Building on its success with laptops designed for developing countries, the One Laptop Per Child project is set to unveil a long-awaited tablet at CES next week. Here’s what you get for $US100.
UPDATE: We now have pictures, if you’d like to take a look!
The OLPC has been kicking around the idea of a super-affordable tablet for over a year. Originally known as the XO-3, but now dubbed the XO 3.0, the tablet will feature an 8-inch 1024×768 screen with some models also offering a PixelQi 3qi display that mimics e-paper. A Marvell Armada PXA618 chip and 512MB of RAM reside in the tablet’s ruggedised shell and will run either Linux Sugar or Android OS.
With a bare-bones feature set, the OLPC tablet should cost about $US100 per unit — up from the original estimated price of $US75, but still way cheaper than virtually any other tablet on the market.
The coolest feature of the XO 3.0 is that it can be powered by hand-cranking — to the tune of 10 minutes of run time for every minute of work. Why isn’t this available on, well, everything? I’d gladly spin a handle for a few minutes if it meant I wouldn’t have to beg for outlet time at coffee shops, carry spare chargers and constantly dread the “low battery” notification. [Electronista]
MotorMouth
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:22 AMIS that it in the photo? The almost non-existent bezel is amazing, why can’t all tablets be like that?
Maban
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:08 AMI want a hand crank tablet !
Bruce
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 11:53 AMi think the bezel is too thin, u need SOME bezel to pick the thing up/hold it without accidentally selecting stuff. Look at the pic, she has her fingers touching the screen just whilst holding it :S
Kroo
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 12:42 PMHow about a bezel that allows for dead zones to exist for certain apps, or it predicatively knows an accidental touch? It would change the game, but seeing as everyone is copying Apple, we’ll have to wait for them to make it first.
Deb
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 1:43 PMbahahah I love the difference between the ‘concept’ and the actual product… good project though, glad they managed to get it done!