Ink, Bits & Pixels (formerly The Digital Reader) recently tracked down some interesting information regarding One Laptop Per Child’s (OLPC) Australian partner, One Education. While the company confirms the XO Infinity is underway, less officially, the device appears to be a laptop/tablet hybrid with modular components.
One Education has a page dedicated to registering for upcoming announcements on the XOÂ Infinity, which Ink, Bits & Pixels confirmed with the company will be officially announced in the next week or two. The background image shows a screen that can be connected to a keyboard.
What wasn’t confirmed, but was implied to be correct, were the modular components that the tech site uncovered when researching the story.
From an image deep in One Educations website it appears that the tablet will feature easily removable components for a CPU, battery, camera, and Wi-Fi.
There is no more information regarding the technical specifications at this time. But there is a third picture with a different angle of the modulars on Ink, Bits & Pixels.
Last year, OLPC launched an Android tablet with its partner Vivitar, which ranged from $150 to $200. Previously, a $100 touch screen tablet was in the works, but never quite made it to mass production.
The modular component features may allow buyers to purchase different parts for the XO Infinity for a wider range of prices. It is possible that the base model will start at $100 (or less), with upgraded cells increasing the cost, depending on the needs of the buyer. This may be the best solution for a decent quality low-cost computing device.
Look like pretty standard OLPC fare. Heavy on the shiny stuff to get the attention of funders. Light on the usability side of things. Because there is always someone else to blame when things fail.
When they only sell shitty laptops for $300 what do you expect for $100? Give them used business notebooks they are much better from $100 you could get a T61 or a T400 (or similar elitbooks, latitudes), they are much better, and usuable for any task.
The problem with giving people used laptops is that the parts are,
well, used, and could well be near their end of life. Granted, the
build quality of Lenovo/IBM ThinkPads is very good (excellent under the
IBM aegis), but you’re playing the statistical reliability game (power on
hours, mean time between failures/repairs). I wouldn’t trust
the build quality of other vendors though, and have had devices from
other makes (HP, Acer, Toshiba) die on me, even though the devices
were nowhere near the ages of the ThinkPads you mention.
And what are you playing with the cheap laptops? Russian roulette? Motherboards bend like hell, solder joints won’t stand that for ever. It is still easier to replace parts in a thinkpad then any cheap one. While repairing low cost notebooks thing can break very easily.
I’ve never seen a thinkpad with dead motherboard except T61 with nvidia (the well known gpu problem) or physical damage. Wearing parts (hdd, battery) can be replaced in minutes.
Not to mention keyboard and trackpoint. Many-many students here use second hand business notebooks and they work well, much better than new consumer ones. I bought my T420 for around $300, I carry it everyday from lecture to lecture, it has no problems.
OLPC pioneered the idea of the affordable laptop, which
eventually became the netbook. Here’s hoping they again
innovate, as the PC industry is sadly lacking in new ideas.
Great news, and an interesting design. I hope it will be as sturdy as the X0-1, which was bulletproof, almost.
This is a really good idea – the design / keyboard is also really nice……and the name really cool. I am glad to see they are still in the game.