latest OLPC laptop prototype
by Christopher Blizzard
This is the latest OLPC prototype we’ve gotten from the great guys at Quanta. Today we had an all day meeting with various countries who are interested in deploying the laptop. You have no idea how excited people get when they have a real live artifact to play with. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of this adorable little laptop with everyone in the room. The laptop is a star.
The laptop pictured above is a test machine. The case was created by a machine, but only as a one-off. It is running one of the test OLPC boards, which means it’s pretty close to the end laptop. It’s booting off an internal flash drive and is running a well-stripped FC5.
That picture on the desktop is my lovely wife. She got to have her photo taken with a bunch of dignitaries today – and she didn’t even know it!
Also, Damn! That Pete Barr-Watson guy posts photos all kinds of fast!
Kids would really love the bright colours you’re using in the design.
Funny ears on display’s top to better “hear” the wlan!
But a little bit too orange, isn’t it?
the polarizer
cute;)
…but i am wandering about this little toys price?!;)
First of all, let me just say, “Holy resolution Batman!”
Also, a couple questions. I’m curious what those circles below the speaker holes are. And am I right in guessing the that upper left ports are, external speaker, mic and USB? I’m a little fuzzy on the buttom left, is that a ps2 for the mouse? What holes/ports are on the Right? Is that a power cord I see?
And last, but possibly least, is that a *really* wide touch pad?
Will all of these apparent features come in this configuration in the final product? I forget if I missed the finalization of the decision, will there be a hand crank? Oh, and it almost looks like that monitor will pivot, is that true? Will it be a part of the final?
Guess I wasn’t so honest about my final question declaration.
To quote Neo: Woaw.
That laptop will definitively suits for kids living in third world countries such as DRC, Venezuela to name a few.
YOU’RE LOGGED IN AS ROOT! BAD BOY! DIRTY BOY! IN YOUR BED!
I submitted this blog to OSNews. I remember some posters were very sceptic about Fedora Core 5 stripped version running with minimal specification. Now that you have provide a concrete proof, hopefully that should put most of naysayers to rest.
One thing for sure that we learned about OLPC project, Fedora Core 5 is very flexible than some people thought which give a sign that future release will require less rams thanks to the reorganization of the development. I hope I will see the OLPC in action for LinuxWorld San Francisco 2006.
[...] Vor kurzem hat Red Hat, das mit einem angepassten Fedora Core 5 das Betriebssystem beisteuert, ein Test-Mainboard vom tawaianischen Notebookhersteller Quanta erreicht. Gestern dann gab es ein Treffen mit Vertretern verschiedener L
I hear Nigeria will probably get some. How are the local languages handled? Are children going to be able to use the OPLC and type in their own language?
It looks devilish with its two horns!
OK, answering some questions:
The little items below the speaker holes are four-way switches, like you would find on a game controller. One of the way that you can use this laptop is as a book. Turn the display around, fold it down and then the little four-way switches can be used for navigation, zoom, etc. Also, games. Kids love games.
On the left hand side of the image there are three ports: one for a microphone, one for headphones/speakers and the one on the bottom is one of three USB ports on the machine. The other two are located underneath the other rabbit ear.
This particular laptop _does_ use power instead of using internal batteries. We know what batteries we’re using, we’re just not using them in this model yet.
The cord on the right is actually the cord for the USB mouse you see in the foreground of the picture. It’s plugged into one of the two USB ports on the right hand side. The touchpad design that we have is very wide, yes, with the intent that it can also be used with a stylus and people can draw on it. This prototype doesn’t include a touchpad, which is why we’re using the external mouse.
As announced, the hand crank is in fact, gone. Instead power generation will happen outside of the laptop. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the motion that you can generate with the hand crank doesn’t generate that much power. You have an order of magnitude more leverage and power using your legs instead of your arms. So it’s likely that we’ll have some generators that are attached to AC adapters. The second reason is practical. If you put a hand crank on the laptop you generate a tremendous amount of stress on the laptop itself. It would reduce the lifetime of the laptop by quite a bit – something we want to avoid.
Right now the process for localization is the same as most other free software programs: work upstream. Once we’re ready to tackle localization we’ll be announcing a process for people to localize sugar. But we’re not quite to that point yet. Give us a few more weeks. :)
Those photos are great! Finally I’m seeing FC running in the OLPC (I’ve never seen before). Keep up the good work! :-)
0_o. We need ebuild! =D
[...] Also, I spent some time answering questions in my posts last night. If you want some more details, they are worth the read. [...]
Is the display in the prototype the planned final one?
The display isn’t the final one. The final display will be somewhat larger with a different aspect ratio. Also this is a standard display, not the dual mode high-dpi display that we’re planning on using in the final laptop.
Games are always cool. :)
Will the countries be able to manufacture the laptop themselves? Will you be donating spectacles for all those soon to be myopic children? :P
The colors and the structure of the laptop resemble a toy of a 2 year old.
Child doesn’t mean 1-2 years old, but more or less someone that is capable of using this thing, I guess from 6-7 up to 16 or whatever. And a Child of that age would really more appreciate (also using it) something more professionally designed, I mean this really looks like a cheap toy.
Something like this http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/7/0,1425,sz=1&i=73584,00.jpg
for example (which has a 10″ screen) with maybe more “childish” colors?
I know the design fact is not important for what your goal is, but I yet believe Childs will take this more seriously with a good design effect, instead of getting the first impression that it’s “just a toy”, because it’s really not.
I wonder why it is only meant for developing nations. I would love to buy one for my kids here in the US. I wonder how the parents in developed nations feel about this?
The color question is easily resolved by sampling what USERS think of them. :)
I read on Slashdot that you were accepting pledges, I wouldnt mind making one, I want to send my sister-in-law in Thailand one for her two kids, I have been trying to accumulate old laptops and load them with Ubuntu linux to help my wifes family but most used laptops fast enough to run the latest ubuntu release is usually more then $300 and is usually in poor condition.
My questions are where can I look into making a pledge, and will you have different keyboard options for these countries? I would assume so but I need to know if Thailand will be one of them considering it is a upper 3rd world country.
I think what you guys are doing is great and keep up the good work, I agree that information should be accessible to anyone and no limit or price should be set on ones ability to progress.
I have a question, in fact I’ve ever had this question about the project: Why don’t you sell them?. I know it’s bacause it’s suposed to help the kids and all that, but if you sell one of those for 150% you sell them to the governments, for ecah two laptops you’ll be able to give away one notwbook, also it would mean that a bigger quantity is needed, cutting down the production costs.
(However, if you do that, please make a black edition)
Uh, you think kids like Grey over red, blue, and green? I even like colors more than GREY. Boring. These kids are supposed to like their computers and learn, not pretend they have a deskjob.
Luca:
Maybe chris can clear this up, but afaik the colors are like that by _design_. The OLPC devices are _very_ well thought out. The colors are bright to discourage theft, and make them easy to find if lost.
Think like a rural villager, not a wealthy geek.
also, Id love to have one of these for myself or my kids, and Id happily pay for one at a profit. I know its been talked about, releasing a commercial version, but are there any more concrete plans?
an interesting point I saw on /. was the matter of how can you avoid the possibility that envious adults wont end up taking them the (possibly their own) children? specifically a father from rural areas might feel he has lost face if his kids have fancy new devices that he doesnt, even if he could/would never know/understand how to use the computer…
[...] http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=199 [...]
guys you are making impressive progress, hug difference between what Khaled Hassouna showed us this last month on Egypt and what you have now.
The looks of the thing aren’t that important IMHO, what matters is that the kids can actually afford to have one. Hell, I want one and I’m not a kid. So it goes to show that not only will want some. I was wondering if it was going to be possible to install any other distros on them though? Don’t get me wrong, I like Fedora but I’m just curious.
Forgot the kids in not only kids will want some.
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So far the colors we’ve been using have been for us, not for the kids. The colors are constantly changing so that we can say “the orange model,” “the blue model” or “the green model” and we can tell them apart. Once we’re ready to deliver the laptops to the real world we expect there will be a number of colors available.
[...] I am not saying that I want one, but this is cool. I am all in favor of a laptop for children and for the poor. In related news, I spent most of the day in a park that was built specifically for the poor of Munich. Englisher Garden originally had potato gardens and pigs running around. [...]