Update: The start time will actually be 6 a.m. EST Monday.
Amid the excitement over the Asus machines, let’s not forget that One Laptop Per Child will soon accept orders for the e-book-friendly XO Laptop: one for yourself, one for a child in a developing country. The lowdown from OLPC News is that the order-taking starts at 8 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 12. Significantly or not, as the independent and unofficial OLPC-related blog notes, that’s 9 a.m. Taiwan time Tuesday. Coincidence or more? Will the order-takers be Taiwan-based?
Call 1-877-705-2786 or visit this Web site, which says: “A donation of $200 will pay for and deliver one XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, $400 will pay for and deliver two XO laptops, and so on.” You get to keep one of the two.
Needed reminder: The linux-based XO can’t handle DRMed e-books—well, without the standard DRM-infested programs being ported over.
Related: A closer look at Asus Eee PC Impact on OLPC, in OLPC News. Also see $100 laptop begins production, from the BBC.
Technorati Tags: One Laptop Per Child , OLPC , Asustek , “$100” laptop
While the OLPC is almost here, I still don’t have a clear idea of what it will be able to do. My intent would be to use web based apps for word processing, etc. Is that possible? Seems so. But what about for e-reading? Can anyone say approximately what will be involved? Will I have to port apps or program?
Mike, the Evince viewer will work on the OLPC machine for PDF, and there may also be an XML/HTML format viewable. And one way or another there should be a .txt reader. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ebooks for details. I think it would be cool if someone ported over FBReader for the XO. HTH. David