2nd Generation "$100 Laptop" Will Be an E-Book Reader

waderoush writes "At a conference sponsored by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation this morning, OLPC founder unveiled the design for the foundation's second-generation laptop. It's actually not a laptop at all — it's a dual-screen e-book reader (we've got pictures). Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75, in part by using low-cost displays manufactured for portable DVD players."

Wrong summary and title

[Etrias]

If you had read the article, the original, version 1 of the OLPC laptop will be $100. This new version has no price set in it's unveiling.

Re:Wrong summary and title

[PaintyThePirate]

"Negroponte says the cost of this 2nd-generation device, which uses dual-touch screens with 16:9 aspect ratios, will be kept to $75."

The plan is $75. That doesn't mean it's any more realistic than the original $100 goal for the XO-1. I'd be surprised if they could get it below $150 at launch. The only way $75 is possible is if companies are donating hardware to it.

Re:Soo...

[PaintyThePirate]

Because it's shaped like a book, it must be a book, right?

This is not a book. It's, I imagine, going to have an x86 cpu and an OS capable of running Activities already written for the XO-1, plus anything else imaginable.

Negroponte's presentation showed two kids playing pong on one laptop and suggested the same could be done with games like chess or checkers, as one example. It is a laptop with two touchscreen displays, which is nothing short of amazing.

Re:Soo...

[PaintyThePirate]

Oh, I see where the confusion was. As usual, the Slashdot headline and summary are at best vague, and more likely completely misleading. There is better information here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/first-look-olpc-xo-generation-20 [laptopmag.com].

That article also contains the news that Give 1 Get 1 will be restarting in August or September.

Re:I'll change but.....

[Anonymous Coward]

E-Paper has the characteristic you are describing. Currently there are a few technological barriers to overcome with it (such as so-so resolution, mediocre color capability, and slow refresh rates), but because it is a light-reflective technology rather than light-emmisive (that is, the display reflects light back at you, like most surfaces you might look at, rather than through a photon source within the screen itself), it is *FAR* easier on the eyes than a computer monitor. A high enough resolution e-paper display showing a picture of something would appear indistinguishable from either a photo or a painting of that thing. And the refresh rate isn't even a big deal for something like printed matter, where the information isn't changing that often anyways, so it's actually ideal for an ebook. What's really neat about it is that it doesn't actually consume any power to show an image... it only requires power to update the display to something new.

Re:Power usage?

[Scrameustache]

Doesn't the OLPC use a lower power screen? How does the battery life with these cheaper, power hungry screens? It would kind of defeat the purpose of this if you could only use it for an hour without plugging it in...

The system will employ the dual indoor-and-sunlight displays, which was pioneered by former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode. âoeYounger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages,â the press release reads. The device will also reduce power consumption to 1 watt.

Re:Bye bye books

[mr_mischief]

The form factor is that of a dual-screened eBook, but they have a popup touch-screen keyboard as an application. It's a computer, kinda like a super-sized Nintendo DS. There are pictures of if accepting typed input, of it being held like a book, and of it laying flat like a board game between two kids.

I know the site listed in the summary is almost gone under the load, but there are lots of sites with news and pictures if you Google for "2nd generation OLPC". Two of them (spread the load!) are Laptop Magazine [laptopmag.com] and GotteBeMobile [gottabemobile.com], both of which are responding well as of right now.

Re:Bye bye books

[mhall119]

Google open textbook [google.com] and you'll find lots of sources and initiatives for free educational texts.

Not an eBook Reader at all

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite all the knee-jerk reactions (including the author of the article) to this being a glorified e-Book... it is NOT. It is clearly much more than that

It is a functional laptop in an eBook-like shell. Just look at the pictures. There is a pic of a kid holding the thing like a laptop with a virtual keyboard on the bottom display, and a game being played on the top display. This indicates that it has much more than eBook capabilities, and likely incorporates multi-touch capability.

Re:Fool me once, shame on you

[mlwmohawk]

No it is clear evidence that the momentum for Windows can't be ignored

Windows has no momentum, it is an obstacle. Vista is a joke. People are sticking with XP. Macintosh is starting to out-sell Wintell on high end desktops.

The *only* reason Windows hasn't been abandoned by its disgruntled users is because of Microsoft's continued illegal actions in maintaining its monopoly. All too many users say "I hate it, but have to use Windows."

There is *no* practical reason to put Windows on the OLPC. It brings nothing to the table but additional cost. The only purpose for it is to satisfy a vengeful and corrupt monopolist.

Re:Bye bye books

[Rogue Haggis Landing]

nope. it will never happen. Professors and their desire to rape the students by publishing slight revisions of their drivel year after year for insane prices are what keeps ebooks from being common.

FWIW, the textbook "upgrade treadmill" of constant small revisions is driven by publishers, not professors. The majority of professors are not textbook authors, and my experience working in university libraries is that a lot of them work pretty hard to keep the costs to their students down.

But the publishers want to put out a new version every year or two, and I can't exactly blame them. Otherwise, their new sales would be completely overwhelmed by the used market. If the majority of students resell their Econ 10 textbooks it doesn't take too many years until there aren't any sales of new textbooks. So the constant small changes. I don't like the effect of it, but the reasoning is absolutely clear. Just another small miracle of capitalism!

Re:Bye bye books

[LordVader717]

It isnt the Kansas state government thats screwing things up, its the local districts. I doubt they will be willing to write whole textbooks.

Another great idea from Mary Lou Jepsen

[davide marney]

Ignore the slashdot headline. Read Mary Lou Jepsen's blog, http://www.pixelqi.com/ [pixelqi.com] for the technical vision.

Mary Lou's vision of the next generation of display technology is:

- Daylight readable
- Color
- Fast enough for video
- Embedded Wireless
- Touchscreen
- Embedded solid-state storage
- Extremely low power (1 watt)
- Embedded battery
- Battery life measured in days, not hours
- Embedded processor

Mary Lou's point is that with a machine like this, who needs a heavy-weight OS? Just about everything one needs on the OS side would already be in the hardware.

These are clearly the ideas behind what Nicholas is describing.

Re:Bye bye books

[timbck2]

I'll put a plug in here for the Distributed Proofreading Project [pgdp.net] [www.pgdp.net], a volunteer, web-based organization that processes books that have gone into the public domain into e-texts suitable for Project Gutenberg.

It's a great project, and kinda fun (for geeks like us).

Re:Bye bye books

[mc_secular]

Actually, the corruption problems (kickbacks from vendors; revolving door hiring policies, etc) are way bigger and more real than creationism or spooky government control. I work in an urban school district, and while creationism might be the textbook problem in Kansas, we spend a ton of money on textbooks recommended by insiders who will later go on to work for the vendors. Needless to say, that $ could go towards other things. The XOXO would be awesome for our district.