One Laptop Per Child gets $5.6M grant to build Android tablet

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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One Laptop Per Child’s next move: $100 tablet

 

Marvell said it has also found ways to cut costs in the way it's designing the chips.
Marvell said it has found ways to cut costs in the way it's designing the chips.

 

The nonprofit organization that has tried to produce a $100 laptop for children in the world’s poorest places is throwing in the towel on that idea—and jumping on the tablet bandwagon.…Read More