OLPC unveils slimline tablet PC
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News
OLPC XO-3
In Pictures: Designing the OLPC
The group behind the $100 laptop has revealed the design for its latest computer aimed at connecting children in the developing world.
The XO-3, as it is known, is a slim-line touchscreen tablet PC.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said it would be "available in 2012" and would cost "well below $100".
The new design replaces the proposed XO-2, a foldable e-book that was first shown off in 2008 but has since been scrapped by the organisation.
The XO-3 will eventually replace the original XO laptop that first went into production in 2007.
The innovative machines, which have been designed for use in remote and harsh environments, were designed for use by school children and featured a sunlight readable display and open source software.
'Bigger appeal'
OLPC originally aimed to sell the low-cost laptops in lots of one million to governments in developing countries for $100 each.
However, the non-profit organisation had difficulty getting governments to commit to bulk orders. The machines - which are able to run both Linux and Microsoft Windows - are now offered in single units and cost around $200.
the new xo-s laptop
The XO-2 has been scrapped in favour of the XO-3
So far the XO has been distributed to more than 1.4 million children in 35 countries.
The high-price has not however put off all governments. Uruguay has bought a computer for every one of their school children.
Walter de Brouwer, CEO of OLPC Europe said that these "saturation projects" were the future of the organisation both in the developed and the developing world.
"I'm talking to three four countries in the EU at the moment," he told BBC News. "Once one says yes, the others can't say no."
The organisation believes the new design will cost significantly less.
Mr Brouwer said that because of the pace of technological change and the ever decreasing prices of electronics he could imagine the design selling for "50, 60 or 70 euros".
He said governments could pay this back over a number of years, allowing pupils to have a laptop for less than one euro per month.
"This is very realistic," he said.
The concept shows a touchscreen, a camera, induction charger, and a carrying ring on one of its corners.
Its inner workings - including a chip from UK firm ARM - will come from an interim design - the XO 1.75 - set for launch in 2011.
The 1.75 will merge elements of the current machines with technologies - such as a touchscreen - intended to be included in the XO-3.
OLPC recently said that the organisation would just focus on promoting its concepts and educational aims, rather than manufacturing laptops.
"We are not a laptop company," said Mr Brouwer. "Manufacturing a laptop is not such a big deal. The bigger appeal for us is deploying them and integrating them with education systems to transform a society."
Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the group, said that he hoped that industry would now copy the design for the XO-3.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage Source
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage
Source
Mon, Mar 16th, 2009
Hands-on Having a small-capacity solid-state drive in your netbook may be limitation but it has one advantage: it's easy to back up. We don't mean copying a few files over to a safe place, but duplicating the entire drive, operating system and all, ready to drop it all back on if the worst comes to the worst.
PCs often come with recovery disks that you can use to place a fresh copy of the OS and pre-loaded apps back onto a freshly formatted drive. With some free, open source tools, you make one of your own, for your netbook. It'll work whether you use Linux or Windows XP, and whether your machine has a hard disk or a solid-state drive.
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage We use PING - which stands for Partition Image Not Ghost, a reference to Norton Ghost, a commercial disk duplication app - but it requires an external CD drive to boot from. So we've also included details of a second tool, which you can install on a USB Flash drive....
Source
Mon, Mar 16th, 2009
Hands-on Having a small-capacity solid-state drive in your netbook may be limitation but it has one advantage: it's easy to back up. We don't mean copying a few files over to a safe place, but duplicating the entire drive, operating system and all, ready to drop it all back on if the worst comes to the worst.
PCs often come with recovery disks that you can use to place a fresh copy of the OS and pre-loaded apps back onto a freshly formatted drive. With some free, open source tools, you make one of your own, for your netbook. It'll work whether you use Linux or Windows XP, and whether your machine has a hard disk or a solid-state drive.
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage We use PING - which stands for Partition Image Not Ghost, a reference to Norton Ghost, a commercial disk duplication app - but it requires an external CD drive to boot from. So we've also included details of a second tool, which you can install on a USB Flash drive....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/subsidies-follow-att-into-netbook-market.ars
AT&T plans to expand its netbook subsidies to makers beyond Acer and Dell, eating hundreds in upfront costs in exchange for two years of high monthly 3G cellular data fees.
By Glenn Fleishman | Last updated March 3, 2009 9:25 PM CT
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
AT&T plans to expand an existing subsidy program that pairs a netbook with a cellular data modem and two-year contract. With fees of $60 for unmetered service and a maximum of 5 GB of data usage each month, AT&T has plenty to give to push a new market.
Netbooks are designed with minimal functionality and low-powered processors. But connectivity is the heart that beats inside this massively growing segment of portable sales. Research firms expect sales to rise from 7 percent of portables in 2008 to 12 percent in 2009, or about 35 million units.
By pairing a subsidy, a contract, and ubiquitous high-speed data access, AT&T may have found a niche in the middle of an otherwise moribund business and consumer market. Telecoms often spend hundreds of dollars in marketing to acquire new customers for voice and data services that produce a few thousand dollars in revenue over two years.
AT&T already subsidizes certain Acer and Dell netbooks to get the price down to $99, with rebates of $250 to $350.
Investor's Business Daily reports that AT&T is working on deals with other netbook makers, and would be happy to extend subsidies far outside phones to any gadget that could sport a cellular modem, such as cameras or gaming systems.
Interestingly, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have long extolled the notion of WiMax, a competing data network standard so far rolled out in just two US cities, as allowing an ecosystem of devices to have always-on high-speed access with a bundled data plan to avoid high per-device charges. That hasn't materialized yet.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/subsidies-follow-att-into-netbook-market.ars
AT&T plans to expand its netbook subsidies to makers beyond Acer and Dell, eating hundreds in upfront costs in exchange for two years of high monthly 3G cellular data fees.
By Glenn Fleishman | Last updated March 3, 2009 9:25 PM CT
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
AT&T plans to expand an existing subsidy program that pairs a netbook with a cellular data modem and two-year contract. With fees of $60 for unmetered service and a maximum of 5 GB of data usage each month, AT&T has plenty to give to push a new market.
Netbooks are designed with minimal functionality and low-powered processors. But connectivity is the heart that beats inside this massively growing segment of portable sales. Research firms expect sales to rise from 7 percent of portables in 2008 to 12 percent in 2009, or about 35 million units.
By pairing a subsidy, a contract, and ubiquitous high-speed data access, AT&T may have found a niche in the middle of an otherwise moribund business and consumer market. Telecoms often spend hundreds of dollars in marketing to acquire new customers for voice and data services that produce a few thousand dollars in revenue over two years.
AT&T already subsidizes certain Acer and Dell netbooks to get the price down to $99, with rebates of $250 to $350.
Investor's Business Daily reports that AT&T is working on deals with other netbook makers, and would be happy to extend subsidies far outside phones to any gadget that could sport a cellular modem, such as cameras or gaming systems.
Interestingly, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have long extolled the notion of WiMax, a competing data network standard so far rolled out in just two US cities, as allowing an ecosystem of devices to have always-on high-speed access with a bundled data plan to avoid high per-device charges. That hasn't materialized yet.
Eee PC T91 touchscreen netbook - first look
Eee PC T91 touchscreen netbook - first look
Philip Barker - 26 February 2009 - 5:43pm
Following a visit from Asus earlier today, we got the opportunity to get an exclusive look at some of its upcoming products – including the first touchscreen Eee PC Netbook – the Eee PC T91.
This tiny device is little larger than the first-generation Eee PC 701 – with an 8.9-inch screen, but you’ll now find a swivelling touchscreen panel that allows use as a Tablet PC.
The screen is one of the T91’s best features. It has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as most of the other netbooks we’ve seen, but colours are brilliantly vivid, bringing photographs and movies to life. Images are also clear and sharp – which is unusual on a touchscreen panel. The glossy finish will frustrate some, however, proving reflective in brighter conditions.
The first T91 models to hit the shelves will feature Windows XP, with following products featuring Windows 7. Asus was also keen to stress that the T91 will ship with the company’s own eTouchSuite software, offering a user-friendly environment more suited to touchscreen use.
The sample we saw was a pre-production unit, and it’s too early to judge on build quality. However, there’s plenty of space for keys of a reasonable size, and we found usability to be reasonable.
Components such as the Intel Atom processor and 1024MB of memory are standard netbook fare, although more unusual options include a GPS chip for satellite navigation and a TV tuner.
On sale towards the end of April, prices start at around £420 (inc. VAT).
Philip Barker - 26 February 2009 - 5:43pm
Following a visit from Asus earlier today, we got the opportunity to get an exclusive look at some of its upcoming products – including the first touchscreen Eee PC Netbook – the Eee PC T91.
This tiny device is little larger than the first-generation Eee PC 701 – with an 8.9-inch screen, but you’ll now find a swivelling touchscreen panel that allows use as a Tablet PC.
The screen is one of the T91’s best features. It has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as most of the other netbooks we’ve seen, but colours are brilliantly vivid, bringing photographs and movies to life. Images are also clear and sharp – which is unusual on a touchscreen panel. The glossy finish will frustrate some, however, proving reflective in brighter conditions.
The first T91 models to hit the shelves will feature Windows XP, with following products featuring Windows 7. Asus was also keen to stress that the T91 will ship with the company’s own eTouchSuite software, offering a user-friendly environment more suited to touchscreen use.
The sample we saw was a pre-production unit, and it’s too early to judge on build quality. However, there’s plenty of space for keys of a reasonable size, and we found usability to be reasonable.
Components such as the Intel Atom processor and 1024MB of memory are standard netbook fare, although more unusual options include a GPS chip for satellite navigation and a TV tuner.
On sale towards the end of April, prices start at around £420 (inc. VAT).
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