EcoInsomniac

Care about green/social issues? Want to stay on top of the green news about technology and things? Subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The OLPC program or One Laptop Per Child program has been a great success in my eyes.  If you’ve never heard of OLPC please take a moment and visit the OLPC Wiki. This revolutionary program was started by Nicholas Negroponte at the MIT Media Lab has put laptops into the hands of children in countries all over the world.  The OLPC program is not one to spread the use of laptops, but to use technology to spread education.  I believe that the OLPC program helps to communicate and educate to places where it once wasn’t possible.

The current generation laptop named the “XO” can be charged by being plugged into the wall, attached to a car battery, crank charged using the crank on the side of the machine.  The batteries contain no toxic heavymetals and thanks to the battery management system and power management system that allows it to be charged by so many different means it also has a battery life of about 6 hours if used heavily or 24 hours of just using it to read.  The most beautiful feature I think is that the laptops connect to each other to create a web of connectivity among the users that allows for connectivity to the internet if someone is close enough to a source like a wireless router.  An amazing piece of hardware and software combined to make this little child’s laptop high tech even compared to those us adults drool at.  The estimated life span of these laptops in the hands of the children is 5 years which is pretty good as I’ve had friends kill $2,000 mac book pros in a matter of months.

Now we get to the fun part, the next generation OLPC called the ”XO-2″.  It looks like the OLPC team has been playing with the Nintendo DS a little bit, but that’s not a bad thing at all.  The “XO-2″ will have no traditional keyboard, but will have 2 touchscreens created by Pixel Qi which will enable programs to create custom keyboards for the children based on the task.  This feature will also allow younger children to use the XO-2 by displaying a “basic keyboard configuration” and as the child gets older could be reconfigured to be a standard keyboard.  It will also enable the laptop to be configured much more easily to fit the language of the country in which the child resides.  The amazing range of configurations on this machine will truely bring creativity and education to the children who need it.  The XO-2 can switch between being an enchanced e-book reader to a laptop and then to a collabrative teaching tool for children to learn while playing or interacting with content in a group.

The XO-2 brings together the best of new technologies to create a laptop like we’ve never seen before and for a price that is unheard of.  It will bring children closer together through education and collaboration.  The OLPC program is aiming for a price point of $75 when a government or non-profit entity buys in bulk for the children.  The pictures of the XO-2 in this post are computer generated concepts from the OLPC team and should not be considered final by any means.  They’re beautiful concepts though and I hope the final product comes out as good as it seems it will be.

I would love to get my hands on an XO and I can’t wait for the XO-2 which if they will allow for the buy one give one program I will be in line with bells on.  What do you think of the OLPC program or the technology involved?  Would you buy one and give one if the program was reinstated?

Related posts:

1. Sexy Solar Powered Laptop Concept