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Manufacturer Picked For $100 Laptop
IZ Reloaded writes "MIT has picked Taiwanese firm Quanta to manufacture its $100 laptop. From PCWorld: 'Under terms of an agreement with One Laptop Per Child, Quanta will devote engineering resources to develop the $100 notebook design during the first half of the year, according to a statement issued by the group. At the same time, Quanta and the non-profit organization will explore the production of a commercial version of the laptop.'" Apparently they don't think it's ineffectual either.
Quanta is highly regarded as one of the better laptop manufacturers and I wish them luck. Quanta manufacturers a number of product lines for Apple and their own line of X86 laptops get good reviews.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
The manufacturer wasn't picked. A company to investigate how this thing could be manufactured was picked. No company has yet to say that this is even possible. This is still ivory tower, public reltations mumbo jumbo at this stage.
I don't respond to AC's.
The 500MHz
1 GB Memory
"Skinny version" of the open-source Linux operating system
Two-mode screen, viewed in color and black-and-white display
Powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank w/ 10-to-1 crank rate
4 USB ports
Wi-Fi- and cell phone-enabled
Each laptop acts as a node in a mesh peer-to-peer ad hoc network
When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap
The laptops will be rugged and probably made of rubber
I say this is not bad at all for $100.00.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I submitted the story 2 days ago, but it was rejected (damn I hate when that happens), so here is more information...
Here is the official press release from the One Laptop per Child organization. OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said, "Any previous doubt that a very-low-cost laptop could be made for education in the developing world has just gone away."
Also tech specs can be found on the FAQ page: 500 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM.
The problem becomes how do you charge them? Network them? Get data on/off them? Fix them when they break down in Ghana? - since the machines are long out of date, and parts/batteries are hard to get (unless you manage to get enough volume to estabish what amounts to a manufacturing operation over there, in which case, they can take care of themselves.)
The concept behind the $100 laptop is to create a commodity computing device tailored for an area where power and communications infrastructure are absent. In fact the laptop BECOMES the communications infrastructure (with ad-hoc nodes). Sending over relatively fragile devices that were designed for 1st world power and communications (and repair) networks just won't cut it... at least not in the rural areas where this is targeted.
Your idea works fine for the cities, however, and I think there are actually used equipment import/export companies, who send over refurbished heavy equipment and computers. But again, different target user, different infrastructure.
And the GP2X also runs linux.
For $179, I can watch movies, music, play several different consoles (Right now we have 100% functional sega genesis, gameboy, not bad for the first 2 weeks. PSX and SNES are partially functional)
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..... because they make stuff for the following companies:
7 3600682 for more).
- Dell (Latitude)
- IBM/Levono (any and all of them)
- Sony (Vaio)
- Apple (iBook)
- Gateway
They also made HP laptops in the past. Plus they're moving into cell phones and other eletronics.
Their CEO Barry Lim was named one of Computer Reseller News's Top 25 Execs in November (http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1
They have the track record to make this happen properly. I just wonder why they'd do it. Maybe for the P.R. points? It's not for the cash.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I highly recommend you try to locate a copy of National Geographics Africa issue. It is very enlightening in that it avoids the Tarzan stereotype propogated by the sensationalist media in the U. S. and describes what Africa is really like.
Yes, Africa has problems and there is a need for clean water and food. But Africa is not as bad off as you might imagine from what you see on the nightly (so called) news.
If you can't find a copy of NGs Africa issue I highly recommend you try to locate a copy of the latest New African. It is a British magazine and hard to locate in the U. S. but well worth the effort if you do find it. I get mine from DeLauer's bookstore in Oakland, CA. I have also seen it at Barnes & Noble.
Again, I agree that Africa has problems, but they are not as bad as we are led to believe. Also, this laptop will create opportunities that you and I cannot see from our distant perspective.
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
I guess you haven't been in a third world country yet.
This won't directly go to the "poorest people in the world"... this will go to the slighty less poor folk trying to help them. I'd imagine a lot of these will end up in farmer's cooperatives or collectives, used to distribute information to the farmers themselves. Sure, an illiterate farmer can't use a computer, but the local aid workers or agriculturists can.
And even if the parents are illiterate, the presence of cheap computers available at the local library will help make sure their children aren't (with $100 computers and some form of wireless access, small rural libraries are now feasible in areas where shipping books in useful quantities are too expensive).
I've seen a project in India where a guy accesses the US Navy Geographical Survey page, looks up local weather conditions, and broadcasts the current weather report over short-wave radio every morning to the local fishing villages. The main problem was maintaining an Internet connection and computer for the announcer guy. Being able to deploy even one computer and 'net connection (rudimentary dialup, whatever) per village instead of only in the bigger population centers will help in disseminating this information to more people.
The organizers aren't as completely out of touch with reality as some people here, it seems.
Well, wise guy, if you'd RTFA you'd know that a. the laptops contain both wifi, and cellular broadcast capabilities, now the normal wattage of the cellular antenna is going to be about 5-10 miles, but with say and extrnal antenna booster at the school a simple 3 watt antenna can easuly reach 50+ miles, and the laptop hooked up to that 50 mile antenna can use the wi-fi to connect all the little student laptops to the internet.
now don't you feel stupid? i do realize not every third world county is within 50 miles of a cellular tower, but quite a few are, especially if there is any kind of tourism, or major economic development in the region.
true 192kbps split between 40 students doesn't go far, and Someone has to pay the monthly cost for cellular internet, but they Will have internet access, where available.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Yeah, like autochtonous economic development, something that first world nations have been fighting extremely hard for the past few decades. And guess what, food "aid" is in fact aid for the givers.
Are you adequate?
actually, the specs on this back in May, http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120845,0 0.asp said that this thing would "have 256MB of main memory, 1GB of flash memory in place of a hard drive" which still isnt a bad thing, but it clears up a lot of the memory pricing speculation.