May 20th, 2008
OLPC outlines XO-2; Can it deliver?
The One Laptop Per Child project has taken its lumps lately from its own software developers for going with Windows XP, but its next generation XO could be interesting.
According to various reports from Laptop Magazine, Xconomy and Gizmodo, OLPC chief Nicholas Negroponte unveiled this e-book-ish device as the future of the XO laptop. One thought: Would this thing run XP? Two thoughts: Can the OLPC actually deliver this pup?
The device, dubbed the XO-2, aims to run about $75, will be low power (1 watt) and be half the size of the original XO.
From the OLPC (all resources) press release:
- OLPC is betting that new developments in hardware, software, display and processor technologies will lower the XO-2’s price tag to $75.
- OLPC is going with the 1 watt power consumption target so XO-2 can be powered by a hand crank.
- The XO-2 will feature dual-touch displaces for the e-book. OLPC says:
Dual-touch sensitive displays will be used to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of One Laptop per Children and a leading expert on display technology.
And now the hard part: Can the OLPC deliver? This gizmo looks pretty ambitious to me considering the OLPC’s $100 laptop still runs $188. I also wonder how these touch displays will hold up in rough conditions.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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