OLPC:News

  This page is monitored by the OLPC team.

LAPTOP NEWS

1. Stealing a page: Stephon Marbury, a superstar guard on the NY Knicks, yesterday introduced the Starbury, a $15 pair of sneakers aimed at poor kids whose parents cannot afford the up-to $200 that some high-end sneakers cost. Marbury says he will even wear the Starbury in NBA games this winter. Maybe OLPC has started something. (The story appeared in Friday's NY Times.)

2. David Cavallo reports that the Brazilian government is finalizing their plans for all aspects of laptop roll-out. As the project to date has been coordinated by the presidency with the assistance of the Ministry of Education, they will now begin to work more deeply with other ministries.

3. Alan Kay and the eToys team came to the OLPC offices in Cambridge this week to get an update on the UI (which went through several more iterations this week) and to demonstrate eToys running on the OLPC hardware. Without any extensive fine-tuning, simple eToys animations were able to run at up to 10 hertz. The team will be back in September to work more closely with Red Hat and OLPC in integrating our efforts.

4. There are two new essays that overview the project in the wiki: “The Children's Machine” is a description of the OLPC technology written by Stephen Michaud; “Learning Vision” is a description of our epistemological approach written by David. (See http://wiki.laptop.org)

5. The camera sensor has been the focus of considerable discussion over the last week. Two key changes were made: first, the camera has been changed from an optional component to a standard feature—all OLPC machines will incorporate a video camera; second, the camera itself has been increased in resolution. While the initial camera sensor had offered CIF (352×288) resolution, the new camera sensor will offer the considerably higher VGA (640×480) resolution.

Laptop News is archived at Laptop News.

You can subscribe to the OLPC community-news mailing list by visiting the laptop.org mailman site.

Press requests: please send email to press at laptop dot org.

MILESTONES

Aug. 2006	Working prototype of the dual-mode display
06 Jun. 2006	First video with working prototype [1]
28 Jan. 2006	World Economic Forum, Switzerland UNDP and OLPC Sign Partnership Agreement news release
13 Dec. 2005	Quanta Computer Inc. to Manufacture Laptop (html)(pdf)
16 Nov. 2005	WSIS, Tunisia Prototype Unveiled by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Photos: (Image 1) (Image 2) (Image 3) Webcast: (Arabic) (English) (French) (original) Webcast provided by the ITU and UN Webcast Services with the support of RealNetworks Ltd. RealPlayer is required to view the webcast (available at no cost).
Jan. 2005	Laptop Intiative Officially Announced at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

PRESS

07 Jul. 2006	San Diego Union-Tribune | U.S. and international educators show great interest in prototype
Jul. 2006	SPIE Professional | $100 laptop nears launch
21 Jun. 2006	BusinessWeek online | For Brazil's Poor, a Digital Deliverance?
24 May 2006	CNET News.com | $100 laptop gets working prototype
07 Apr. 2006	rediff.com | Our $100 laptops will run on human power
02 Apr. 2006	O Estado de S.Paulo | Fazer a diferença
28 Mar. 2006	FT.com | Waking up to a laptop revolution
24 Mar. 2006	Diário do Comércio | Um Laptop por Crianca
22 Mar. 2006	Times Online | Getting the world's poor logged on
09 Mar. 2006	Correio Popular | País disputa fabricação de laptop de US$ 100
	Folha de S. Paulo | Governo quer comprar 1 milhão de laptops
	Info Exame On Line | Governo quer um milhão de laptops de US$ 100
08 Mar. 2006	IDG Now | Faculdade abre programa de inclusão digital para alunos
	Folha de S. Paulo | Governo negocia fabricação do laptop de US$ 100 no Brasil
	Agência Globo | Governo estuda possibilidade de produção de computador de US$ 100 no país
	Teletime News | DVB detalha contrapartidas oferecidas ao Brasil
05 Mar. 2006	ACM/CIE | Interview with Nicholas Negroponte on the $100 laptop
16 Feb. 2006	MITIR | Podcast of Walter Bender's MURJ lecture on One Laptop per Child
15 Feb. 2006	CNET | PCs for the poor: Which design will win?
10 Feb. 2006	CNET | Perspective: Will the $100 PC fly?
09 Feb. 2006	NYTimes | A Plug for the Unplugged $100 Laptop Computer for Developing Nations
	UPI | One Laptop Project reaches critical stages
31 Jan. 2006	Slashdot | Microsoft OS Smart Phone for Developing Nations
	USA Today | Gates sees cellphones as way to help Third World
	Macworld | Red Hat officially commits to MIT's $100 laptop
28 Jan. 2006	UNDP | $100 Laptop Project Moves Closer to Narrowing Digital Divide
20 Dec. 2005	BusinessWeek online | Quanta faces challenges in making "millions and millions" of $100 laptops.
19 Dec. 2005	Forbes.com | China to decide by March whether to join OneLaptopPerChild project.
14 Dec. 2005	UPI | Nortel to take part in OneLaptopPerChild endeavor.
13 Dec. 2005	Red Herring | Quanta to manufacture laptops; expects deliveries in 2006 4th quarter.
	OLPC | Quanta Computer Inc. to Manufacture $100 Laptop
11 Dec. 2005	NYTimes | NY Times: 5th Annual Year in Ideas $100 Laptop
04 Dec. 2005	Guardian Unlimited | The $100 laptop question
01 Dec. 2005	RFDESIGN | $100 Laptops Feature Novel Peer-to-Peer Wireless Connectivity
30 Nov. 2005	FT.com | Five companies in Asia making bids to manufacture $100 laptop.
28 Nov. 2005	Fortune Magazine | THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: I'd Like to Teach the World to Type
25 Nov. 2005	People's Daily Online | Nigerian president says government has budgeted for a million $100 laptops.
18 Nov. 2005	The Electric New Paper | Gramophone? No, Laptop
17 Nov. 2005	BBC News | UN Debut for $100 Laptop for Poor
	Seattle Times | $100 Laptops Aim to Bring Children the World
	TechWhack | MIT Unveils their USD 100 Laptop
	TeitB | 100 US Dollar Laptop Computer Launched
	ZDNet | '$100 Laptops' Here by Next Year
	ABC | $100 Laptop Bridges Digital Divide
	Financial Express | Laptop @$100!
16 Nov. 2005	MIT News Office | Annan to Present Prototype $100 Laptop at World Summit on Information Society
	Reuters | Researchers Unveil $100 Laptop for Schoolkids
	CNET | $100 Laptop Takes World Stage
	CNET | $100 Laptop Expected in Late 2006
	Christian Science Monitor | A Low-Cost Laptop for Every Child
	ADNKronos International | Internet: Wind-Up, Budget Laptop Unveiled
14 Nov. 2005	WSJ | The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality
13 Nov. 2005	The Inquirer | Hubris over $100 Laptop idea
	New York Times | Google Earmarks $265million for Charity and Social Causes
13 Oct. 2005	Technology Review | The Hundred Dollar Man: Technology Review's editor in chief, Jason Pontin, talk with Nicholas Negroponte about the Hundred Dollar Computer.
30 Sep. 2005	Times Online | A $100 clockwork computer to help the poor to learn
29 Sep. 2005	I4U News | Sub-$100 Laptop design unveiled
28 Sep. 2005	Boston Globe | Prototypes of $100 laptop with hand crank planned by early next year.
	MIT World | NN at Technology Review
27 Sep. 2005	Datamation | Low cost PCs for the Enterprise
06 Jun. 2005	estadao.com.br | Cada criança na escola com um laptop a tiracolo

Video

(Misc. videos of the laptop can be found here.)