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OLPC Gets $5.6M Grant To Develop Tablet With Marvell

Posted by Soulskill on from the one-hip-device-per-child dept.

tugfoigel writes "According to Xconomy, 'The One Laptop per Child Foundation and Santa Clara, CA-based semiconductor maker Marvell have cemented a partnership announced last spring, with Marvell agreeing to provide OLPC with $5.6 million to fund development of its next generation tablet computer. Nicholas Negroponte says the deal, signed in the past week or so but not previously announced, runs through 2011. "Their money is a grant to the OLPC Foundation to develop a tablet or tablets based on their chip," he says. The OLPC tablet ... is known as the XO 3 because it represents the third-generation of the XO laptop currently sold by OLPC (the foundation scrapped plans for its e-book-like XO 2 computer and is moving straight to the tablet). ... The deal, he says, means the tablet's development is "fully funded."'"

9 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. And we need this why? by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The OLPC project went nowhere. They took money and work from the community, then they sold themselves to microsoft, and achieved none of all their goals. The project went nowhere.

    There are already awesome tablets like the aPad that exist right now and retail for less than 200 dollars. I'm sure you could drive them below 100 if you built enough and bought them altogether.

    Why are we still listening to the OLPC's pipe dreams about developing hardware? They already proved that they can't get anything done, and that they will sell out if necessary. Want to do something? The product you want is already out there. Buy it, drive its price down, and start delivering.

    --
    WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
    1. Re:And we need this why? by RocketRabbit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OLPC should be a Linux distro that runs on any major architecture, and is slim enough that you can throw it on a used computer from 1998 and run it without issue. It should also run on the glut of shitty quality me-too tablets that have been "announced" since the iPad came out.

      What they need is something made of metal, with a metal screen protector, that opens up to expose a solar panel. That way the kids can prop the thing up in the window while they are outside playing, and when they get home it is all charged up and ready to go. Make it waterproof and you have a real winner.

    2. Re:And we need this why? by RocketRabbit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, if Sugar on a Stick already exists, why are they fucking around with hardware?

      In a lot of poor areas, power is still available. There are a nearly infinite number of used, but still fully capable computers out there. Maybe the OLPC project should be helping schools generate power and shipping them used computers by the palate.

      OLPC jumped the shark when they bowed down to MS. How are kids supposed to learn unbounded when they have to deal with Windows? They are making users out of these kids, when they should be making explorers out of them.

    3. Re:And we need this why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's a Bad Analogy. Sometimes the tool is clearly broken. Or sometimes it's clearly a case of being forced to use the wrong tool and then being called a sore loser when you fail. Microsoft loves forcing everyone to buy a bag of hammers when what they really need is one hammer, one screwdriver, and one saw.

    4. Re:And we need this why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The OLPC project went nowhere. They took money and work from the community, then they sold themselves to microsoft, and achieved none of all their goals. The project went nowhere.

      Microsoft business as usual.

    5. Re:And we need this why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >The XO targeted grade school kids - in third-world countries. Think Reader Rabbit not hacking the kernel.

      Really? When I was in grade school we did LOGO and on the Atari and Apple 8-bits.

      You expect all students to be average and without curiosity. Kids are really smart, and have more aptitude than most adults.

    6. Re:And we need this why? by Raenex · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sounds like manufacturing let them down.

      You can't blame the manufacturers for charging a credit card without shipping the product.

  2. In short, you're an idiot. by HeckRuler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Did you miss the part where they put out 1.5 million laptops?
    Yeah, a $100 target would have been better. Twice as good in fact.
    Sticking strictly with open and free is debatable. If they can wheedle a few million out of MS in exchange for some empty promices, so much the better.
    The product that they want IS the XO. It has a lot of nice features that other cheap laptops don't.

    Do they really need a tablet version? Shrug, I dunno. But to say that the OLPC project went nowhere is a bold faced lie. Just because you don't see them in walmart doesn't mean much. (but yeah, I'd like to see them in retail too.)

  3. Re:OLPC software isn't attractive to parents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    won't learn to do anything helpful in any labor market on earth

    Wow. Right. So, access to the web including sites such as Wikipedia will do nothing to prepare her for the larger world. Rapid, low cost communication won't help either. Diverse news sources that provide perspective to villagers are equally pointless. Only if it runs MS Office and Windows 7 is it of any use.

    Jeebus.