Forget schools, forget lighting, forget easy access to drinking water... it's that sweet TV goodness that people living off the grid really need. Well, that and laptops. You're looking at Sharp's 26-inch LCD prototype which uses just a quarter of the power (or a third measured annually) of a conventional CRT with the same screen size. That's low enough to be suitably powered by a Sharp, triple-junction thin-film solar cell module whose surface area is roughly equivalent to that of the LCD screen. Sharp hopes to market the two items as a pair in a bid to "contribute to the environment." Good thing too, 'cause nothing fills a billion empty bellies like an eye-full of boob-candy.

[Via Impress]

Sure, building up a campfire in order to roast some eats in the wilderness could be fun for awhile, but for the reported "two billion people that use open fires as their primary cooking method," we're sure it loses its luster somewhere along the line. The University of Nottingham is hoping to change all that, however, by attempting to develop an all-in-one gizmo that acts as a "cooker, a fridge, and a generator," and relies on biomass fuels for energy. The £2 million ($3.96 million) SCORE (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) project seeks to create a "wood-powered generator capable of both cooking and cooling food," and it will purportedly rely on thermoacoustics to cut down on pollutants, increase efficiency, and be more reliable to future consumers in Africa and Asia. No word just yet on when this newfangled kitchen appliance will be ready to ship, but a portable version would probably do quite well in the camping market.

[Via CNET]

Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the OLPC, Negroponte, and the Sugar interface, in comes the man himself using the "W" word in an open-sourced conversation. Curiously enough, Nik Neg has not only stated that the present is "perhaps the most critical stage of the OLPC's life," but he also blurted out a quasi-firm $176 pricetag that would be attached to them. Additionally, he went so far as to admit that "XO's developers have been working with Microsoft so a version of Windows can run on the machines," and while no direct linkages were drawn to the recent $3 software package that the firm had announced, the writing is somewhat on the wall. Furthermore, a whopping 19 state governors have reportedly shown interest in grabbing a few of the inexpensive machines for their own schoolkids, and while the creator initially stated that the XOs were "designed for a totally different situation," he was also quoted as saying that business in the US "couldn't be ignored." C'mon guys and gals, how about a little less conversation and a little more action?

Read - Hints of Windows on OLPC
Read - US schools could adopt OLPC

In what initially sounds like an altruistic gesture towards developing nations -- but is in reality a shrewd business move to both compete with pirates and get kids hooked on Windows -- Microsoft will be selling a package containing full-fledged versions (well, kinda) of its OS and office software to eligible countries for a mere three-bucks-a-pop. Starting sometime in the second half of the year, less-developed nations that agree to provide free computers for their school systems will be able to participate in the latest effort in Microsoft's Unlimited Potential initiative, which nets them a bundle containing XP Starter Edition, Office Home and Student 2007, as well as various other educational titles (fingers crossed for Flight Simulator). Of course, by putting this restriction on participants, Microsoft is obviously forcing them to purchase PCs that work with its ecosystem of products -- and more importantly, that aren't the OLPC XO (Classmates are cool, though). The company will also benefit somewhat from governments that tend to buy their software from shady sources, although pirates can rest assured that they'll still be able to thrive on the patronage of individuals and private firms. So make no mistake about it, the war for the hearts and minds of the next wave of PC users is most definitely on, and while Bill Gates may espouse the many societal benefits of bridging the digital divide, Microsoft's Orlando Ayala made the company's intentions crystal clear when he told Reuters "This is not a philanthropic effort: this is a business."