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Multi-Touch comes to XO OLPC

Paul Merak — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:25:50 +0000

OLPC yesterday announced that the company is working to bring touchscreen capability along with multi-touch gestures to the Sugar operating system. Here is a screenshot of Virtual Keyboard in Sugar OS showing a Hindi SIP (soft input panel).

OLPC XO-3 Tablet PC: Way Off conceptual design

Paul Merak — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:20:35 +0000

Sometimes, designers just take things a bit too far. Meet the OLPC XO-3 concept tablet. Brimming with great features like semi-flexible plastic, multi-touch, razor thin thickness and sporting an unreal price tag of $75, this new XO-3 Tablet PC concept is way off from reality.Well, even a concept has to have some basis in reality. This thing is super thin and even has a camera. Funny that even Apple has not been able to throw in a camera into the ultra-slim body of iPod TouchRead iPod Touch 3G 64GB review

Children, start pedaling to charge your OLPC XO notebook!

Twinkle — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:10:48 +0000

Made by OLPC Afghanistan, you can now get your OLPC XO charged by pedals! And you can work on your XO too while pedaling, if you can do that.The system connects the Freeplay hand crank with pedals underneath to enable the XO to be used as long as desired at home, into the night, etc; and it requires no additional or backup battery.Who thought a day will come when we will be able charge our netbooks/notebooks by pedals. Somebody please make a charger so that I can charge my netbook while cycling.[OLPC Afghanistan]

India buys 250,000 OLPCs

Paul Merak — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:59:21 +0000

Couple of months back, we reviewed the Nova Navigator, touted as "India's $100 PC." But, it was a nettop and not a laptop or a netbook. As a result of that, Indian Government has decided to purchase 250,000 XO OLPCs. These machines will be distributed in nearly 1500 schools throughout the country.OLPC launched a pivot program in India in the year 2007, where the OLPC gave away 20 XO in the Khairat-Dhangarwada village in the state of Maharashtra (India).OLPC is an organization which sells low cost laptops to the governments of developing countries. The XO laptop by OLPC does not come with any fan inside. However, it is dirt and moisture resistant which makes it ideal for use in dirty environments.

OLPC wants Windows 7 for ARM

Paul Merak — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:45:24 +0000

Looks like the rumors of OLPC opting ARM instead of Atom processor were true. The OLPC has finally decided to go for the ARM platform. The current XO-1 is very power-frugal and uses just 5 watts of power on an average, which is really efficient for an X86 machine. That said, if the company opts ARM, it would nearly triple the battery life of these devices with the same capacity battery. ARM has much better power management features and also has built-in WiFi. However, the desktop version of Windows does not support ARM processor, which means no XP or no Windows 7.The OLPC has requested Microsoft to make a special version of Windows 7 that is able to run on an OLPC. In case that happens, this will ultimately kill Windows Mobile as a lot of Windows Mobile devices run on ARM platform. That is why, I feel that OLPC will need a do a lot of persuation to the Microsoft for making an ARM-compatible Windows 7.Note: Windows Mobile fully supports ARM. However, we understand that Windows 7 would be more suitable for the children.

OLPC to opt ARM processor instead of Intel Atom for XO-2

Paul Merak — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:43:38 +0000

It is not an unknown fact that the Microsoft won't be making an Windows OS having ARM processor support. XO-2, which is targeted to be launched after 18 months from now is likely going to have ARM processor instead of Intel Atom processor.ARM processors consume much much less power than any power-frugal Intel Processor processor. But since the the ARM processors can run full blown version of Linux, who is complaining?

OLPC Netbook price drop – now costs only $180

Peter — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:51:55 +0000

The one-laptop-per-child (OLPC)'s price has been lowered to $180. Although, not exactly $100 as it was originally rumored to, any price reduction is highly appreciated (from $204 to $180). Negroponte is going to roll out its next version of the OLPC netbook, which will sport a dualscreen with virtual keyboard on which it would be interesting to see how easy it is to type on the virtual keyboard.

OLPC’s second program kicks off – Donate an OLPC for noble cause

Peter — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:20:06 +0000

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) association launched its Give 1 Get 1 program for a second time now. It is allowing people to buy one of these mini-laptops and donate one to a child in the developing world at the same time for just US$399. Now, they have undergone partnership with Amazon to improve [...]

Microsoft starts offering Windows XP OLPC licences

Paul Merak — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:15:15 +0000

No doubt, Microsoft had said some time back that it will continue to provide new licenses of Windows XP to the OLPCs. Before you get too excited, here is the rules or requirements: up to 1GB of RAM only slow processor small hard-disk price $26-32 :!: This is a nice step by the Microsoft to [...]