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OLPC XO-3 debut delayed till February as the quest continues for an 'unbreakable' screen
You'll read about many a wonder at CES this January, but you can cross the OLPC XO-3 off the list -- One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte told PC World that the slate's debut has been pushed back roughly 45 days, until the middle of February instead. Whether the Marvell Moby-based tablet turns out to be a sexy, paper-thin device or a chunky contraption wasn't discussed, but Negroponte did have a simple explanation for the delay -- he needed a suitable surface to cover that probable Pixel Qi touchscreen. "The issue has been really finding an unbreakable material," he said, hinting that "it may be glass or some flavor of glass," rather than plastic as originally planned. Might we suggest a taste test at the Corning laboratories, Mr. Negroponte? We hear they have a Gorilla that does quite nicely. Video after the break.
Marvell shows OLPC some serious love with a $5.6 million grant for XO-3 tablet
Marvell and One Laptop Per Child's close partnership has been no secret, but according to Xconomy, Marvell's about to put a whole lot more green into the XO. The semiconductor company is forking over $5.6 million to fund the creation of the next gen XO-3 tablet, and according to OLPC founder and former Engadget Show guest Nicholas Negroponte, it's still slated for a 2012 release. Obviously, the tablet will be based on Marvell's SoC -- though, there's no telling which version of Armada will be up for grabs by then. Additionally, Marvell and OLPC will be showing another tablet at CES, but this one is apparently for children of the developed world and won't carry OLPC's brand. Our guess is that it'll be something closer to the Android-running Moby than to the plastic, bendable, Pixel Qi-equipped XO-3. It's all sounding rather confusing to us, but hey, at least the kids won't have a shortage of tablets to choose from.
OLPC's Negroponte offers India help in realizing $35 tablet dream, probably has a few other motives
The late Joker said it best: "If you're good at something, never do it for free." The truth ingrained in that very statement makes the bold words of OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte all the more curious here. In an open letter to the Indian government published in the Times of India, Nik Neg has seemingly eased up on his apparent grudge against the nation, but there's a decent chance that something's in it for him. Largely, no one with any link to reality believes that India will indeed deliver $35 laptops -- their $10 laptop eventually soared to $100 before evaporating completely. But in the letter, Negroponte offers the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development "full access to all of [OLPC's] technology, cost free," further urging them to "send a team to MIT and OLPC at your earliest convenience" in order to talk about world domination, the latest Cricket happenings and janky PCs that may or may not ever land in the classroom. Of course, some are surmising that the scheme will enable the MHRD to easily give up their own aspirations, buy a truckload of XO-3s and save face in the process, but hey -- so long as the children win, it's all good. Right?
OLPC XO 1.5 now shipping with Sugar Learning Platform and GNOME Desktop
OLPC may still not have any completely new hardware ready to roll out, but it is now giving its slightly improved XO 1.5 laptop a bit of a boost. The organization has just announced that the laptop will now be shipping with both the simplified Sugar Learning Platform and the more full-fledged GNOME Desktop for some added productivity. What's more, the organization has also confirmed that its forthcoming XO-HS (with a new keyboard more suitable for high school students) will come with the same dual-boot option as well, and will be launched first in Uruguay this September. Full press release is after the break.
Engadget Podcast 198 - 05.29.2010
How many executives does it take to screw in a light bulb? Fewer than you would think! How many screens do you need to coordinate your digital life with the cloud? Less than 3, contrary to popular belief. How many Engadget Podcasteers need be present to convey the week's news to you in a succinct 90-minute audio package? Less than five. How many Foxconn employees should consider suicide to bring you a $99 iPhone? That's right, zero. This week, it's all about reductionism on the Engadget Podcast. Let's go on a trip together - to the clean, compact future. Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Producer: Trent Wolbe Music: Bullet With Butterfly Wings Hear the podcast 00:04:15 - WSJ: Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division getting a 'shakeup,' J Allard expected to leave 00:04:35 - Microsoft's Robbie Bach and J Allard leaving as part of broader shakeup; Xbox and Windows Phone teams now reporting directly to Ballmer 00:06:00 - Robbie Bach: Project Natal a 'midlife kicker' for Xbox 360, 'absolutely confident' Courier innovations will appear elsewhere 00:08:32 - Apple and Microsoft now neck and neck in market capitalization 00:08:55 - Ballmer downplays Microsoft's shift in market value, says it's a 'long game' 00:30:23 - Windows Phone 7 pops up on a Samsung prototype device, plays Twin Blades 00:32:12 - webOS design mastermind Matias Duarte leaves Palm... and could be headed to Google 00:32:22 - Confirmed: Palm's Matias Duarte joins Google as User Experience Director for Android 00:42:07 - Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved 00:51:32 - The next Apple TV revealed: cloud storage and iPhone OS on tap... and a $99 price tag 01:04:00 - Confirmed: Apple's next iPhone will have video chat, feature to be shown in ads directed by Sam Mendes 01:09:53 - Foxconn raising wages, relocating 20 percent of Shenzhen workers closer to home (updated) 00:20:00 - Apple, Dell, and HP comment on suicides as Foxconn CEO shows off the pool 01:29:49 - Introducing Engadget Alt Subscribe to the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace Download the podcast LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) LISTEN (OGG) Contact the podcast 1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com. Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget
OLPC should have an XO-3 prototype ready by the end of the year
Last time we spied the XO-3 tablet concept from OLPC, we were told to expect the thing to ship in the far-distant year 2012. Much has changed since then in the tablet arena, however, and Nicholas Negroponte, the project's founder, is saying they'll have a working prototype ready by December of this year, to be shown off at CES in January of 2011. Many details are still up in the air, but the initial device will be designed for use by children in the oft-neglected developed world, "testing many of the things that combine a laptop, an iPad and a Kindle." Word is they'll be starting with that Marvell Moby reference design, with a 9-inch-ish dual mode LCD for outdoor readability (thanks to Pixel Qi, presumably). The prototype will have a glass screen, but the goal is "100 percent plastic, unbreakable and almost extruded out of a machine," said Negroponte, something that won't happen until 2012 most likely. The best, and possibly wildest, claim of all is the $75 price tag that they hope to slap on this thing when all is said and done. We suppose the veracity of that claim will come down to how long this actually takes to make it from prototype to production. There's video of NickNeg discussing it after the break.
OLPC sees bandwagon, hops on with XO tablet based on Marvell Moby design
Eh, those kiddos don't need no physical keyboards and power cranks, right? Right! In a presumed effort to both keep with the times and take advantage of what's being served to them on a silver platter, the philanthropic souls over at One Laptop Per Child have teamed with Marvell in order to develop the next OLPC -- which, predictably, will be a tablet. The forthcoming range of XO tablets will be based on Marvell's newly loosed 'Moby' reference design (which we recently toyed with), and given that purported $99 price tag, you can see why the tie-up makes sense. The slate will require but one watt of power to operate (compared to ~five watts on the existing XO laptop), and it'll include a multilingual soft keyboard with touch feedback in order to serve various regions of the globe. As for specs, we're told that the device will boast an ARMADA 610 application processor, "gigahertz processor speed," 1080p encode / decode capabilities, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio support, a GPS module and the ability to play back 3D graphics and Adobe Flash videos (zing!). There's also an integrated camera for live video conferencing, not to mention Moby's ability to support Android, Windows Mobile and / or Ubuntu. All we're told about battery life is that it's designed "expressly" to last a good, long while, and scarily enough, there's no confirmation anywhere that these will actually cost less than a Benjamin whenever they ship. Fingers crossed, though.
The Engadget Show: Inside the mind of Yves Behar
Lots of tech companies would like you to believe that they're responsible for the design of its best looking gadgets, but in reality most of them hire outside groups for all that non-spec stuff. And well, if they're smart they get leading industrial designer Yves Behar and his FuseProject team to dream up something incredibly groundbreaking and head-turning. Having birthed the designs of the OLPC XOs and Jawbone headsets we've always been incredibly fascinated by Behar and his knack for coming up with eye-pleasing technology, so naturally we caught up with him when he was in NYC last month and shot some footage of his studio. Uh, so what are you still doing here? Watch it now! Hit up the video after the break! Host: Joanna Stern Special guests: Yves Behar Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger Edited by: Michael Slavens Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Download the Show: The Engadget Show - Segment 006 (HD) / The Engadget Show - Segment 006 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Pixel Qi and OLPC to share all current and future screen tech
Our man Nicholas Negroponte was certainly excited about pushing the state of the art forward with future versions of the OLPC when we hosted him on The Engadget Show earlier this month, and now he's got one more tool to help make that happen: the OLPC Foundation and Pixel Qi just signed a permanent and free cross-license on a slew of next-generation screen technology patents, including Pixel Qi's sweet dual-mode displays. If you're recall, Pixel Qi's Mary Lou Jepson actually developed part of the 3Qi screen tech while at OLPC, so there was some mild confusion over who owned what -- but the two organizations have solved that problem by cross-licensing all future and current IP covering multi-mode screens. See, it's easy for two tech companies to get along... especially when one is actually a charity that's not at all concerned with profits. Super simple. So -- let's get working on that OLPC XO-3, shall we?
The Engadget Show tapes tomorrow, with Nicholas Negroponte and PlayStation Move!
Can't wait for another Engadget Show to roll around? Well you're in luck, friend. It's happening tomorrow at 5:00pm ET. We'll be doing giveaways at the show taping only, so brave the glorious sunshine and join us in person for a chance to win great prizes! Josh will be sitting down with Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab and the OLPC project to discuss the upcoming XO PC and pontificate about the future of technology. Sony will also be on hand to demo PlayStation Move motion controller and the company's senior researcher Dr. Richard Marks will be there to give us the behind-the-scenes story. We'll have live demos of stuff never-before-seen on Move, including some hands-on audience demos! Much to our excitement, the usual crew will be joined by Joystiq's very own Christ Grant for the roundtable. You'll also be meeting our new investigative correspondent Rick Karr and we'll have plenty of amazing giveaways at the show. Also expect an out-of-this-world performance from minusbaby complete with stunning visuals from notendo, as well as some other big surprises... As you may have heard, livestreaming is back by popular demand and so is live Twitter commenting! You will now be able to tweet your comments directly to the livestream! During the show, just include the hashtag "#engadgetshow" and look for your tweet to show up on the ticker at the bottom of the stream. One thing to note, The Engadget Show is a family program, so any single instance of swearing or trolling will force us to turn off the ticker... and it won't come back on. So, keep it clean and have fun! The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are -- as always -- free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served... so get there early! Here's all the info you need: There is no admission fee -- tickets are completely free The event is all ages Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM You cannot collect tickets for friends or family -- anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we're full, we're full The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break) The show length is around an hour If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com. Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Marvell pitches $99 Moby Tablet as textbook alternative
When chipmaker Marvell told us its technology would power $99 smartphones, we took the company at its word. We weren't expecting a sub-$100, 10-inch tablet PC, however -- and we definitely weren't expecting Marvell itself to build it. Marketed at students looking to lighten their textbook load, the Marvell Moby will be an "always-on, high performance multimedia tablet" capable of full Flash support and 1080p HD playback -- thanks to those nifty Armada 600 series processors -- and supporting WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS and both Android and Windows Mobile platforms for maximum flexibility. No release date has yet been announced; like the OLPC, Marvell will introduce the Moby in pilot programs at participating at-risk schools. While it's far too early to say if the Moby will be the universal educational e-reader Marvell hopes (that depends on software), it's certainly an intriguing device for the price, and we'll admit we're a touch jealous of those kids who'll first get to try one.
Pixel Qi DIY kits will be out in Q2, 'slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb'
We're going to assume that Mary Lou's bravado-filled "It's only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb" is in reference to working with OLPC. In fact, in Mary Lou Jepsen's most recent Pixel Qi blog post she makes quick reference of the fact that there will be DIY kits for replacing your own laptop screen (most likely a 10-inch module) with the sunlight-friendly, switchable magic of Pixel Qi, but she spends the rest of the post talking about how in Nigeria some schoolgirls started up a laptop hospital where they'd repair their XOs by swapping out parts or reseating cables. We doubt most of our laptops will be so resilient when it comes to ripping off the bezel and swapping in the Pixel Qi part, but we're dying to void our warranty and find out.
OLPC XO 1.5 gets the FCC's seal of approval
We've been seeing the OLPC XO 1.5 out in the wild for quite a few months now, but it looks like it's just now finally cleared the all-important FCC hurdle. Unfortunately, most of the details beyond the basic formalities are being kept under wraps for the time being (along with any pictures, internal or otherwise), but we have heard previously that it packs a faster VIA C7-M processor, along with an upgraded VX855 chipset to better handle things like 3D graphics and HD video. It is also something of a stopgap measure, however, with the real upgrades seemingly planned for the ARM-based OLPC XO 1.75 -- which itself will supposedly be followed by the OLPC XO 3.0 sometime in 2012.
OLPC shows off absurdly thin XO-3 concept tablet for 2012 (update: XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 coming first)
Still have a bit of faith left for the OLPC project? Good, you're gonna need it: designer Yves Behar has unveiled his latest concept design for the now-aiming-for-$75 vision, and it's all screen. Keeping with the newfound trend toward tablets, the XO-3 is an 8.5 x 11 touchscreen, coupled with a little folding ring in the corner for grip and a camera in the back. To keep things minimal the plan is to use Palm Pre-style induction charging, and less than a watt of power to keep an "8 gigaherz [sic]" (800MHz?) processor and a Pixel Qi screen powered. At half the thickness of an iPhone, this vision is obviously banking heavily on presumed technology advances by 2012 (the projected release date), but it's not too hard to see somebody making this form factor happen by then-ish. Nick Neg isn't all hubris, however: "Sure, if I were a commercial entity coming to you for investment, and I'd made the projections I had in the past, you wouldn't invest again, but we're not a commercial operation. If we only achieve half of what we're setting out to do, it could have very big consequences." Update: According to our man Nicholas Negroponte, who took time out of his busy schedule to email us with the info, there are two other variations of the XO headed our way before we see the XO-3. Nick says we'll see the XO-1.5 appear in January for around $200 -- an update to the current version. As we'd heard before, the 1.5 iteration will swap a VIA CPU for the current AMD one, and will double the speed as well as quadruple both the DRAM and Flash memory of the current version. Furthermore, he says that in early 2011 the XO-1.75 (replacing that psychotically awesome 2.0 dual screen model) will make its appearance, and will sport rubber bumpers on the outer casing, an 8.9-inch touchscreen display inside, and will run atop a Marvell ARM processor which will enable two times the speed at a quarter of the power usage. That version will sell for somewhere in the $175 range. Then, no 2.0... straight on to the XO-3.0! %Gallery-80794% [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sugar on a Stick OS goes to 2.0, gets Blueberry coating and creamy Fedora 12 center (video)
It didn't take long for Sugar on a Stick, the OLPC-free version of the Sugar OS, to go from concept to bootable, and it's only taken a few further months to go from that first version, called "Strawberry," to this twice as fruity "Blueberry" flavor. Updates are evolutionary here, with a core built on Fedora 12 and Sugar .86, adding in Gnash for Flash support as well as a suite of new apps. Most notable is the recently released Open Office 4 Kids, a streamlined version of the suite that probably won't be great for squeezing every character of your resume onto one page but should be good enough to spread a 500(ish) word book report over two. There is a number of other updates included, some demonstrated after the break, all available for your download now. You're just 589MB away from sweet OS simplicity.
OLPC shakeup: dual-screen XO-2 out, ARM-based XO 1.75 in
OLPC's plans for a dual-screen XO-2 laptop / tablet always seemed a little... ambitious, and it looks like even Nicholas Negroponte himself has now realized that it may be more than the organization is able to pull off at the moment. That word comes from a recent interview with Xconomy, where Negroponte confirms that OLPC has indeed scrapped plans for the dual-screen XO-2, and says it will instead focus on a "model 1.75" that has a design similar to the current OPLC XO but gets a boost from a faster ARM processor. Negroponte isn't completely giving up on the idea of a revamped OLPC, however, and says that model 3.0 will have a "totally different industrial design, more like a sheet of paper." That model apparently also includes "aspirational aspects" like an unbreakable, waterproof enclosure that's just a quarter inch thick, a full color, reflective and transmissive display with no bezel, 1W of power consumption, and (here's the real kicker) a $75 price tag by 2012.
Uruguay becomes first nation to provide a laptop for every primary school student
Uruguay's been a huge fan of the One Laptop Per Child initiative for quite some time, and while we're still unsure if it's the entity's biggest customer, the aforesaid nation is certainly doing some serious business with Nicholas Negroponte and Company. After the first swath of youngsters received their green and white XOs back in May of 2007, the final smattering of kids have now joined the proud group of laptop-toting tots in the country's circuit of primary schools. You heard right -- every last pupil in Uruguay's primary school system now has a laptop and a growing love for Linux, and we're told that the whole thing cost the country less than five percent of its entire education budget. So, who's next?[Via Digg, image courtesy of oso]
Pixel Qi e-ink / LCD hybrid display to debut on tablet next month?
It's been far, far too long (read: four months) since we've heard a peep from the gentle souls over at Pixel Qi, but it looks like the long, heart-wrenching wait for the hybrid display that's bound to revolutionize Western civilization is nearing an end. According to the startup's CEO herself, Mary Lou Jepsen, the primetime-ready 3Qi display should make its glorious debut on an undisclosed tablet to be announced next month. For those out of the loop, this transflective display contains both e-ink and LCD properties, one for outdoor reading scenarios and the other for multimedia viewing. The amazing part is that toggling between the two is as simple as flipping a switch, which obviously means great things for battery life on whatever device it's shoved into. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more, but do us a favor and cross your fingers for good luck. Toes too, por favor.[Thanks, Tom]
OLPC gets microwaved, molded into stunning piece of art
We've seen quite a few a) laptops and b) masterpieces in our day, but it's hard to recall the last time that we saw both in the same instance. Have a look at the object above, which is undoubtedly one of the most amazing pieces of laptop art this planet has ever had the pleasure of seeing. Kenny Irwin, known for his post-microwave creations, decided to zap one of the low-cost PCs and then mold it into the OLPCSlug while things were still gooey, all in the name of good publicity and charity. You see, the buyer of this lovely piece will see 80 percent of the proceeds head straight to OLPC, and given that it will also "help keep you safe from forest beasts of unimaginable size," those currently situated in backwoods retreats have an extra reason to plunk down. The only problem? That $26,001 asking price. A can't-miss demo video is after the break.[Thanks, Robert]
OLPC's XO Generation 1.5 Laptop dances from GNOME to Sugar, on video!
We know how thrilled you were when you first witnessed the XO 1.5 outpace an overclocked XO 1.0 earlier this month. Still, there's no doubt in our mind that even that level of excitement will soon be overshadowed by the insane craziness you are about to experience in the form of a video showing the newest OLPC machine as it glides softly from GNOME to Sugar Linux environments... and back again. Wild, right? Don't let us spoil it for you -- you can peep the 1GHz powered ultraportable in all its glory after the break.Update: Whoa, boy. Liliputing was able to get a peek at this unit's motherboard, and they were even kind enough to take us all on a video tour. Enjoy!
