If there's one thing that never gets old around here, it's fly-by-night tech companies trying to pass themselves off as some of our old favorites. Usually you can spot faux iPods a mile away, but this one takes fakery to a new level, right down to the plastic case that it comes in and the "Designed by Apple in California" on the back. Harry, a reader of the French Mac site MacBidouille, apparently found this psuedo-iPod nano in Thailand -- we're sure that Cupertino's cease-and-desist letters have already been drafted and are on their way across the Pacific as we speak.

Just as we'd previously heard, Quanta has indeed built the OLPC's first ten prototype machines (now called the XO-1), according to a report on DesktopLinux. These first machines were hand-assembled in order to make sure that the next round of 900 is up to snuff. We're not sure if 50 of those 900 will be the first order of test machines that have been slated to head to Brazil, nor if Thailand is getting any as an enticement to lure it back into the fold. In related matters, OLPC News has estimated the true five-year cost of a single laptop, including training, maintenance and Internet access to be in the neighborhood of $1,000 -- which, if correct, means that mythical $100-ish per laptop target price makes these green lappies a bit more unattractive to their prospective buyers.

[Via Slashdot]

Read - DesktopLinux
Read - OLPC News

We last heard from our friends at OLPC a mere 10 days ago, when the non-profit's latest computer moniker changed from 2B1 to XO. But OLPC News is now telling us that there's a few new updates from everyone's favorite pastel-colored lappy. First up is news from Brazil, where IDG Now! Brasil reports that the country will receive 50 test laptops from OLPC, making it the first nation to have actual, live, working models. Meanwhile, across the world in Thailand, the whole notion of a $100 laptop has now become a bit less attractive to the new military government. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was a big fan of NickNeg's pet project, but sadly, his countrymen kicked him out of office in September, making Thailand somewhat of a tough sell now. iTeau, a Thai blogger, adds that Thailand's new information and communication technology minister has said that he doesn't think that XO will work, and has ridiculed it as a "toy."

Read - OLPC News
Read - IDG Now Brasil [in Portuguese]
Read - ThanNews [in Thai]
Read - iTeau's Dirt

Ah-ha, so it turns out those four million OLPCs may not actually be bagged after all -- big surprise. Apparently the mixup began when OLPC program director for Middle East and Africa Khaled Hassounah supposedly told DesktopLinux that Nigeria had committed to an order of a million units, and Argentina, Brazil, and Thailand were right behind them with "similar" orders of their own. Except not really. According to ZDNet UK, that information is flat-out "incorrect," according to OLPC, and that despite Hassounah's statements they're not yet prepared to distribute commercialized versions of the device. Taking pre-commercial device orders for something like the OLPC is absolutely nothing out of the realm of the ordinary in our opinion, but it seems like a little PR-spurned informational infighting has turned the project from "pedagogically suspect" to factually suspect overnight. Perhaps we should leave them to their device-making for now, and worry later about who is and isn't placing orders for quantities of computers large enough to make even the thinnest-margin manufacturers sweat and drool.

[Thanks, Cyrus and Alexandre]

Argentina, Brazil, Nigera, Thailand, you've made Negroponte proud. In fact, the man who is right now lined up to supply your respective nations with a million OLPCs a piece (give or take a few thou), is, as we understand it, at this very moment spiking OLPCs like he's in the end zone. According to OLPC program director Khaled Hassounah, Nigeria ordered of a million units, and spoke of "similar commitments" by the other three nations, so take that, India. Unlike the educational puppetmasters in Africa and South America, you apparently must not know a good thing when you see one. That or maybe you're investing those millions into bettering social welfare programs and upgrading other, more life-essential facilities before outfitting kids with lappies. Whatever you're doing with those millions, though, you're not putting a smile on NickNeg's face, mkay?

[Thanks, David]