petersaville.net

A few years ago Cambridge university formed an idea of One Laptop Per Child or the One Hundred dollar US laptop for every child in the third world. But these days the unit would cost $175 American. The unit is a green plastic low-power, lightweight computer that can withstand a torrential rainstorm, work in bright sunlight, and be powered by kids who are willing to wind cranks or yank cords to keep it running.

The laptop project is expected to move from dream to reality this September and will hopefully be in the hands of 1 billion children between ages 6 and 16 in developing countries, with production ramping up to 400,000 units per month by the end of this year, for a total of 3 million in the first production wave .

The unit has a small, high-resolution screen that swivels to turn into a tablet. A number of buttons also control functions on the laptop but most notably is the sliding button that turns the backlight off, which allows users to save energy or take the laptop outside and use it in bright sunlight. Also on the unit is on either side 2-inch-long plastic rabbit ears that flip up to increase its wireless range.

Powering the unit the laptop can plug into an electrical outlet, or users can yank on its pull charger, crank a handle, or sit in bright sunlight with a flexible solar panel. The string pull charge, on display yesterday, means about six minutes of pulling for an hour to use the device in its low-power e-book mode, with no backlight.

This laptop will provide access to the internet world wide and allow educational advantages to all members of the population.

# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 1:49 AM