Tag Archives: OLPC

Thumb-drive-sized Computer fits in your pocket.

Posted on 2011/05/07 10:39 am by thepete

mind-bomb:

Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25


(everything set up and running)

Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has a HDMI port in one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into a HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25.

this is really neat, and the idea/inspiration behind it is super rad, but as a friend of mine has pointed out, once you include the price of a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and maybe even network peripherals (since there doesn’t appear to be a wired connection, and wireless is doubtful), you’re basically at the price of an OLPC. =\

This is a great idea, but I disagree with the premise that, once you add in peripherals and a monitor, this is basically the same price as an OLPC.  I have an OLPC XO-1 and while I think it’s a great little device, it’s not durable enough nor is it as versatile as this thumb-drive-sized PC. Not that the XO was supposed to be versatile. It was really just supposed to be a simple, low-power, low-powered computer that could help Third-World kids learn.

The cool thing with this thumb-drive computer is its versatility.  You can plug it into anything with an HDMI port—a monitor or a TV.  Then you can plug in a $10 keyboard and mouse or whatever you have laying around.  You could stick this thing in your pocket, go to someplace with very limited resources and use whatever was there to get things done.  Or you could use one of those floppy keyboards and a mini-mouse.

Again, the point is: versatility.

Comparing it to the XO also suggests the built-in mismanagement that slowed the XO’s adoption around the world.

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OLPC–the non-profit that inspired the world to innovate, has given up on innovation. A sad thing, indeed.

Posted on 2010/05/27 11:09 am by thepete

New XO-3 Announced: Just a Marvel Moby Tablet, Re-branded (Yawn)

Posted by Wayan Vota on May 27, 2010


Marvel’s $100 Moby tablet

Back in the day, One Laptop Per Child was innovative with its technology. It came up with a low-cost, durable, Open Source laptop for education when no one else would. And in bringing the XO-1 to market, it changed the technology industry.

That OLPC is now long gone.

In its place, we have a shell of a company. They don’t do software anymore – that’s spun off to Sugar Labs. They don’t do deployments anymore – that’s the country’s responsibility or OLPC Foundation (whatever that is). And now OLPC has just given up on hardware innovation.

via olpcnews.com

Hit up that link for more info about the “new” XO-3.

Back in November of 2005 I blogged for the first time about OLPC and their proposed “$100 laptop” that they wanted to sell to developing nations. Two years later I was among the first in the world to order my own XO-1 laptop, which sadly had doubled in price, but hey, who thought they could really do $100? The point is, I’ve been a fan of the OLPC effort from day 1. However, after getting my XO-1, I discovered a few hardware flaws and found myself underwhelmed by the choices made by the guys behind OLPC and came to the conclusion that they’d lost their way.

The good news is that untold numbers of kids in developing nations have benefited from having access to these computers. The bad news is that all that made OLPC different from any other charity organization (innovation, vision and the belief that technology can make a positive difference) is gone—not because any of those differences didn’t serve them, but because they chose not to embrace those differences.

As Wayan Vota, the guy behind OLPCNews.com, said in the above quoted post: “It is sad news for all of us that remember that original OLPC. The OLPC that could push an industry create a whole new form factor overnight – the netbook.”

It’s true, back in 2005, all that we had that was vaguely netbook-like was the UMPC—which was just a really small laptop with current specs. OLPC had the balls to suggest that computers didn’t need all the bells and whistles to be tools of learning (or even perfectly reasonable tools for any number of things). They were right—so right that an entire new genre of laptop came into being.

Hell, I wonder if we’d even have the iPad if it weren’t for OLPC and their XO-1.

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