You know, we've been covering the
OLPC so long that it started to feel like we'd never actually be able to get to hold one. And then last night happened. Oh sweet beautiful lords of gadgetude, we wrapped our mitts around the
$100 ~$150 portable of Negroponte genesis and were, well, ok with it. Not that it should be all that surprising considering the price, but the keyboard was a bit crappy, kind of cheap feeling and rubberized, like the Sidekick II, but the effect doesn't carry over to full QWERTY. The trackpad was rather good, and the plastics felt pretty solid. Not too flimsy for a machine of its class, seemingly decent build quality and all. The screen looked decent enough as well, but the peeps manning the booth didn't flip it into monochrome mode, which was kind of a bummer. We dug flipping it into tablet mode, but then the reality set in: we only had a few minutes to play with this thing, and it has an almost entirely symbolic interface. Meaning that we (and the booth attendees) who weren't familiar with its workings weren't able to easily find our way around. Still, we'd plunk down a Benjamin or two (or three) for one -- ya hear us, Nick? Nick!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kip HT @ Jan 8th 2007 9:22AM
Yeah, that keyboard looks like the flexible roll up ones you see. I think the colours are kinda wack. Does it have 3 touchpads, it looks like it, but the click buttons are only beneath the middle one. Or am I totally wrong
wayan @ Jan 8th 2007 9:49AM
Ah, never fear my dear Engadget, the OLPC will be on eBay, its inevitable. There is a demand, there will be a supply. And Negroponte has already promised (sort of):
http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/ebay_olpc_sales_inev.html
As to the screen's gray scale/reflective abilities, oh its so hot I almost forgot to take pictures of it when I saw it: http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/screen/revolutionary_dual-mode_screen.html
Regardless of the keyboard feel, did you get to hit the "view source" key?
http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/keyboard/children_view_source.html
Xenia @ Jan 8th 2007 10:16AM
You should still consider this thing Beta. The rollout is planned for July 2007.
Regards, Xenia
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http://olpc.com
Ken @ Jan 8th 2007 10:29AM
One of Negroponte's requests was "Absolutely no CAPS LOCK key"?!
http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/keyboard/no_caps_lock_key_so.html
As excited as I am about the SRC key, I'm just as happy to see that children the world over won't be typing IN ALL CAPS. (no, now we'll never see another capital letter again... all lower case)
Bucket @ Jan 8th 2007 11:26AM
Damn straight. I would buy this thing in a SECOND. Did they let you crank/zip the battery charger?
MikeN @ Jan 8th 2007 11:31AM
@ Kip HT:
It looks to me like it's just one middle touchpad with white cutouts on either side. I can't really see any logic behind having 3 touchpads. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, especially if you've seen it in person.
Mike
tiuk @ Jan 8th 2007 1:55PM
In tablet mode, can you write on the screen with a stylus?
Jim Gettys @ Jan 9th 2007 10:17AM
Yes, it is both a touchpad and a tablet device.
In the BTest-1 machines, due to a noise problem, the tablet device is disabled (and the touchpad is noisy). Fixed in BTest-2.
James Smith @ Jan 8th 2007 4:22PM
Does this thing still run on Fedora Core? I heard some rumors that it now uses Windows CE or something like that.
JD @ Jan 8th 2007 5:17PM
I wonder if they went with the all-one-piece rubberized keyboard to help keep out dirt, water, sand, etc.
The more I see these things, the more I want one. A laptop with a always available power supply is pretty sweet. Did you see it run off the internal power generator?
Also, anyone know the expected final weight?
PEZ @ Jan 8th 2007 5:30PM
This is going to be the defining gadget of the 3rd world! (and eBay).
blueacewe @ Jan 8th 2007 6:02PM
If they make it in red it will look a bit devilish with those antennas
Alexandre Rafalovitch @ Jan 9th 2007 9:39AM
The CAPS LOCK is gone, but it does not mean writing in lower case only. The shift key is still there. It is just that nobody will want to write a whole email/message in all CAPS. Teaching polite manners while technological means, so to speak.
Also, I don't think the screen is touch screen. It is designed to be an e-book reader in tablet mode. The small arrow pad on the side of the screen will still be present in the tablet mode and can be used to navigate.
The on-body crank is gone, but there are couple of even cooler designs external to the charger. So, it might actually be possible to deliver OLPCs with different chargers based on target audience (though I don't think those are the plans for now).
drumr @ Jan 22nd 2007 10:32PM
AWWWWW soo many laptop pc's... should i wait for vista to come out?