Negroponte
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AMD's PIC canned as OLPC production begins
AMD announced in its third quarter SEC filing that it has ceased the manufacture of their Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) product for emerging markets due to lack of material revenue. Really now, with all the hype surrounding Negroponte's CM1 2B1 XO Children's Machine and the fact that the XO costs a full Benjamin less at $100 about $140, is anyone surprised? Still, AMD isn't completely out of the game: the XO runs an AMD Geode processor. Just last week, the first 10 prototype units were "hand-built" for the purposes of evaluating the XO's custom components, systems-integration testing, and to ensure that the production process holds up. Another 900 units are then set to rollout from Quanta this week for "destructive testing" and distribution to development partners like Brazil who have already earmarked 50 units. With potential for sales (at razor-thin margins) in the tens of millions, well, you might still get a decent cut of the revenue pie anyway AMD, unless of course countries use that money for clean water and uh, schools.[Via Slashdot] Read -- AMD ends PICs Read -- OLPC production begins
Negroponte announces OLPC for eBay, shows off pull-string
For half the people we talk to, it seems like they could care less if the OLPC project ends world hunger or raises up a new generation of computer-savvy children in third world countries -- they just want to talk about how totally awesome the pull-string generator is. We admit, the idea of having a younger sibling revving up your battery while you try to install Doom is a truly confident leap into the 21st century, and now we've finally got an idea of what the pull-string unit will look like, thanks to a recent presentation by Negroponte. In other, possibly more relevant news, it looks like the 2B1 laptop will be available for sale to the western world, via eBay of all places. The laptops are expected to go for $450, with a $350 tax deduction, and the surplus would go towards buying a machine for needy children. All we ask is that they include the generator with that package, 'cause it's really half the fun.[Via OLPC News]
OLPC now called the 2B1, still The Children's Machine
There's great news afoot in the world of Nicholas Negroponte, and his favorite little toy-green (or yellow, or orange, etc.) laptop: it's now apparently called the 2B1. This comes after the named CM1, which was preceded by the One Laptop Per Child (now the name of the organization), which was preceded by the $100(ish) Laptop. Of course, given that news of this comes from the ultra-reliable technology known as a wiki, it's totally possible that this is just a prank, or yet another baby step on the road to production. Either way, Engadget is going to be drawing up some fake Ministry of Education stationary any day now so that we can get our hands on a million of these things.[Via OLPC News]
Four million OLPCs ordered, NickNeg sez boo-ya
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]
OLPC update: India isn't buying
It's not like we expected every developing country in the world to jump at the chance to blow $100 million on the minimum order of Negroponte's pull-string powered laptops, but India sure did seem a logical fit. With their burgeoning tech economy, it would seem training a new generation of tech support personnel engineers and programmers would be a priority well met by the OLPC, but the Indian Ministry of Education busted out the vocab and called the laptop "pedagogically suspect." They seemed to think the funds were better suited for building classrooms and hiring teachers, not "fancy tools," and their reasoning is hard to fault in that regard. Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee also questioned the maturity of Negroponte's plan, and said no major country was seriously interested. Of course, Nigeria just ordered up a cool million, and places like China, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt and Thailand are still likely targets, but it looks like India is content to wait on the sidelines and call sour grapes for now.
First video of working OLPC prototype
We've come a long way from back when the OLPC project was just a glimmer in Negroponte's eye, but after peeping this video of the prototype in action, we're not surprised that the crew wants some more time with the unit. The problem is, hardly anything is "final" in this current form, including the design, the motherboard, the battery, the OS and of course the screen. All of this translates to a sluggish PC running an unfinished OS -- a far cry from Negroponte's "bat out of hell" claims. We also haven't seen laptop's trackpad in action, or any untethered use, so both the interface (not that there's any software to interface with right now) and the battery life are fairly unproven. Ah well, we're glad we get a peek just the same, and look forward to 2007 when this thing starts getting some polish.
Working OLPC prototype gets its close-up
We still miss the crank, and had sort of gotten used to the lime green color scheme. But we have to admit that seeing an actual working prototype of the computer from Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative beats all of the mockups we've been looking at for the past year or so. We don't have any specs (other than the fact that it's clearly running Fedora Linux), but from the looks of it, Negroponte has clearly done a decent job at making this kid-friendly. And the keyboard, while small, doesn't look a whole lot worse than the one on the new MacBook. If this puppy can be outfitted with WiFi, one of Samsung's new NAND drives and a couple of USB ports, customers from the industrial world may just order enough of them to subsidize that $100 price tag for developing countries (if Negroponte is willing to let us buy them, that is). [Via BoingBoing]Update: We also heard from a reliable source that final versions of the PCshouldprobably have a more fleshed out Red Hat build installed, and will have WiFi. We'll let you know more as we do!
Intel's Eduwise low-cost PC revealed
The freaktastic, not-so-altruistic battle between Negroponte, AMD, VIA and Intel to bring low-cost PCs to developing nations just hotted-up with the formal unveiling of the Eduwise by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at the World Congress on Information Technology. The $400 device announced a few months ago in Brazil, sports "light-blue accents" and "snaps shut like a purse" -- perfect for students and teachers on a tight-budget with a sense of flair -- runs Windows or Linux, and ships pre-loaded with special software allowing students and teachers to interact through shared presentations and test administration over the Eduwise's built-in WiFi. The Eduwise will be available "next year" via the usual outlet of PC manufacturers who'll no doubt tweak this reference design a bit. Of course, Intel had to take the spotlight opp to blast a shot across the bow of the $100 OLPC with Otellini saying, "nobody wants to cross the digital divide using yesterday's technology." Yeah, nor should they have to harvest a kidney to avoid crossing the classroom for a little one-on-one, eh? Man, we haven't seen this much selfish generosity since Atlas shrugged.[Via Sagags]
New OLPC deets: 500 MHz, 128MB RAM, Windows CE and no hand crank
Given that a number of companies have been boasting of their computing plans for the developing world in recent weeks, it's kind of a relief to see Nicholas Negroponte back in the spotlight talking up the One Laptop Per Child project. Especially when he's willing to be so free with the box's specs. Speaking at the LinuxWorld conference in Boston, Negroponte shed some light on his plans for the OLPC, including more concrete specs than we've seen before. The mini-laptop will be powered by a 500 MHz AMD processor, will have 128MB RAM and 512MB of flash memory for storage. It'll also include an LCD display that will switch from an 1180x830 black-and-white mode for daylight viewing to 640x480 color for indoor use. He also revealed that, despite Bill Gates' reservations about the OLPC project, Negroponte is working with Microsoft on a version of Windows CE that will work on the computer. Negroponte also said the laptops will be extremely stingy when it comes to power consumption, using just 2 watts, one of which will run the display. However, despite that low power, he said that one of the most recognizable features of the original OLPC prototype (above), its handcrank, will have to go -- not because it can't generate enough power, but because it would put too much stress on the box (more recent prototypes have already jettisoned the crank). However, an adapter to allow the machine to run on pedal power is planned. Negroponte also had some bad news for his hosts at LinuxWorld (as if anything could be worse than saying he supports Windows CE): he said the penguin OS is as bloated as Windows, and will need to slim down to run on the OLPC. We suspect that his words didn't go over very well -- and that a half-dozen open-source projects to shrink Linux down to size were started within an hour.
