$100 Laptops for Children Unveiled
The $100 laptops I wrote about last year have been released! Aren’t they brilliant?
The $100 laptops are specifically made for children in third world countries, such as China, Brazil, India, and Nigeria.
What is the $100 Laptop, really?
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.
I think these laptops will also sell if made available to the general public. And, I bet some parents would be happy to pay more than $100 if most of the profits are donated to a good cause. The makers say a commercial version is also being explored.
More pictures available on Flickr.
The Register, May 24, 2006
Technorati Tags: $100 laptop, laptops, children, kids, toys
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5 opinions for $100 Laptops for Children Unveiled
mommyontheverge
May 24, 2006 at 11:25 am
these are really really cool. Hope they will be made available to disadvantaged schools here in America someday.
Hsien-Hsien Lei
May 24, 2006 at 1:19 pm
mommyontheverge: Thanks for the comment! There’s definitely a lot of potential with these computers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could provide computers to all kids everywhere? I know my son learns a lot from the time he spends on the computer and it’s a necessary skill for the future.
Kate
May 25, 2006 at 4:21 am
I remember hearing about the prototypes for these in 1998 and waiting, waiting, waiting. It is so nice to finally see them.
Hsien-Hsien Lei
May 25, 2006 at 8:26 am
Kate: Wow, they sure were a long time coming. I hope the laptops will help make lots of kids happy and learning.
Play Library » India Rejects Laptops for Children
Jul 28, 2006 at 3:20 am
[…] India has decided that allowing its children to accept a $100 laptop each in the “one-laptop-per-child” (OLPC) initiative would make them guinea pigs. Classrooms and teachers are needed more urgently than laptops, Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said. The Indian Education Secretary also didn’t believe the OLPC had much support in other countries as well although Nigeria is ordering one million machines and the project is supported by a number of influential companies including Google. […]
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