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OLPC rundown: XO gets naked, project detailed
We still haven't seen anything beyond BTest-2 of OLPC's impending XO laptop, but Jürgen Rink over at heise mobil has an in-depth rundown of the project, the laptop and the competition. There's much to be said, eight pages of it, in fact, but Jürgen provides some interesting insights into what sets the XO's tech apart from current laptops and other entrants in the educational laptop space. He also makes it quite clear that the XO has a ways to go, with power consumption -- which Nicholas Negroponte is targeting at 2 watts -- currently ranging from 6.5 to 9.1 watts, and the battery life at 2.5 to 3.5 hours falls far short of the projected 10 hours. Also MIA is the back light sensor, and that much talked about pull-string power generator hasn't even hit prototype stages yet. There are concerns that the convertible display hinge will prove to fragile under heavy use, and software holes like security and missing apps will need to be fixed before the laptop is ready for prime time. That said, the laptop provides some pretty interesting advancements in the realm of hardware and software, with notables like the reflective display, mesh networking, stylus-friendly trackpads and the "kids teach themselves" concept differentiating the XO from edu-PC wannabes. The project still hasn't reached its moment of truth, when verbally-committed governments have to start ponying up cash, but the first order of business is wrapping development on the XO, and we look forward to peeping the final product.
OLPC BTest-2 XO beta machine sequel arrives
Good things happened with that last round of test XO test machines, and now OLPC has shipped out round two, with an improved screen (now with real-live diffuser action), and at last the appearance of a touch pad. The main thrust of BTest-2 is mesh networking and suspend / resume functionality, the industrial design is relatively unchanged, since there wasn't enough time to implement changes found in BTest-1. The third BTest of this trilogy will be supposedly much more rugged -- for instance, Jean Piché already noticed some trackpad woes: "Because of blotches and air bubbles, I almost tried to peel off what seemed like a protective strip of paper on the trackpad. It's a mylar sheet not to be removed!" Thanks for the heads up, Jean. Now what nerdy prof do we need to mug to get a bit of BTest-2 up in the HQ?[Via OLPC News, photo courtesy of Jacob Kaplan-Moss]
