Report: OLPC's '$100 laptop' now costs $188
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(InfoWorld) - The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has raised the price of its XO laptop to $188, according to an Associated Press report. OLPC spokesman George Snell confirmed the price change on Friday, the AP report said. Snell blamed the price hike on "currency fluctuations" and the rising cost of raw materials like nickel and silicon. OLPC executives in the U.S. were not immediately available for comment. Previously, OLPC said the XO would cost $176. The reported price hike comes at a critical juncture for OLPC. TheÂ XO laptopÂ has gone through four prototype stages, and the design has been locked down for weeks. In August, Quanta Computer completed a manufacturing run of 300 units to test the production process -- the final step before mass production of the XO begins later this month or in early October. OLPC customers are counting on a low-cost laptop, and it was not immediately clear what, if any, impact the latest price hike will have onÂ orders for the XO.
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The ultra-mobile, Linux-based laptop scene gets a little more populated as Everex prepares to debut its CloudBook -- $400, two pounds, and coming later this month to the nation's biggest electronics retailer.
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Nicholas Negroponte thinks everyone in the world should have a computer. His nonprofit OLPC wants to build and distribute the world's most-affordable laptop, priced at less than $100 and aimed at youngsters in the developing world.
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Blog: The No. 2 PC seller will offer a $899 desktop, a $599 desktop and a $599 laptop with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled.
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The One Laptop Per Child project has reportedly raised the price of its XO laptop to $188.
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After a slight delay, Everex has started shipping its Cloudbook ultraportable PC and will follow up with future models that support touch-screen applications, the company announced Friday.Priced at $399, the Cloudbook is designed to compete with inexpensive ultraportable computers like Asustek&#39;s Eee PC. The Cloudbook runs a version of the Linux OS, includes a 7-inch screen and weighs 0.22 kilograms (0.49 pounds).The company has already shipped 20,000 of the notebooks to retailers including Wal-Mart, Newegg, and TigerDirect, said Paul Kim, director of marketing at Everex. Wal-Mart will start selling the product on its Web site on Thursday, he said.ZaReason, which distributes Everex products, said on its Web site Friday that the Cloudbook had sold out. Everex had shipped a few hundred Cloudbooks to ZaReason, Kim said. As of Friday, the PC was not yet available on TigerDirect or Newegg.The Cloudbook was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas. It was originally due to ship in January, but last-minute tweaks to the GNOME interface software caused the delay, Kim said.The computer is powered by a 1.2GHz Via Technologies C7-M processor and runs on the gOS, a flavor of Linux based on Ubuntu. It includes a 30GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, wired and wireless networking, a DVI (Digital Video Interface) port, a 4-in-1 media card reader, and a lithium-ion battery.The company is also developing a Cloudbook with a touch-screen interface that it plans to make available worldwide by the end of the year, priced at $499, Kim said. It hopes to enlist the open-source community to help it create touch-screen applications for that product. It said it plans to put about 2,000 of the touch-screen Cloudscapes on sale to developers at the end of March for this purpose.Everex may also incorporate solid-state drives in future Cloudbooks as the price of flash storage drops, he said.The Cloudbook will compete with Asustek&#39;s low-cost Eee PC, which has sold around 350,000 units to date since its launch late last year. Acer and MSI are expected to launch low-cost PCs later this year.
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The new chips are targeted at kiosks and cash registers, as well as larger platforms like set-top boxes and thin-client PCs, and will likely power the $100 system for the One Laptop Per Child project.
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computer, which uses a version of Linux, might soon be available with Windows. According to a Reuters report, a Microsoft corporate vice president has said that the software giant is working to adapt Windows XP for the low-cost XO laptop.
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OLPC is experimenting with bovine-generated electricity for its low-cost XO laptop...seriously.
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(InfoWorld) - In an unexpected development, chip giant Intel has joined the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. The nonprofit project aims to equip children in developing countries with specially designed low-cost notebooks powered by chips from Intel rivalÂ AMD. Previously, Intel's efforts in the education market appeared at odds with those of OLPC. While OLPC expects toÂ finally begin delayed volume shipments of its XO laptopÂ in September,Â priced at $175, Intel has been selling itsÂ Classmate PC laptopÂ in bulk since March. Classmate currently costs around $225, but Intel hopes to lower that price to $200 by year-end. Intel has been selling Classmate primarily in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan, while OLPC has beta copies of its laptops in use by schoolchildren in Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, and Uruguay. The governments of those seven nations have pledged to purchase the XO laptops in bulk when volume shipments begin. Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of OLPC, has previously said publicly that Intel's Classmate efforts have been adversely affecting his project, given the well-funded nature of the chip maker's initiative. Intel and OLPC had engaged in conversations on and off for a while but nailed down an agreement to work together in the last month, according to Will Swope, vice president and director of corporate affairs at Intel. "Our role here is one of how do we have the biggest impact on education and on children around the world?" he said. The chip maker has spent more than $1 billion in education initiatives since its founding and over the last five to six years has been investing annually around $100 million on such projects. "How could we make that more impactful and reach more children?" Swope asked. The answer, he said, was to join OLPC. "Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children,â Negroponte agreed in a statement. Under the agreement, Intel and OLPC will look into collaborating on both the technology and educational fronts. Intel will also join the OLPC board. In the short term, Intel will effectively be supporting two different laptop programs -- OLPC and Classmate -- which will sometimes overlap, while retaining some unique capabilities, according to Swope. It will be up to governments to decide which machine they want to buy for their schools. Over time, the two lines will become "more complementary" and Intel and OLPC will partner a lot more, he said. As yet, it's too early for Intel to provide specifics on that area of the relationship between the two organizations and product lines, Swope added. The agreement doesn't have anything to do with Intel making chips for the XO laptop, although should the contract to provide silicon for the device be up for grabs, Intel would naturally be interested, Swope said. AMD, an OLPC board member, is supplying its Geode processors for the machine. "We're definitely excited by this change of heart [by Intel] and welcome their contributions," said Rebecca Gonzales, director of marketing communications at AMD. "We're happy to have them as part of the group." AMD has long said that the technology divide that OLPC is trying to bridge with its XO laptop can't be achieved by a single entity, Gonzales added. AMD has worked closely with the other corporate members of OLPC, which include Brightstar, eBay, Google, News, Nortel Networks, Quanta Computer, and Red Hat. The vendor is looking forward to Intel joining the board and providing a fresh take on the project, Gonzales said. Intel isn't disclosing all the conditions of its membership in OLPC. Swope noted that a number of other IT vendors are lining up to join the project under the same terms as Intel, and OLPC doesn't want to disclose those specifics until those other companies have also become members. Intel also isn't revealing how much it's investing in OLPC and that figure may remain undisclosed, Swope said. OLPC has struggled to bring its ambitious project to fruition. Initially, the organization had hoped to begin selling its laptop at $100, but that's proved impossible given spiraling production costs. The laptop is being manufactured by Quanta with the Taiwanese vendor hoping to produce 1 million computers by year-end. Negroponte continues to vacillate on whether OLPC will also make the notebooks available outside of the developing world, for instance, to U.S. states.
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Company announces details for its computer-in-a-digital-pen. High-end version will have 2GB of memory and cost $199; a 1GB version will sell for $149.
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The so-called $100 laptop that's being designed
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Intel&#39;s Classmate PC isn&#39;t just for students anymore. HCL Infosystems plans to sell a version of the Classmate PC to consumers and businesses in India who want a rugged, low-cost laptop.Priced at 13,990 rupees ($356), HCL&#39;s MiLeap X laptop uses the same beefy case as the Classmate PC. But HCL -- which&#160;signed an agreement with Intel&#160;last year to produce the Classmate PC -- insists there is very little in common between the two computers.&quot;It is a totally different product,&quot; said George Paul, executive vice president at HCL Infosystems.The specifications of the MiLeap X suggest otherwise. Both computers have a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen with 800-pixel by 480-pixel resolution, a 900MHz Celeron M processor, Wi-Fi, and 2GB of flash memory for storage instead of a hard drive. They also use the same chip set, Intel&#39;s 915GMS.The main difference between the MiLeap X and the Classmate PC appears to be a minor aesthetic change: The MiLeap X&#39;s vinyl cover more closely resembles a business folio than the blue covers typically found on the Classmate PC. The MiLeap X also comes with HCL&#39;s logo emblazoned below the display.Paul acknowledged the MiLeap X can be considered a &quot;derivative&quot; of the Classmate PC since both computers use similar technologies, but said significant differences exist between the two products. He did not specify what those differences are.Nor Badron, an Intel spokesman, confirmed the MiLeap X is based on the Classmate PC.The basic Classmate PC systems are supplied by Intel and manufacturers such as HCL configure the computers and install software to meet the needs of their customers, Badron said, adding that Intel was &quot;extremely supportive&quot; of HCL&#39;s plans to develop a Classmate PC version for consumers and business users.The MiLeap X gives HCL a start in the low-cost laptop segment, where most computer makers have yet to release products. &quot;It&#39;s a quick and easy way of getting into that market,&quot; said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific.The MiLeap X, which runs a version of the Linux operating system, will go on sale in India on Jan. 26.Developed in response to the&#160;One Laptop Per Child Project&#39;s low-cost laptop efforts, Classmate PC was designed for schools in developing countries. The computers were not originally meant to be sold to the general public, largely over fears within Intel that the low-cost laptops would cut into the company&#39;s gross margin.Last year, Taiwan&#39;s Asustek was the first to crack open the door for wider Classmate PC sales with the&#160;introduction of its Eee PC, which uses many of the same components. Intel expected Asustek to announce a version of the Classmate PC for education customers, but the Taiwanese hardware maker instead declared the Eee PC, which uses the same processor and components as the Classmate PC, would be sold to consumers.Intel has since embraced low-cost laptops as a product segment, despite continued resistance from some executives inside the company. The company&#39;s focus on that market will intensify later this year with the release of Silverthorne, a low-cost, energy efficient processor that will appear in a number of low-cost laptops currently under development.(John Ribeiro, in Bangalore, contributed to this report.)&#160;
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(InfoWorld) - Discussions are under way to put an Intel microprocessor inside a version of theÂ One Laptop Per ChildÂ (OLPC) project's "$100 laptop" for children in developing countries, according to representatives from both parties. "Intel, like a lot of other people, is more than welcome to try to design great silicon for this project and this mission, and we've been working with them to help them do exactly that," said Walter Bender, OLPC's president, in a telephone interview. Despite its nickname, the OLPC's lime-green XO laptop actually costs $175. The first version of the machine runs on Advanced Micro Devices' 433MHz Geode LX-700, an x86-architecture chip that is slow by the standard of mainstream processors but consumes little power and costs less. OLPC is close to starting productionÂ of the XO. The group has already gone through four generations of test systems to refine the laptop's design. A production run of 300 machines was completed in August, a final preparatory step before the XO goes into mass production later this month or in early October. While OLPC has yet to decide whether or not to use Intel processors, Intel confirmed its engineers are developing a motherboard based on one of its chips for an OLPC laptop. That process required the engineers to start from scratch, since the current XO design isn't based on Intel's chips. "It requires a new design, a new product," said Leighton Phillips, the manager of Intel's World Ahead Program in Asia. The design, which Intel plans to submit for OLPC's consideration, will be based on either existing mobile chips, such as modified versions of the Celeron M called A100 and A110, or Silverthorne, an upcoming processor designed for small, mobile computers. The dual-coreÂ Silverthorne processorÂ will be made using a 45-nanometer production process and will be available early next year in different versions. Silverthorne's main advantages are lower power consumption and size. The chips are so small that Intel can fit 2,500 of them on a single 300-millimeter silicon wafer, helping to keep unit production costs low enough for them to be used in handheld devices and low-cost computers. Whether Silverthorne is cheap enough to be used in laptops like the XO remains to be seen. "We're looking at ways to get there," Phillips said. If an Intel chip ends up inside an OLPC laptop, the laptop may be different from the existing XO design. That laptop was designed for use in harsh, rural environments with lots of dust and high humidity, but OLPC wants to develop laptops for use in urban areas where better infrastructure is available. "I can imagine there will be a family of laptops in terms of processor power and maybe there will be a larger form factor for older kids," Bender said. The discussions over an Intel-based laptop are part of wider talks on how Intel and OLPC can cooperate on technology and product development. Those talks started in July after Intel and OLPC signed an agreement that, among other things, gave Intel a seat on the group's board and prevents the two sides from disparaging each others' products. Besides putting an Intel processor inside a future OLPC laptop, the talks could see some of the technology developed by OLPC find its way into Intel's hands. For example, the chip maker is interested in the low-power screen technology developed by OLPC. Offering an OLPC laptop with an Intel processor doesn't mean the group will stop using AMD's chips, Bender said. "The Geode's been very easy to work with and hasn't been a limiting factor whatsoever," he said. As part of OLPC's desire to offer systems based on different processors, the group is looking to work with other vendors, in addition to Intel. One such company is Marvell Technology Group, which could see its Xscale processors, which the company acquired from Intel in 2006, also end up in future OLPC laptops, Bender said. "We want to have lots of choices, lots of people doing this, because there are lots of kids and lots of need," he said.
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Rockies aimed for fairness by selling online, but their ticket website says software 'robots' cut in line.            Presented By     From Dell? Home!      &nbsp;&nbsp;The new Dell? Inspiron? 1520 notebook with hi-def widescreen and long-range wireless for only $799. Add mobile broadband for $150. Limited time offer. Click here. www.dell.com    Ads by Pheedo
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(InfoWorld) - The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project is asking software coders to develop free, open-source educational computer games for the XO laptop, continuing its push toward aÂ September launch date. OLPC offered a laptop prize on Thursday for software teams who create new games during a three-day "game jam" scheduled to begin June 8 on the campus of Olin College, an engineering school in Needham, Massachusetts. By increasing the software available for the XO, OLPC hopes to encourage governments of developing countries to order more laptops, pushing the group to its sales goal of 3 million units by May 30. OLPC had collected 2.5 million orders by late April but needed to boost sales enough to order bulk computer parts and stick to the manufacturing schedule. An OLPC spokesman was sanguine about the goal, calling the date an arbitrary deadline that could also be affected by software and hardware changes as developers put the finishing touches on the beta version of the XO laptop, according to an e-mail from OLPC's public relations agency. However, production has already slipped from an original date in July and could be set back further by spiraling prices. Last month, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said the price of the "hundred-dollar laptop"Â had risen to $175. Negroponte also says that his nonprofit effort is being hurt by well-funded competition from Intel's Classmate PC, also a low-budget, power-efficient PC designed as an educational tool for children in developing countries. The game-making contest marks a new effort by OLPC to increase momentum for the XO. "The purpose of the game jam is getting people together to hack for a couple of days. Hopefully this will be the first of many," said SJ Klein, OLPC's director of content. XO users already have their choice of certain games in a "Pygames" library of open-source applications written in the Python programming language, and the XO's eToys application that allows children to create their own basic media and games, he said. But in the game jam, developers could create new types of games that rely on features of the XO's design, such as mesh networking between nearby users, an integrated still or video camera, and a tablet mode for mobile gaming. "There aren't too many games right now that take advantage of mesh style networking," said Klein, referring to the XO's ability to use Wi-Fi to communicate with other users up to a kilometer away, and display them as icons on its Sugar interface. "There are networked games, sure, but they aren't sensitive to the ability to display the presence of other users depending on where they are in relation to you or to pop up on the screen when they are close enough." Beyond creating games that teach specific tasks like counting or reading, OLPC hopes the contest will produce templates that allow kids to build their own games, according to OLPC's development guidelines. In keeping with the group's decision to use an open-source Linux OS in the XO computer, OLPC will release all games created at the weekend-long event under the open-source GNU General Public License and post them on the SourceForge site.
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MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte's much-touted $100 laptop is now officially on sale via the One Laptop per Child Foundation's Web site, with production cost now totaling $200. The organization previously said the laptop would cost $176 in April and raised that estimate to $188 last month.