Wonder why there’s so much talk about the olpc laptop?
Because, as these pictures show, it really is suited for e-book reading. And it’s book size, not laptop size.
These pictures (resized here) come from the One Laptop Per Child website, www.laptop.org/download.en_US.html. There are lots more images there.
I can’t resist showing the green tablet again, because it so clearly shows the laptop’s size. The infamous handcrank is clearly visible in the green device, and in other images of the blue (but nowhere in the yellow or orange) indicating that these are from an earlier stage of the device’s development.
And a couple more variations — I don’t know if they’ll make more than one variant. These are labeld concept images. Anyway, the vision is clearer when you see all the images:
Edited to add: The olpc website notes: “The only thing that might be somewhat misleading in the prototype is the display. The display we plan to ship is significantly bigger and of a higher resolution than the one pictured: We will ship at 1200×900 vs. the 800×480 display in the shown in the photo.”
Here’s another photo that clearly demonstrates the size. This image was downloaded from flickr and cropped; it was taken at the unveiling of the working prototypes by Pete Barr-Watson:
Great photos, Roger–thanks for reproing ’em! Just a reminder for late-comers: It appears that the “infamous crank” is gone from the unit itself. Generators will through foot pedals or whatever. – David
1200×900 is a serious display; that makes them competitive with many sub-noteboooks on the market.
I do wonder how these things might work with e-ink displays; surely that might cut down power consumption, but the displays themselves I gather are still expensive and refresh too slowly for general computing work. Maybe those problems will get solved in a few years if the tech becomes popular.
Richard, these are supposed to be computers, not readers. E Ink is far too slow. The currently available top of the line refresh rate of E Ink is about 1 frame per second for this screen size.
Of course, one could take an OLPC and use it as an e-reader, and to do so rip out the LCD and replace it by an E Ink-based screen, but that’s probably not something you should expect the manufacturer to do — or indeed even to allow.
Amazing guys! I m surely gonna buy it.
I think its the best and the most interesting blog ever since.
Nick, I haven’t heard what the availability of these devices will be for the general public.
I believe that one reason these are being touted as $130 computers is because they will be sold in huge quantities to government agencies and such, and not one-by-one to individuals.
The signals about the selling of these to the public have been mixed. The FAQ says they will not be sold to the general public, but I do remember reading about some sort of scheme where the general public could buy an OLPC at a premium, so that one unit sold in the West would sponsor one unit for the developing countries.
I believe the idea was to give these Western units a different colour than the ones sold to developing countries, so as to undercut a market of grey imports from the developing countries; prospective buyers would be shamed out of buying these grey imports, because it would be clear to everybody to see what they had done. If true, then my guess would be that this is the real reason OLPC would sell to individuals, because otherwise it would be too much of a bother to set up a sales division.
This is all from memory BTW, and I might be totally wrong.
There is a pledge that you may wish to sign up to: “I will purchase the $100 laptop at $300 but only if 100,000 other will too.” (Don’t sign here at Teleread, but follow the link. Currently, 2000+ people have signed the pledge.)
Just want to note that the olpc was launched as the “hundred-dollar computer,” and that they have recently moved away from that designation as it becomes clearer that initially the price will be slightly higher. The price I’ve seen quoted is $130.