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OLPC XO-3 To Debut At CES, Starting Under $100 (But Not For You)
Computerworld is one of many publications heralding the expected arrival next week of the long-awaited OLPC tablet, and making much of one very cool feature: the price. The initial XO laptops from OLPC never quite made it to the hoped-for under-$100 level. But at least with an ordinary LCD screen, says project founder Nicholas Negroponte, the new XO-3 actually has. (An optional daylight-readable Pixel Qi screen bumps the price up, but it's not clear quite how much.) Both OLPC and Pixel Qi will be at next week's CES; hopefully I'll get a chance to provide some first-hand details, and ask whether there will be another round of the Buy One Give One program, so users outside the reach of big government buying programs can both further the project and play with the product; so far, the word is that these will only be available for large government buyers. (TechCruch has better pictures of the new device.)
Dammit, posted from my ipad 2 and it did it wrong. Maybe I should get the OLPC tablet, would be better than this gunk.
You're a regular prince.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You're a regular prince.
Wtf... feeling a little holier-than-thou, PopeRatzo? You have no idea what his situation is. "I'd donate to charity." "That's not a big enough donation."
The guy isn't planning to donate. He wants to get access to their hardware. And he's acting as if it's a big favour for them ("in manufacturing it's all about volume") and ("Let first world developers help out the third world ones").
The truth, though, is that in manufacturing it's all about patents and support. On the patents side OLPC is getting away with selling these cheap as long as they don't stamp big time on the feet of the big players. Microsoft made that very clear last time around by setting out to destroy the whole program and by getting in the way of a bunch of the government OLPC programs. On the support side, OLPC has set up an organisation for supporting these for schools with lots of volunteer help. If they sell them to individuals that opens up a whole load more costs and they aren't able to apply volunteers because their volunteers are interested in education, not general computing
This could have been put more politely but currently_awake isn't willing to pay his way. Maybe he doesn't realise that, but two times price is not nearly enough and he shouldn't feel he's making a donation if he does get to buy it at that cost.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();