David Pogue of the New York Times got his hands on the “$100 laptop,” now known as the XO (which I recently blogged about when I found out they go on sale in the US in November), and has his review video up on YouTube.
Among the awesomenesses:
- Mesh networking
- Six-hour battery life
- Designed to be hackable, with a system restore button
- Waterproof, dustproof, and shock-resistant
You have to see Pogue drop the XO on a rock, then pick it right back up and keep using it. Not a scratch.
Will this change the world? I think so.
My school had an assembly on Friday featuring Sister Schools, a local organization that takes clothing and school supplies to students in Africa. The presentation made it clear that there are plenty of schools around the world where the students do not get even one book each - in many schools, they don’t have any materials at all. Students learn by watching and listening, not by reading or doing. In many schools, the teachers paint illustrations from their books on the walls of the school so students can see.
As I commented to someone recently, schools in the US are still paying a fortune every year for information and paper (aka textbooks) when the former is now free and the latter is obsolete. An open platform like the XO could change everything.
XOGiving.org
Oh yeah - hat tip: Adam Stein of Terrablog
I see why people are amped about this. There is a lot of possibilities with it. Though, I imagine that if it does take off we shouldn’t be surprised that this can actually have unforseen negative effects as well. It’s like introducing the car to society. There is a lot of perks and also a lot of downsides we often neglect to look at. I hope, though, that this thing has nothing but positive effects!
[...] One Laptop Per Child October 8th, 2007 — Andrew Conard One Laptop Per Child has created a laptop that costs less than $200 and is designed to be used for learning and education for children in the developing world. It can be powered by a hand crank, automatically networks with others nearby and wifi networks and can be programmed. Here is a review - thanks to Justin for the link. [...]
One thing I am concerned about. Their website said that these will be sold to governments of third world countries. The govenrments of most third world countries are so corrupt and bribery is so ingrained in these societies, I wonder how many “donated” computers will actually end up in the hands of the children they were designed for. I wonder if distribution might be more fair if relief organizations handled the distribution.