$100 Laptops for Children Unveiled
May 24, 2006 by Lei
Filed under General Play Library Goodies
The $100 laptops I wrote about last year have been released! Aren’t they brilliant?
The $100 laptops are specifically made for children in third world countries, such as China, Brazil, India, and Nigeria.
What is the $100 Laptop, really?
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.
I think these laptops will also sell if made available to the general public. And, I bet some parents would be happy to pay more than $100 if most of the profits are donated to a good cause. The makers say a commercial version is also being explored.
More pictures available on Flickr.
The Register, May 24, 2006
Technorati Tags: $100 laptop, laptops, children, kids, toys
these are really really cool. Hope they will be made available to disadvantaged schools here in America someday.
mommyontheverge: Thanks for the comment! There’s definitely a lot of potential with these computers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could provide computers to all kids everywhere? I know my son learns a lot from the time he spends on the computer and it’s a necessary skill for the future.
I remember hearing about the prototypes for these in 1998 and waiting, waiting, waiting. It is so nice to finally see them.
Kate: Wow, they sure were a long time coming. I hope the laptops will help make lots of kids happy and learning.