Tablet Prototype Needs No External Power Supply

timothy writes "I'd like to see computing devices with no need for an external power supply — an e-book reader, a general knock-about PDA, a phone — all kinds of things. But there's a certain heart-strings appeal to such a computer intended as an educational tool for precisely those kind of places where basic infrastructure (like the provision of electricity) is a stumbling block. Perhaps built-in solar makes more sense, in more places, than the hand-cranked power the OLPC project ended up dropping from their laptops-for-kids program."

Best feature

[Anonymous Coward]

The best thing about built-in solar and no external supply is that it would force users to regulate their usage time.

Re:Induct power through the phone's Vibrator

[TheKidWho]

Seiko does something like this with their watches. However, afaik, they use a pendulum to gather the vibrational energy.

hrm

[Charliemopps]

I think this is rather typical of the western world. The idea that 3rd world countries do not have any access to electricity is just silly. I've recently been to the heart of Ethiopia to adopt a child and if there's one thing they had plenty of it was electricity. Not a lot of food, or clean water... Gas was $8 a liter and they were living in thatched roof, mud huts. But there was electricity all over the place. The rats nests of electrical wire strung, sometimes, from tree to tree was a testament to this. I have no idea how the entire country hadn't burst into flame already but their electrical grid did fail from time to time... but not nearly as often as you'd expect it to. I have to admit I have a lot of respect for whomever keeps the electricity flowing, they must be a McGuiver style genius.

What they did lack was Linux. Every PC I saw there (and there were very few) had a pirated copy of WinXP on it, with the WGA notice popping up constantly and was filled with Malware. Had their dialup modems been able to connect at any speed greater than 9k I would have fixed it for them but in the end I just gave up.

Re:hrm

[Charliemopps]

How ethnocentric of you. I'll bullet point it for your moronic ass:

- We used the largest agency in our state. They did a grand total of 35 local minority adoptions last year. The had a total of 5 "white baby" adoptions. People have abortions now, they don't put them up for adoption.
- My wife and I are of modest means and are in our late 30's. Adoptive parents have hundreds of prospective parents to chose from. They chose based on 2 things: Money and Youth. We have neither.
- International adoptions have limits based on the country you are adopting from. Some based on how long you've been married, others on how old you are, others on your race, etc... Due to these we qualified for 3 programs. Russia, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. The Russian program would have cost us over $100k, the Guatamalan program was shut down at the time (that happens quite frequently) Finally the Ethiopian program we qualified for, but my wife would age out in just a few years.
- Our options were wait in the "White baby" line, which I found completely racist. Wait in the minority line and have little, to no chance of finding a child and possibly age out of the international process, adopt internationally, or adopt a teenager.
- ALL babies in the US are adopted. Babies in other countries DIE if they aren't adopted. My son would be dead today if we or someone else hadn't adopted him and he's a great kid. He deserves to live.

So now, why don't you take your ignorant, uninformed opinions and shove them up your motherfucking ass.