olpcxo
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OLPC expected to dip to $50 by 2009, get WiMAX someday
While the OLPC Foundation has long said that it expects its OLPC XO laptop to get cheaper as production ramps up, it looks like they're now getting a bit more specific about it, with OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen reportedly saying she expects the price to dip to just $50 by 2009. Apparently, one of the keys to reaching that rock bottom price is doing something about the cost of the display used in the laptop, although no one seems to be saying exactly how that'll be achieved. Jepsen does seem to have had a bit more to say about the "next-generation OLPC," however, most notably that it'll come with built-in WiMAX connectivity. No ETA on that, of course.[Via TG Daily]
Intel and OLPC ready to work together?
As you may have noticed, Intel and Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC Foundation haven't exactly been getting along, with the two not only competing against each other, but even going so far as to take their spat to the national TV level. Now, however, it looks like the two might possibly be ready to put their differences behind them, at least according to a report by BusinessWeek. While details are unsurprisingly light, the magazine says that the two "may be ready to bury the hatchet," and that Intel and OLPC execs are now "in talks regarding how they can work together." Still pretty low on the likelihood meter to be sure, although, as we've seen lately, anything can happen.[Via The Inquirer]
Nigerian school gets 300 OLPCs
It's been a long time coming, but the much-vaunted OLPC XO is now slowly making its way to the people it was meant for, recently landing in the hands of 160 school children in Uruguay, and now finding its way to the Galadima Primary School in Abuja, Nigeria. According the News Agency of Nigeria, the school got some 300 OLPCs but is having a slight problem keeping them powered, as the school has no electricity and power at the students' homes is irregular (still no pull-string, it seems). Despite that setback, the students are apparently "very happy" with the laptop, although we're sure they'll be even more pleased when they discover some of the OLPC's non-educational potential.
OLPC production line nearly ready after getting 3 million orders?
No, it won't be July, but it's looking like you won't have to wait until Q4 either to hear the production line at Quanta begin to crank out OLPC XOs en masse. According to the China Post, Quanta "will start production of low-cost machines for the One Laptop per Child project in September after a nine-month delay," and interestingly, it even cites the recent hardware alterations as a culprit for the latest hangup. Michail Bletsas, a network design executive for the project, states that the firm will churn out "40,000 XOs a month from September 22nd," and could increase that figure to 400,000 units a month by the end of this year. Bletsas was also quoted as saying that "three million would be made in the first round of production," insinuating that quite a few orders have either been booked or are looking fairly secure. Regardless, we're sure kiddos around the world are hoping that this all pans out, because judging by the looks on the faces of kids in Uruguay, it's pretty much the best thing to ever hit the classroom.[Via OLPCNews]
OLPC XO shipments delayed until Q4?
You'll have to take this with the usual hefty grain of salt, but according to China's Commercial Times, OLPC manufacturer Quanta has been forced to push back its target ship date for the XO from July to sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. Leading to this speculation is the fact that Quanta has apparently yet to release its orders for various parts and components set for inclusion in the laptop, which would seem to indicate that a July ship date would be tough to meet. It would also, of course, seem to make the promised ten million laptops before year's end a bit unlikely.[Thanks, Eric]
Quanta confirms one million OLPC XO orders
According to InfoWorld (via Yahoo News), contract manufacturer Quanta Computer has confirmed that they've received orders for one million of the long-awaited OLPC XO laptops anticipated by children and geeks alike, with orders expected to further increase throughout the rest of the year. If that goes as planned, Quanta says it could ship as many as ten million of the laptops before year's end, which would go a long way towards getting the little green laptop down to its intended $100 price point, possibly even ahead of the 2008 target date for a price drop. Quanta also revealed that NickNeg is apparently not the only one obsessed with the project, with company president Michael Wang saying "this is our chairman's pet project, it's his life." Not that there's anything wrong with being obsessed with a gadget, of course.
OLPC: video conferencing for the children
Sure, the OLPC XO has had its built-in VGA webcam for a little while now, but with a mere 400Mhz processor, it took a bit of working to get the laptop up and running in a live video chat. However, those open source hax0rs aren't easily dissuaded when it comes to broadcasting their scurvy mugs across the internets, and have finally managed the first OLPC-to-OLPC transatlantic chat, with "extremely smooth" 15fps video and simultaneous audio. While the bad news here is that if you fire this thing up right now, you'll probably be looking at a dork on the other end, the eventual hope is that kids will be able to chat via the mesh network by just simply clicking on a buddy icon in the mesh view.
Opera hits the OLPC XO
It looks like those not satisfied with the OLPC XO laptop's pre-loaded browser will have another, less open source option at their disposal whenever they manage to get their hands on one of the little green machines, with the Opera team reporting that their browser "runs beautifully" on it. Getting it running in the first place, however, took a slight bit of effort, requiring them to enter the somewhat hidden shell mode and install the browser from the command prompt. Once that business was taken care of, they went into full hyperbole mode, with Opera CTO Håkon Wium Lie saying that seeing Opera run on the OLPC for the first time was a "revelation" and that "no browser has ever been more beautiful" -- due in no small part to the screen's 200 dpi resolution. Not so revelatory, however, is the browser's ability to handle extensive Javascript, which apparently caused the laptop to freeze on occasion, though they say they're working on that, as well as an OLPC skin so it won't look too out of place next to the other apps.[Via Slashdot]
