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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.
..... 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 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.