2nd Generation "$100 Laptop" Will Be an E-Book Reader

waderoush writes "At a conference sponsored by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation this morning, OLPC founder unveiled the design for the foundation's second-generation laptop. It's actually not a laptop at all — it's a dual-screen e-book reader (we've got pictures). Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75, in part by using low-cost displays manufactured for portable DVD players."

Comments

Bye bye books

[1155]

Bye bye books. We'll miss you!

Maybe schools in the states can get these and stop spending my hard earned cash on books. Oh wait, they already paid for them. I used the same book my mom used in high school (her name was on it!).

Re:Bye bye books

[bsDaemon]

Well, it is if she were a victim of abstinence-only education which, in addition to being boring and therefor not helpful, also fails to teach kids to put on a damned condom, then it would be the school district's fault.

or Bush's... whichever option is worth more karma.

Re:Bye bye books

[value_added]

Well, it is if she were a victim of abstinence-only education which, in addition to being boring and therefor not helpful, also fails to teach kids to put on a damned condom, then it would be the school district's fault.

You've got to look at the bright side of life.

Abstinence-only education tends to encourage casual oral sex (frequent, one would hope) as a substitute for losing one's virginity. Or making babies.

Who could be against more blowjobs? Not me.

laptop is an e-book reader?

[hansraj]

I have some beach-front estate to sell. It is not near any beach and it is actually a chair.

Re:Mass Production

[Uncle Focker]

and the next generation only 3 years later, in 20010, I think 20010 is more than 3 years after 2007.

Re:Obligatory

[Frosty Piss]

But can it run Linux?

No, but it's been certified Vista Ready, and they haven't even built one yet.

right, so?

[SuperBanana]

Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75

Is that 75 Real Dollars, or $75 Negroponte Distortion Field Dollars? And it'd be nice if the press actually took a stab at how realistic those "hopes" are- I mean, I hope that someday I'll shit strawberry-flavored lollipops while driving in my flying car, on autopilot while I bonk my supermodel wife...

OLPC has to change its name

[whtmarker]

OEBPC doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Wiki-TextBooks is an old idea

[Anonymous Coward]

We had wiki text books when I was in school 20 years ago. Well, at least the text books I had were "edited" by the student that had them before me.

barking up the wrong tree

[nguy]

Nice theory. Except: the professors assigning the textbooks aren't usually the ones making the money from them.

Like it or not, good textbooks cost a lot of money because few people can write them and students are willing and able to pay those prices.

Why are few people able to write them? Because tenure committees and university boards demand publications and grant money and that's what professors have to spend their time on. Writing a textbook is a career limiting move, and professors simply don't have the time to create their own teaching materials from scratch, given all the other obligations imposed on them.

If you don't like that, go to a teaching oriented school, and/or complain to your university and state legislators that they should set different priorities.