this is just so cool –
The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.
wind up laptops for the third world for $100. We should all buy one* at *$200* minimum, so there will be more funding for these.
more at BBC News.
*except, apparently, we can’t.
We aren’t sufficiently deserving.
But some of the statements look distinctly dodgy:
“We really believe we can really make literally hundreds of millions of these machines around the world,” Professor Negroponte said, as costs continued to drop.
He added that it was critical that children actually owned, instead of loaned, the machines.
To overcome the potential problem of secondary “grey markets” for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential re-selling.
“I hope there would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled if not connected to the network after a few days,” he added.
And if you happen to be travelling?
> And if you happen to be travelling?
I don’t think the target audience travels much.
Mood: Impressed too.
I read somewhere at the weekend that Steve Jobs had offered them a free version of an Apple OS (not sure if it was a cut-down Tiger or something) but that they had declined due to wanting it all to be non-proprietary. Dunno how true that actually is.
I think it is true. They need this to be completely open source.