It was just a matter of time before someone overclocked the hell out of one of these things. Thanks to a user named bdleonard over at the OLPC News Forum, you can really kick that 433MHz AMD Geode up a couple notches. One user was able to get his humming along at 566MHz, although he did report that the back of the screen got “noticeably warmer.”
Anyway, it’s not for the faint of heart and if you’re a small child reading this post from an OLPC, don’t try this without your parents’ permission. Although you’re reading CrunchGear, your parents probably mailed it in quite some time ago — maybe go get them a carton of smokes instead of relying on their overclocking judgment.
How to overclock your OLPC [OLPC News Forums]
Actually, this is the Austrian OLPC group’s booth. Nothing to see here but it’s cool that the Germanics are taking an interest in this project.
Move over OLPC, here comes another “ONE.” That was terrible, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.
Coming February 28th to the toughest, meanest industry show in all of the United Kingdom (Education Show 2008), the ONE is setting up to bear its lower-power, open-source fangs for all the world to see.
Details include this beautiful stick-figure-computer photo, a £99 price tag (about $195), three-hour battery life, Wi-Fi, flash memory hard drive, tough outer shell, and a “wireless music server,” according to ZDNet UK. It’ll also supposedly weigh less than one kilogram (remember from science class that one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds) so it’ll be very portable.
It’s aimed students in the hopes that it’ll be able to “close the gap between those from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers,” according to a company spokesperson. For every 100 devices that are sold, one device will be given to an underprivileged child for free.
UK’s Elonex releases £99 OLPC rival [ZDNet UK] via Pocket-lint
Ever a trustable resource, The Register has completed its full review of the OLPC XO laptop. The verdict? I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Actually, I do: they are pleased, but cautious and critical of several bits. The browser is lacking somewhat (though Opera has an XO port), the flat file browsing scheme (no folders or containers) is unintuitive for most people who have grown up with folders, and the unit they had started freaking out after a few days. Other than that, they thought it was a cool device with lots of potential, but with the requisite hitches associated with first-generation hardware. Read the whole 7-page affair below.
The OLPC XO Laptop [The Register]
The OLPC is setting up base in DC and looking to get their low cost laptops into the hands of America’s youth based on three major factors. I never knew patriotism had anything to do with empowering youth with the Internet, but that’s one reason the OLPC is coming to America. By bringing the project stateside, they’ll be building ‘critical mass’ as the development community will explode here. The last factor should be the first, in my opinion, and that is to connect children in America and those in developing countries to help broaden their horizons.
On another note, the OLPC says they would welcome Intel back with loving arms if the two parties can settle some differences.
“It was very unfortunate what happened with Intel and I hope there’s a way of rebuilding it in the future because there’s no interest in OLPC pushing Intel out. It just is not in our interest. Our goal is to get this to as many children as possible,” said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC, in an interview.
One Laptop Per Child Project Extends to American Students [PC World]
Laptop Project Would Welcome Intel Back [PC World]
A week ago, Intel announced that it was leaving the OLPC project due to various disagreements between the two groups. OLPC software and content president Walter Bender doesn’t seem too misty-eyed about it.
When asked by ABC News what effect Intel’s departure would have on the program, Bender replied, “Zero. Intel had contributed nothing. They contributed nothing to our current product, the XO. They contributed nothing to our learning models. They contributed nothing to the software. So their going away, so far, is a wash for us.”
So will we see Intel-based XO laptops? Signs point really hard to “no”. Will Walter Bender and Paul Otellini keep the OLPC/Intel bowling team alive, even? Things aren’t looking good for the Pin Benders, unfortunately. It’s a shame because that was probably a pretty good bowling team if it indeed existed (which it probably didn’t).
Laptop Program to Intel: Good Riddance [ABC News]
Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of the One Laptop Per Child project, has spun off a company called Pixel Qi in the hopes of creating a $75 laptop.
Jepsen was the brains behind the OLPC’s sunlight-readable display and had a hand in the development of various power saving features. Pixel Qi and the OLPC project will work amicably, as Pixel Qi has offered to “give OLPC products at cost, while also selling the sub-systems and devices at a profit for commercial use.”
So will a $75 laptop really be possible? Maybe, but let’s all remember that the OLPC was supposed to cost $100 and after all was said and done, it settled at around $186. Perhaps we might be looking forward to a $139.50 laptop from Pixel Qi instead.
Whatever the case, it’ll be interesting to see this company develop. They’re located right down the street from me here in Boston (I think) so I’ll see what other information I can rustle up over the coming months.
Pixel Qi [Company Website] via The Boston Globe
One of the fun things about expos like CES is seeing what kind of crazy Wi-Fi networks show up. Right now, we’re in the Blogger’s Lounge using one called “BLOGGERS” (yesterday it was “BLOOGERS”). Earlier, I found an OLPC mesh server, but sadly I didn’t have the password
The first OLPC story of 2008 isn’t exactly positive. It seems Intel has left the initiative, claiming the OLPC camp, lead by the cocksure Nicholas Negroponte, wanted it to stop producing chips for its own low cost PC and for other companies’ low cost PCs (like the Eee PC by Asus). Intel wanted none of that so it left.
Exactly how true this is we don’t know just yet, since the OLPC group has yet to refute the claims, but it certainly doesn’t look good. OLPC is already fighting a battle with people who say things like, “you can’t cure hunger with a computer.” It’s amazing that the group that is actually trying to help people is up against such resistance.
Intel leaves the OLPC after dispute [CNET News.com]
Nigerian company LANCOR is suing the OLPC project for infringing on their Nigerian keyboard design, causing us to wonder if some sort of 419 spamming virus hasn’t infiltrated the Nigerian judicial system, rendering completely useless. The suit holds that the OLPC uses extra keys to allow users to type using the Nigerian alphabet. While this is clearly a case of insane people suing a charity, it could put a damper on OLPC’s plans in Nigeria.
It seems LANCOR has a “registered design” and not a patent for a similar keyboard and is requesting $20 million in damages from the OLPC project in order to recoup the “damage” caused by their infringement. There is some talk that this is backed by Intel, makers of the OLPC-alike Classmate. I just think it’s junk litigation.
News about LANCOR v. OLPC [Groklaw]
The OLPC XO laptop seems to be a hit in Peru. The country placed the largest order for the machines (272,000) and it’s already enjoying success in many of the smaller rural villages.
One village in particular, Arahuay, is featured in an Associated Press article published on Monday. It’s an interesting read about how the computers are being used in daily life and how positively the people in the village — children and adults — have responded to the project.
Read More
Dear Foreign Couple in this Video:
This is the OLPC. For you to read the instructions and wonder what this “does” and hoot in mad-eyed wonder when you see a colored man on the screen makes me puke a little. You should be able to turn this thing on and make it work, mostly because it’s made for kids who have probably never touched a computer in their lives. Your failure hurts all poor children, everywhere, and you two should probably stick to the old “girl hating the guy, for some reason unknown to everyone, whenever they’re getting ready to go to a party and then making everyone feel awkward until they leave” routine rather than the operating of computing machinery.
via Giz
The OLPC XO isn’t the only tiny, small, dwarven laptop making news this month. the Eee PC is the most wanted laptop under trees this year, and other manufacturers have taken notes, if not exception, with the popularity.
Everex, makers of all Peecees super-cheap, has what it thinks is a competitor on its blueprints. They’re calling it the Cloudbook, and it’s pretty hot, in a super-cheap and weak kinda way. Read More
We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the OLPC project, and the resultant XO laptop. That’s because the project is ambitious as it is important, putting laptops into the hands of those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to them, thus bridging the digital divide.
They’ve been in design, in theory, in limbo, and now, finally, in the hands of students who they’re meant for. Uruguay this week becomes the first recipient of XO laptops for its school kids, and so far reactions seem ecstatic. Read More
Photo from this guy’s Flickr.
Microsoft is hard at work porting Windows XP for the XO Laptop. That’s good news for any number of reasons, not least of which because it gives an air of legitimacy to the laptop. (Reports have suggested that some governments are weary of the XO because it runs Linux. For better or worse, the perception is that you need to run Windows.) It’s not easy porting over XP, though: Microsoft says it’s difficult to fit its OS on the XO’s tiny flash drive, so much so that Microsoft wants the One Laptop people to add a standard SD Card slot to it. All told, some 40 engineers, both in-house and otherwise, are working on the project.
Now cue the XO hating.
Microsoft trials XP on XO laptop [BBC News]
Now with free carrying case.
How did I miss this? One of our favorite curmudgeons, John C. Dvorak, hits the nail right on the head with his assessment of the OLPC — send $200 of rice to poor countries, not a $200 computer. The inventors and backers of the OLPC project trust and believe in education as a way out of dire circumstances. Fine, but isn’t a laptop a bit useless if you don’t have clean water or a well-funded school in your town? The question is not whether or not kids need computers — they do — but whether this effort ignores more prevalent structural problems within a country.
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All day we’re inundated with news about this One Laptop Per Child project. I write up story after story about how these do-gooders are spreading technology to the third world, how interconnectivity and self-organizing networks will change the way these people communicate and allow otherwise deprived children to grow up capable of interacting with computers and thriving in a modern environment. But I have to ask, how exactly do they figure this is going to work when the OLPC hardware is not Vista-Capable?
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Whuh oh. There’s something called the Konyin keyboard that basically has a second shift key function which allows its typist to use the different letters and symbols of Latin-based alphabets from around the world.
The company that developed the Konyin keyboard, Lagos Analysis of Nigeria, is now claiming that Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC project bought a pair of the keyboards "with the express purpose of illegally reverse engineering the source codes" in order to develop a similar keyboard for the OLPC XO laptops.
That’s a pretty bold claim and, if true, could spell even more trouble for the project.
Natick-Nigerian firm sues Cambridge-based One Laptop Per Child [Cambridge Chronicle]
LAPTOP has thrown the OLPC and Eee into a battle of wills and found that (sorry to spoil it for you) the Eee is the superior machine for the money.
Just barely, though. The OLPC takes the cake for the Design, Connectivity, and Pricing categories while the Eee cleans up in the User Interface, Learning Curve, Applications, and Specs/Performance departments.
OLPC XO vs. Asus Eee PC 701 [LAPTOP]
Whatever the reason — lackluster sales or a true "outpouring of support from the public," according to Nicholas Negroponte — the One Laptop Per Child project will be extending its Give One, Get One program until the end of the year.
For $400, you can buy two OLPC machines. You get one, and a deserving child in a far away land gets one. I think it would make sense to just keep this program going for a long, long time instead of making the units unavailable to the general public next year. Sure, it’d free up more OLPCs to go directly abroad but the current program lets people over here foot the entire bill and help out those less fortunate. Seems like a win-win.
OLPC Extends ‘Give One, Get One’ Program [PC World]
