OLPC's XO-1.75 Laptop To Have a Multitouch Screen 171
angry tapir writes "One Laptop Per Child has revealed it is adding a multitouch screen to the upcoming XO-1.75 laptop and is modifying software to take advantage of the new hardware. The 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 will also add a multitouch screen on the next-generation XO-3 tablet, which is due to ship in 2012. Fedora will continue to be the base Linux distribution for XO-1.75 as the laptop changes from the x86 to Arm architecture."
Yes, but (Score:4, Interesting)
Patent Problems? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Let them eat laptops! (Score:0, Interesting)
Computers have nothing to do with a successful general education. I imagine if the proper research was done a negative impact would be discovered.
They are just a way to waste time and resources.
Therefore, this is a not so secret scheme to keep the third world the third world.
Considering the resources being wasted this is all very cruel.
Re:Let them eat laptops! (Score:4, Interesting)
It's easy to say that when your only experience is of a western education. Why don't you come to a third world country and see for yourself. The teachers don't know the subjects they're teaching, they can't get good teachers because no one wants to live there, the students books are all different in the class room because they are all donations.
Spending money of computers as reading devices IS the right decision here. It allows everyone to share the same material, it allows media to be played so kids can learn new languages even if the teacher doesn't know himself.
Re:Patent Problems? (Score:1, Interesting)
If I were interested in Multi-touch, and concerned about the patents...I'd welcome OLPC using them, and forcing Apple, or other companies to sue them.
That'd be a nasty choice. Sue a charity or...not be profiteering thugs.
Re:How many (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, the move to a Via x86 chip was motivated also by cost cuts (and few other hardware changes due to them too, certainly - simplified touchpad for example); initially used hardware simply wasn't getting cheaper anymore. It's like with EDO - SDR - DDR - DDR2- DDR3 memory.
Move to ARM will also surely cut costs. Tablet has a potential of cutting them, too - much simpler mechanically, for starters.
Re:Patent Problems? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd love to get a reliable source on that. I always imagine Apple as being evil as sin (ha!); it would do a lot for my impression of the company to believe that they were willing to work on something for nothing (OS X + PostScript GUI on a 433mhz Geode?).
Nearest source I could find was here [olpcnews.com] (which, in turn, cites this [reuters.com], but I can't find the quote on Reuters, so whatever.):
... which sounds more like the Apple we all know and love.
Thanks in advance
Re:Touchscreen this, multitouch that... (Score:4, Interesting)
Monitor? What? These things are convertable laptops, ffs. The minute I got my 1.0, I wished it had a touchscreen, as that would make tablet mode a *lot* more useful.
one thing that amazes me (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How many (Score:3, Interesting)
So actually the project is a succes. I always thought it was a total failure due to the constant bickering, the interference of MS, etc. I stand corrected. Thanks you.
Re:How many (Score:4, Interesting)
No. The OLPC project took a lot of flack from the uninformed over the decision to make the entire stack open source, but this is one of the reasons. The project only has to focus on the new design, because anyone can make the old design due to its open nature. I was at a talk a couple of years ago by Alan Kay, who said that the nice thing about being a non-profit is that they want people to steal their ideas. If a country wants to have a few million of XO-1 laptops, they have the designs. If they have the manufacturing capability, they can build them themselves. If they don't, they can send the designs to a factory in India or China to do it. If they have the required local talent, they can tweak the designs and improve them.
One of the goals of the OLPC project is that it should become self sustaining. They want future generations of the laptops to be designed and built by people who learned about the technology from playing with the earlier generations.
Multitouch is great, but where's the stylus input? (Score:3, Interesting)
For a long time, I have wanted a tablet like device which I can write/draw on, and use with pen-optimized input systems like ShapeWriter or HexInput. (Though ideally, I would like to write one myself...)
Is there any such hardware? As far as I am aware, it should be possible to offer multitouch and a stylus in the same device. The lack of both makes such devices much less compelling.