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Intel Calls $100 Laptops Undesired Gadgets
dolphinlover writes "Craig Barrett, Intel Corporation chairman believes that the $100 laptop computers to be manufactured by the MIT media lab run by Nicholas Negroponte beginning in early 2006 are merely 'gadgets', making them unattractive to consumers who will be disappointed by their 'limited range of programs'." From the article: "Negroponte said at their launch in November the new machines would be sold to governments for schoolchildren at $100 a device but the general public would have to pay around $200 -- still much cheaper than the machines using Intel's chips. But Barrett said similar schemes in the past elsewhere in the world had failed and users would not be satisfied with the new machine's limited range of programs."
i wonder if powerhungry processors and the electric generators necessary to power them are the actual root of global warming.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Next week: Bill Gates denounces its operating system.
Deja vu all over again.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
640K ought to be enough for everybody!
www.lonseidman.com
Intel wouldn't make a hitch if it wouldn't feel at least a bit threatened by this gadget. So this might be good news for MIT people.
Intel is just afraid that people will come to realise that you dont need a $500+ processor to surf the web, and you can get by just fine with 4 year old technology.
Maybe Intel is just jealous because to hand-crank power a Pentium 4 laptop would take you a few hours.
I thought the whole point of these laptops was for people in far poorer countries who could not possibly hope to afford anything remotely as good as these anyway... I can hardly see people living in Brazilean shanty-towns saying "this laptop can't hash files fast enough"... Besides I'd buy one just because they sound impossible to destroy and it would be good to take to uni and have kicking around in my bag; I'd only need notepad anyway.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
If they're as good as they sound then I'd buy one. I think laptops today are rather stupid. To slow to do anything demanding power and yet hot, noisy, and power hungry. I'd rather have something light, quiet, with a long battery life that does the basics I need - web, email, im, ssh, light word processing, and light image manipulation. I'll be surprised if the $100 laptop can't handle those and more.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
You can only get finite-sized memory for $200 and therefore the range of programs is limited. For $2000 the amount of memory you get is... oh wait
Grundes!
Of course, Intel is going to say that.
Quite obviously, when you are going to be selling an entire computer at the price of their processors and motherboards, they're going to be pissed.
Sure, I could use a dual athlon if I'm running the latest game or doing some serious number crunching - but for a user in an developing country with limited funds, the choice is definitely beneficial.
Today's computers have a lot of crap that most users don't use - but they have them anyway. The idea of a computer is to be a tool - give those people a simple, straightforward system that a user can truly use in doing their job, and you'd have gone far.
Of course, given the choice, companies like Intel would sell a $500 processor to a poor man who'd have no use for it. But that doesn't mean the idea itself is flawed. If anything, it's a nice way to help bring technology to the needy, and give them a chance.
I've seen the use of some of these technologies (MIT's Michael Best does some work on e-development -- they've some really nice work) - and they truly are helpful. Just because it doesn't help Intel's bottom penny doesn't mean it's useless. Given time, I'm fairly certain that it would be proven so.
$200 for a laptop that I could slip into my backpack on a camping trip and not worry about battery life since I can hand crank it? Put me down for one. It would be perfect for logging camping trips, vacation abroad, ebooks on a plane, etc etc. So what if it's not the most powerfull thing in the world. Open source and the very nature of the product SCREAM oodles of programs and potential. I'm reminded why I haven't found myself removing the shrinkwrap from an intel box lately.
If anyone gets kicked in the balls over one, then these laptops are gold.
I don't know if it's so much that AMD snatched the opportunity, but that their lower power chips are much better suited for cheap overall cost of production.
What's more useful? A billion dollars to immigrate the poor or a billion dollars to educate the poor?
You can give them all the food in the world but if you don't educate them what's te point?
You know "give a man a fish, feed for a day, teach a man to fish..." which is odd because the USA is the largest pro-jesus country in the world and they totally ignore the positive teachings. They're all cool with frying people on an electric chair. I mean that's justice. But teach some wetback how to add or multiply and you're just a socialist commie freak and should be smited...
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
FTA:
"It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC," he said. "Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC... not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for[sic] hand cranks for power"
Uhm, as opposed to be dependant on a power grid infrastructure, centralized power plants, money to pay for the power, and whatnot? Truly an ugly piece of competition diss.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
10 minutes of elbow grease and you're back surfing again
What's the use surfing with hands tired!
Grundes!
You will not be satisfied with an economical competetitor.
You will not be satisfied with an economical competetitor.
You must pay $3600 for the latest and greatest Dell XPS laptop or you will never be happy.
Intel is your ONLY friend.
Intel is your ONLY friend.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
I think someone should change the name "Negroponte" to something more politically correct. Like "Africanamericanponte".
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Wasn't that HP?
Good lord, is there always an idiot who has to come up with these comments on all articles related to technology?
Seriously - stop and think for a moment. Technology has definite uses. And it's what's keeping us the edge over one another.
Even if you are a farmer, being able to predict the rains, know about prices, fertilizers and the like helps. In the past (late 70s/80s, I think), in some parts of the south, India had a programme to help fishermen be informed about storms and the like by having a special radio channel that broadcast such information. They gave all the fishermen free transistor radios and told them to use it - and guess what? Several lives were saved, productivity increased and people in general were happy. And some started using their system for other purposes, like listening to alternate channels - because it's enough if there is one fisherman who knew what was going on. A whole system was developed within the community to this end, and everything improved as a whole - people were coordinating the whole process, resulting in much better productivity. It had benefits that the original creators did not even see.
There are always more pressing needs, and the only way you are going to take care of those needs is by making them self sufficient. This is a tool to that end.
You cannot forsee or predict how these tools will be used. But the only way to find out is to develop the tool and see how far it goes. Sure, it might be an absolute failure - but you would have tried, and you would have learnt.
Better than not doing anything, IMHO.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
WiFi-enabled
"USB ports galore".
Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.
This signature is typed manually.
... Me! Me! Me! Pay attention to ME!
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
RFC 1925
Books don't break! (Generally speaking)
Have you seen MIT Media Lab's work towards helping kids? They've tonnes of toys and other material that are aimed at learning, primarily constructionist in nature.
It has been well proven that constructionist learning goes a long way towards building analytical and engineering related skills - while it may not be the only thing towards that end, it definitely helps.
Now, for a constructionist learning environment, you need tools that they can experiment with. What better way to do this than computers? However, a $2000 computer for a kid is quite obviously not a good idea, so MIT went ahead and developed a cheaper alternative.
Do you know why they can be networked? Because one of the fundamental needs behind education is to have some means of collaboration and team work. Do you know why they have tonnes of USB ports? So that they can be extended upon - a lot of MIT's toys (such as Flow Blocks) are toys that interface with the computers. It's important for folks to be able to add on to these computers, and build new things - whether it's for a farmer in a developing nation using it for weather prediction or whether it's a kid who's adding stuff for class.
Simply because you are ignorant and cannot comprehend the need for this does not mean it's useless. But go ahead, though - am sure you know a whole lot more about educational technology than all those fine folks who've spent years doing this stuff for a living.
I would love a few of these. A notebook for each kid, and one for mommy and daddy too. They are cheap. They don't have power cords to worry about. We can take them anywhere. They are cheap. They claim they are durable. I can write software for my kids. They are cheap. There is a large quantity of open source apps just waiting to be ported.
Did I mention you can put me on the waiting list?
You're not quite up to date with your information, then. AMD currently produces processors for desktops and servers that require significantly less power and generate significantly less heat than Intel's competing processors.
Laptops are give and take, depending on the core and speeds. I used to own a Sony VAIO laptop that had been upgraded with a 25W Athlon XP-M, and it had decent battery life and never ran hot. I hear some of the newer mobile Athlon64 processors are down to 29W or less, which isn't too shabby.
Traditionally, AMD used to produce a lot of heat, but they've never required significantly more power than a comparable Intel processor. This changed about two years ago.
This was said before, but to say something like this sounds like a marketing attack.
:P
How could one find these laptops to be underpowered? Either:
1. You know you paid $100 for it, so you couldn't expect much anyway! (Even if you paid $200 because you live in a western country)
2. You never had access to a computer before - let alone a (n extremely) portable one - and you'll astounded at how much stuff you can do.
Even disregarding this, these things should be impressive machines for what they're worth; they run Linux, which is a tremendous platform for doing stuff your way. I bet a quite nice hacking community will form around them.
The people at Sun who were projecting the Network Computer some eight years ago are probably having a warm fuzzy feeling in their bellies right now
(P.S. The same thing applies with printers.)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
For one thing, the hacker community will be on these immediately, and I expect them to have a lot more functionality when that kicks in. I also look forward to having a laptop that I can use in less than ideal environments without fear of loosing something much more expensive. Last, I don't mind paying more for the device if it helps fund the project somewhat and helps provide the laptops for people less fortunate.
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
(Smash amp, burn guitar, take home the groupies)
The fact that this project contains so many underdogs just might make it succeed. Their egos won't make it fall apart. Except for the MIT staff, almost every company involved can be replaced with someone bigger at any minute. AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. They've all got bigger counter parts. I think it really pisses off the bigger companies that these smaller companies had more insight than them. When they realized how big this thing is going to be, it was too late.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I believe that there's need for maybe 5 inexpensive laptops in the world.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
Well, MIT doesn't grow corn. They don't research AIDS cures. Other people are doing these things. MIT is helping the best way MIT can. MIT helps by building you a computer.
Amazing...MIT would be drawing 100% less criticism right now if they'd simply sat on their hands and done *nothing*. Why is it to get rotten egged off the podium in this world, all you have to do is volunteer to help?
Here's a little tidbit to mull over. Dell is presently the highest volume laptop company in the world. Dell sells their Inspiron B120 laptop for $500 and their Lattitude 610 laptop for $1,000. Which do you think sells more? The much cheaper B120 for $500? No! The best selling laptop that Dell has ever had has been and continues to be the Lattitude 610 at fully twice the price of the B120!
;-))
Yet the B120 still sells well enough for Dell to keep it in its lineup. Which means that there's a market for cheap PCs, even if it isn't as large as the market for more expensive PCs. The question then comes to: Can this company sell enough cheap PCs to be profitable? The answer to that depends entirely on the size and complexity of their operations.
In theory, their costs might be low now that the product is developed. So now they only have to recoup the costs of R&D. But wait! What about product support? In computers, Tech Support is always one of the most expensive components. How is tech support handled in their business model? Are they saving money by outsourcing to an overseas facility? (Perhaps hiring the very people they trained with these laptops?
It's definitely a complex issue. Just saying "market X is bigger than market Y" does not resolve it.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The easiest things in the world to be are a critic and a cynic, and yet many of us wear it like it's a badge of honor.
My linux distro all that and an office suite, educational software, graphics editing (vector and raster), desktop publishing, and a great compiler suite that just happens to be the same one as above, except newer. Oh yes, and the source code to every single program on the box. Were the programs "first tier"? Well, some less than others -- but they were at least there to use.
It's truly baffling that you can buy a $2000 Mac and not even end up with a basic word processing program or spreadsheet on it -- especially when that software can be had for free. Owning a Mac is like a owning a Jeep -- pay once to own it, then pay continuously to use it.
Apple's OS has no business anywhere near this project -- it's a gloriously decorated desktop operating system designed for people that can justify paying thousands of dollars for a photo editing program. Id est no one outside of California. I certainly can't afford it -- I had to fink my way to a fully functional desktop box since the missus wouldn't switch from Linux without the equivalent of Open Office, Scribus, The GIMP and Inkscape. The "first tier" commercial equivalents of those programs would have cost me significantly more than the computer itself.
Liberty you never use is liberty you lose.
Just a matter of time before some opportunist does thus:
My name is Ebou Nogamono and I need your help in retrieving 14,732 gold coins from Croesus' Vault...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
these are not to be sold at CompUSA or even walmart..... if they read the specs and explanations for these they would know that they are not intended to be state of the art, and they cost $100 each in quantities of a million or something. the one prototype or mockup that was posted here before even had a crank to generate power because they are going to be used in places either without electricity or with unreliable electricity. if somebody is in that situation i don't think they will give a crap how well the machine can run Doom (or whatever the hip game is now). it's more of a "my first sony" approach than Apple Powerbook. that being said even for $200 it may be fun to have one?
i say more power to them. if they can get them out there and run some lo-fi linux software then great. they will be able to load them with edu software and possible some form of internet access? if it works maybe we will see some form of freeware educational e-books. it seems like a noble effort to help educate people. honestly if there was no other way to do it, wouldn't loading educational stuff on something akin to a Palm Pilot be better than nothing? you figure Palm was selling handhelds for $99 retail a while back. buying a million, being non-profit and a few years of trickle down technology makes me think it is possible.
It does not follow that if a more pressing need is not yet addressed, that other needs should be ignored.
We really need a cure for cancer, but that's no reason to postpone arthritis research.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The newer processes make smaller chips, and hence you get more per wafer. No foundry is going to crank up an old process for one customer.
If the chip is not one in current volume production, it must still use current technology to be economic.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Not to say whether OS X was the best option for this laptop or not (I suspect not), but all of those apps you mentioned for Linux are also available for OS X. You only own it like a jeep if you choose to. ;)
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
what do they hope to accomplish with these comments? it's not like MIT is going to go "Oh, intel is right, we should be providing them with brand new HP pavillions. We can provide them at $1,000 a machine, and think of what the added power will let those people do! They can play World of Warcraft, and maybe do some CAD...oh yeah, and video editing to boot!"
This is not designed for that purpose - this is primarily designed as an educational tool to help kids learn, as a constructionist tool.
That it can also be used for other purposes is secondary.
I'm not a seer who can tell you what this can bring to the table, but how about giving it a chance and seeing what it does?
But then again, this place is full of arm-chair critics who would much rather criticize a tool without knowing what it's for rather than do something proactive.
As another poster remarked, MIT would be better off not doing anything, and instead, they're getting shit for doing something. And people wonder what's wrong with the world.
*shakes head*
A hint: either let others do what they can and help them, or do something yourself. Not doing either and putting down those that are, is a pointless exercise, and does nothing more than inflate your ego.
"Why is it to get rotten egged off the podium in this world, all you have to do is volunteer to help?"
Amen to that. As someone who works full time in a place that has been designated by the UN as a Least Developed Country, I have to say that this absurd, simplistic logic which decrees that food shortages can only be addressed by food makes me grind my teeth with frustration.
Scenario: A child has a boil in his nostril that's gone septic and is spreading into his sinuses and putting pressure on the brain, there are no doctors within 80 miles. How does the poorly trained but well-intentioned nurse get a proper diagnosis, and if necessary the authorisation to fly the child to the district hospital if communications and resource materials are not available?
Answer: She doesn't, and the child dies. From a boil. This really happened; that child was the eldest boy of a friend of mine.
The country where I work is limited in its development for three major reasons: Education, Health and Infrastructure. In terms of communications, there are some villages here that have waited for over 23 years to get phone service. The national telecom infrastructure relies on microwave transmission equipment so old that replacement parts are no longer available. Introducing simple devices capable of creating ad hoc mesh networks automatically would be an absolute godsend.
Just in case anyone has missed the message here: Improved communications, through low-cost devices such as this, save lives. They do so more effectively than any bag of flour or rice could do.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
As your story left a lump in my throat, I recalled other stories from other places. In fact, every time I see a documentary on underdeveloped countries, or read about humanitarian efforts in foreign lands, these same factors come up again and again. Even amongst the ghettos and wastes of America (and I've waded in them hip-deep!), you have the same problem: you could literally go down skid row handing out hundred dollar bills - most of them would go on a drinking binge and the rest would blow it on lottery tickets. Both routes lead back to skid row. It isn't the lack of necessities that's the problem - that's just a symptom. The problem is that the US condones most of it's citizens' growing up as ignorant savages.
Where you are, I bet a mere book is a real treasure. Well, they're banned and burned, here. I bet a scholar is someone to be looked up to where you are. Not here; here, we're "geeks" and "nerds" and "literary faggots". With any luck, if these efforts do what they're supposed to do, the opportunity to join the 21st century will at last be placed in your people's hands.
I'm sure they will be eager to learn. Not here; instead a cursory reading of my fellow American's postings on Slashdot discovers a litany in praise of ignorance: "It's too difficult." "I'll just spend my money and pay somebody else to do it for me." "Why don't you like Bill Gates, are you a hippie communist terrorist?" and the resounding cry that roars from the mob above it all: "I'M TOO BUSY TO LEARN!!!" You know what they're too busy doing, don't you? Earning money working multiple jobs. So they can pay more money to other people to have them do things for them. Because they're too busy to learn how to do it themselves. But what happens when *nobody* knows *anything*? Money is a poor substitute for brains.
The scary part to me is, your country is heading where we are, while ours is heading where yours is! If so, I am almost fed up enough with this one to think, perhaps, that both nations shall get what they deserve.
If Apple can't install an application with a great interface in their base install, I don't think they'd want to add it at all.
If the user wants to add it themselves later, fine. It's easy, but they probably think it's better than folks complaining about the crappy interface of 'that mac software'. I think that's the reason they give a pass to most of the free stuff out there.
So many, many things wrong with this post. But the only point I want to put across is that the governments or philanthropic organisations will be buying these to distribute to people, most of whom will only be making a dollar or two a day. Has everyone forgotten how exciting it was to see the Donkey Kong handheld, the Atari 2600 or even heck the Commodore 64? Add in the internet connection, and this will be ultra cool - for usage at least, because fingers crossed a lot of people will have them... And as for having more important things to do than handcrank a computer, there are more developing countries with poor people on them than the hot warzones or drought areas that are on the nightly news. I get the impression some people think aid agencies will spend money on computers rather than emergency food. And remember, $100 worth of portable computer is far better than $100 of weapons or landmines.