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OLPC Wins Popular Science Award
paulmac84 writes "Popular Science has released their Best of What's New 2006 awards. In the computing section the One Laptop Per Child project took home the Grand Prize. From the article: 'The goal of the XO is simple and noble: to give every child a laptop, especially in developing countries, where the machines will be sold in bulk for about $130 apiece. But the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit, formed at MIT, didn't just create a cheap computer. In addition to cutting costs — by designing lower-priced circuitry and using an open-source operating system, among other things — it also improved on the standard laptop by slashing the machine's energy use by 90 percent, ideal for a device that could be charged by hand-cranked power in rural villages.' The Innovation of The Year Award went to 'the alpha nail that makes your home twice as tough'. Sometimes the simple ideas really are the best."
A late stage beta system (full display, case and hardware) is being built as we speak. The first 1000 machines will be in hands of developers, test countries and the like before the end of the month.
There are "A-test" out in circulation. About 500 in the world. B-test boards are pretty rare (relatively) and are mostly in the lab still. The full laptops betas (case, display, etc) are being assembled for the first time this month.
The A-test board is likely what LinuxBIOS has, because b-test and the new systems are using an OpenFirmware-based solution.