OLPC's XO gets previewed in its "final" form

We've anticipating final production runs of the OLPC XO for who knows how long, but the $188 laptop is finally in production and soon to be landing in the laps of school children the world over. The folks and Laptop Magazine got their hands on what is ostensibly the final production version and put it through its paces. Everything seemed to work as advertised: a dual-mode display providing readability in any light, a solid build that survives drops from four feet and keyboard spills, solar and pull-string charging options for unlimited battery life, and a hefty quantity of quality software for kids, but there were still some slow-down problems in the software, especially when switching between applications or browser tabs. We've still yet to see if the XO is going to enjoy widespread adoption in education, and still a bit bummed that the price has ratcheted up to nearly $200, but otherwise the computer does seem to fulfill a surprising quantity of what was originally promised.

[Dax @ Sep 19th 2007 11:11AM]

USD $200 is just WAY WAY too much money for poor families in developing countries.

[JC @ Sep 19th 2007 11:14AM]

What rock have you been living under for the past year? These PC's are paid for by governments, not individual families.

That's too bad about the price hike, but it's still going to help educate kids in developing countries for less money than buying books, supplies, etc.

Now I'll just sit back and wait for ignorant comments like "But kids in developing countries don't need computers, they need food!"

[Ebzy @ Sep 19th 2007 11:23AM]

But poor kids in Nigeria need porn too.

[jan @ Sep 19th 2007 11:28AM]

Indeed they need food. But education is the most valuable product and resource on the planet.
Digital information is much cheaper than paper^^.

But now Im waiting for the educational laptop for the more well developed countrys (like the G8 ;-)). Because we seriously need them too.
The best would be a 8.5" by 8.5" multitouchscreen tablet (made by an abstraction of TFIR, messuring how much light is gone at the other end, not how much went down) used as a terminal (so you can buy one expensive server but have very cheap flat clients).

Greets from Germany

[Blah @ Sep 19th 2007 2:16PM]

@ Jan

You mean like the desks in Ender's Game?

[Anthony @ Sep 19th 2007 3:54PM]

actually, its only 100 dollars for the poor people, but if families in the us want to buy one, they have to buy one for a poor kid in some other country, so technecly, they are 100, but you have to buy another one thats shipped to a poor kid. which is why this is getting so much praise.

[Prashant @ Sep 19th 2007 11:35AM]

This indeed is a step in the right direction to make computer literate (in addition to learning)a whole lot of people who would otherwise not be exposed to computers.

[joe @ Sep 19th 2007 11:44AM]

I wouldn't be to concerned over the price. It is tech and after a year the prices on components and manufacturing will go down. They will hit the $100 mark eventually.

[rudebo @ Sep 19th 2007 1:12PM]

if only this were true - i suspect final prices to stick in any kind of conditions. i'd hate to badmouth what was once a good initiative but this is far from the original ideea behind the MIT proposal (if i remember correctly were ther first to propose it)

i have feats of it turning into a marketing and PR tool for governments

it is still a noble undertaking but i feel its now underpowered for the price.

[Jaymez @ Sep 19th 2007 11:50AM]

Are these laptops going to be available for sale to the general public, too? I'd buy one just to mess around with. If the money goes to a good cause, even better. $200 for a test machine would be great.

[dlheritage @ Sep 19th 2007 11:51AM]

Does anyone at Engadget (staff) proofread your postings before hitting the Submit button? The first sentence is missing a word or contains the incorrect word form. The second sentences also has readability issues.

Lastly, toward the end of the blurb, the word 'still' is used 3 times - particularly in ways that should be avoided. I'm no pedantic, but come on guys, re-read before Submit.

[jimlewis @ Sep 19th 2007 3:35PM]

dheritage, I suggest you look up Hartman's Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation, which says "any article or statement about correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling is bound to contain at least one error".

When you wrote "I'm no pedantic", you meant, "I'm no pedant".

[John M @ Sep 19th 2007 12:19PM]

Even poor kids wouldnt want to bee seen with that lime green piece of chit

[tikirob @ Sep 19th 2007 12:26PM]

I like the solar option. It would be cool to see a more advanced option on other laptops...like a hybrid car, squeeze out a few more minutes.

Rob

[Karan @ Sep 19th 2007 12:29PM]

where can I get one of these? I'd pay a bit more just to have all the on-the-go features (durable, battery independent) and hack around to get a linux install going :)

[MonteVale @ Sep 19th 2007 12:43PM]

This thing needs to become super cheap and available everywhere (well I guess this is the plan). As a novelty inexpensive (for developed world) item we can all predict that for a while this thing will be sold to general public instead at most likely a higher price until this interest is lost.
This will also push the prices down for other devices and open many more different markets world over.

This is a real effort.
We can only hope that it reaches all children.
Consequences of this are going to benefit everyone.

[Paladyn @ Sep 19th 2007 12:46PM]

Don't you mean "pedant" instead of "pedantic"? The correct phrase would be either "I'm no pedant" or "I'm not pedantic", even though the latter sounds awkward in context. ;)

P.S. - I agree with you about proofreading, especially when it comes to news posts.

[GazzyC @ Sep 19th 2007 3:15PM]

You understood it enough to correct it so its not a problem is it! it it it

[taylor g @ Sep 19th 2007 12:52PM]

btw it already runs Linux
its a version of Fedora/Redhat

http://laptop.org/en/laptop/software/specs.shtml

[Zach @ Sep 19th 2007 1:05PM]

Why are so many people making fun of the laptop for being expensive? $200 is a phenomenal price for a laptop. Even a 400 MHz one. In the future, costs will come down and I think the price will hit $100. This is all going to a good cause, so stop complaining about being expensive. At least there are people out there trying.

[Joe @ Sep 19th 2007 1:20PM]

The whole concept is idiotic. Computers aren't a very good educational tool. There are niche areas where software can act as a supplemental learning tool, but that's rare. When talking about basic, core education, the difference is even more stark.

Money spent on this crap is money not spent on getting clean water and basic medicine to people in need. Corrupt governments will buy, or be given these morons who think they are helping, and then claim to be doing good.

[toyotaboy @ Sep 19th 2007 1:41PM]

I thought the price was supposed to sell in non-poor nations for twice the price, so that one could get donated to a poor country, so price shouldn't be an issue.

Also, everything used goes down in price. How soon before these start showing up on ebay for $150?

[Rusty @ Sep 19th 2007 2:06PM]

Now that they are going to receive the laptop, what are they going to plug them into? Dirt doesn't charge a battery too well. Plus, I would assume they are going to have wi-fi hotspots, so all the Nigerian spammers can sign them up to flood us with more spam.

[Blah @ Sep 19th 2007 2:15PM]

An educated populace is crucial to democracy and let's be honest: Wikipedia is probably better than the school systems in a lot of these failed third world states.

[Joe @ Sep 19th 2007 2:31PM]

Wikipedia is a reference; simply learning information is not the same thing as obtaining an education. You need basic literacy to use Wikipedia and analytical skills to leverage that information (and know when it's full of crap, which it often is in areas of opinion.)

Being able to use a computer isn't an education either. To put it another way, just knowing how to use Excel has little to do with understanding why you would use Excel.

[Blah @ Sep 19th 2007 4:41PM]

Fair point. I hadn't thought of it that way.

[Jon @ Sep 19th 2007 3:21PM]

I'm sick of people who say the OLPC is a bad use of money. It is well worth it if used only as a bookreader.

I'm a very avid reader. I estimate that I've read between 800-1000 books so far. (the books I have read and decided to keep take up an entire wall.) Lets say the average digital book is 1 GB. that means you can give each child an $8 1 GB SD card preload with literally an entire lifetime of reading materal.

[Bosco @ Sep 19th 2007 4:02PM]

If it's $200, they could just change their name to One Half Laptop Per Child (OHLPC) or One Laptop For Every Two Kids to Fight Over (OLETKtFO).

[jimlewis @ Sep 19th 2007 4:23PM]

Really? Isn't that like saying "libraries aren't a very good educational tool"? They're no substitute for teaching, to be sure, but for reference, and general exploration -- the OLPC will be able to access the internet -- they strike me as invaluable.

[Kevin @ Sep 19th 2007 7:57PM]

What a boon to parents, who'll now be able to say:
"Quit whining Junior. Starving children in Mongolia have to use BLACK AND WHITE computer screens to look at porn."

[tchiseen @ Sep 20th 2007 2:47AM]

starving african kid: "but does it play doom?"

[Ian @ Sep 20th 2007 8:00PM]

I hadn't seen that there was a touch pad specifically for the stylus and drawing, this is what i need in law school to be able to draw diagrams easily. I can't seem to find anything like that on a high end laptop.

[mike @ Sep 29th 2007 7:03PM]

@Jon
Newsflash, the average eBook is about 500kb. By that math this little doo-hicky is worth every penny. I plan to make use of the "give-one-get-one" deal just so that I have a low cost, convenient eBook reader. The deal costs $399. There isn't another eBook reader available in english for that price. Throw in the bells and whistles, and this puppy rocks; dynamite.

@Joe
You make some good points, but I think your observations about the target demographic are a little skewed. Not all people of third-world nations live in abject poverty. I mean, comparatively, standard of living is much higher in places like the US, Europe, SE Asia, Australia; but there's allot of leeway. Most articles I've read on this project talk about how it will be used in schools, as part of educational systems already in place. Also, part of that gap in wealth between developed nations and developing nations, is that this laptop is a big improvement on resources. To us it seems like a tinker toy, but look at the things we're used to: as reference I direct you towards any forum discussing ps3's or xbox360's. The sad truth is, for the cost of one of those "recreational machines" you could feed and African village. James Hetfield said it best, "Sad But True."

[mike @ Sep 29th 2007 7:05PM]

oh, btw. $399 cause I plan to get 2. I'm greedy like that.

[rattlesack @ Oct 25th 2007 1:29PM]

Poor people should just get better jobs and buy a proper laptop