do everything from games to utilites to public message boards. Never underestimate the power of a push in the right direction, especially at a young age.

Vaporware until they have real mfg costs

[billstewart]

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice concept. They may be doing some innovative things with the screen, though as of September's non-slashdotted article, that was still just proposed. The crank on the side is a potentially useful touch. And they've taken some creative approaches to picking useful software, applications, and modularity.

But the fundamentally cool thing about this box is that it costs $100; at $200 it wouldn't be as cool, and at $500 it'd be really lame. So until they've got real manufacturing costs and really *can* make it for $100 in volume, it's still vaporware.

Re:THE END OF THE AMERICAN TECH WORKER

[Anonymous Coward]

Define: Literacy.

Able to read at a 1st grade level could be considered literate, but that might not be useful enough to have it be generalized to a 97% literacy rate.

Re:THE END OF THE AMERICAN TECH WORKER

[msdschris]

Well why wont that homeless guy with the sign reading "Will work for food" read that other sign that says "HELP WANTED"?

A laptop for the 3rd world maybe...

[bkontr]

But even I don't the 3rd world will bother with this either. It looks a bit too cheap, and there are much better alternatives for slightly more money. Who are they marketing this to anyway? Developing countries are probably more interested in desktops, for the price and performance factor. Besides, if $100 is expensive to people in the 3rd world (and you can bet on that) they're not going to want to carry a laptop around where it can get stolen or damaged. What do you all think?

The developing world is awash in good intentions

[Anonymous Coward]

first of all, this is a good read for anyone interested in the topic. The fact is your can get more out of economies of scale with more expensive hardware that more people want to buy than you can out of getting small runs of cheaper hardware....Not to mention a lot of the poorest parts of the world are landlocked, and that makes shipping a nightmare that will dwarf the cost of the pc....
But more importantly, when you look at the developing world, they are awash in good intentions. Good intentions that actually hurt more than they help because they create a fake economy. Africans don't need people with good intentions telling them what they need and don't need. What they really do need is less corruption in their governments and a more stable geo-political situation, something $100 laptops are not going to help solve. If anyone has a one sentence answer to those problems, book your flight to Oslo now. In the end this will end up being an overpriced failure that will just make a bunch of people feel good about themselves because THEY obviously know more about what poor people need than poor people do....

Re:THE END OF THE AMERICAN TECH WORKER

[fiannaFailMan]

You're responding to a post about a:

( ) Technical innovation in a developing country
(*) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the devbeloping world

The location is:

( ) Africa
( ) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
(*) Other _unspecified_

You're objecting to it on the basis that:

( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
(*) American jobs will be lost

Your argument is bogus because:

( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
( ) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
( ) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
(*) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs

waste of time!

[recharged95]

The $100 laptop does exist. And it's used.

With my Acer 3002 at $399 (just got my rebates!) that model will be about $200 a year from now making Negroponte's idea a sham.

Really, Negroponte as a computer geek, I'm surprise he just didn't scoop up all the used/cheap laptops on ebay, install linux and build a real application fit for 3rd world countries. Using that roadmap:

• People would learn/see/touch "the history" of computers (and why they're so important--hey we've all been though it),
• have some commonality with the rest of the world (I see a lot of humble attitude to those users: "yeah, that C64 was awesome back then" stuff),
• those countries would have an incredible amount of FREE (or paid) support cause we're all experts on the old stuff,
• Have technology THAT WORKS and has a track record,
• And with linux and FOSS, those who are talented or really interested in software can contribute!

It's basically the used car business model. And we all owned a used car--why? heck, cause that system works.

Instead this guy is creating another "industry" that provides no real impact except to his wallet and ego. Great, computers and the internet are tying people together, and now the 100$ laptop is creating a seperate system of devices between the have's and have nots. That what happens in academia when corporate $$$ mixes with big egos... oh well.

Re:THE END OF THE AMERICAN TECH WORKER

[FireFlie]

"So pretty soon, every child in India will have a laptop, while here in America, we're lucky if half the graduating High School seniors know how to read.

This is an outsourcer's wet dream come true.

Expect HUGE sporsorships from the usual suspects."

While I don't exactly agree with the point that you are making, your point gets close to something that I am feeling. I understand that it is wonderful to help the rest of the world, but what about America? I believe one of the articles said that they did not want to make these things available to the general public. What would it hurt to sell these things retail for cheap? We may be a fairly rich country, but poverty still exists in America, and these things could help students of all ages who are middle to low income.