The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization has received a $5.6 million grant from hardware component maker Marvell to fund the development of an Android-powered mobile tablet based on a Marvell design, Ars Technica reports. The product, which is expected to be ready for a public demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show next year, is intended for the developed world. In a statement to Xconomy, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte explained that the Android tablet likely will not have OLPC branding and is a transitional step as the organization works to develop the XO-3, a tablet device for the developing world that will have more ambitious hardware and will run the Linux-based Sugar learning environment. The XO-3 will ship in 2012, and the Android tablet supposedly will be ready in 2011. OLPC and Marvell announced a partnership earlier this year, but the $5.6 million grant is a new development. It could help OLPC move forward as the organization continues to transition to a more mainstream product development model, especially given OLPC’s failure to fulfill its original goal of delivering a ubiquitous $99 laptop for education. OLPC downsized half its staff last year and discontinued development of its Sugar software platform after it failed to raise sufficient funds…
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One Laptop Per Child to add multi-touch screen to future XO-1.75 laptop
The nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) on July 8 said it is adding a multi-touch screen to its upcoming XO-1.75 laptop and is modifying software to take advantage of the new hardware, PC World reports. The low-cost XO-1.75 with a touch-sensitive 8.9-inch screen will start shipping next year. The laptop will run on an Arm processor and is the successor to the current XO-1.5 laptop, which runs on a Via x86 processor. OLPC also will add a multi-touch screen on the next-generation XO-3 tablet, which is due to ship in 2012. Customers could be interested in buying XO-1.75 laptops as low-power replacements to existing XO-1 machines, which don’t have touch capabilities, said Chris Ball, lead software engineer for OLPC, in an eMail. However, OLPC will also sell less-expensive XO-1.75 machines without touch screens, he said. OLPC wants to use the XO-1.75 laptops as a platform to test and develop appropriate touch interfaces for the next-generation XO-3 tablets, he said. The XO laptops are designed for kids in primary schools, and touch capabilities could reduce the need to use a mouse to move or manipulate images or to scroll through documents. The XO-1.75 will include a physical keyboard, but the XO-3 tablet design will include only an on-screen keyboard…
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