The One Laptop Per Child shows their latest quad-core RK3188 Tablets, 7″ retailing for $149 and 10.1″ retailing for $199, those retail prices can subsidize the One Laptop Per Child foundation, bringing tablets and laptops to more children in the developing world as soon as possible. The XO Tablets ship with OLPC’s latest UI replacement for Android 4.4 kitkat. Parents can unlock that UI and use the tablets as Nexus-like unlocked tablets also. When are all the 1 Billion children in the world going to have full access to education using technology?
Giulia D’Amico, Vice President of Business Development at One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA) launches the OLPC XO Learning System, a user interface optimized for Children’s learning on Android Tablets. Vivitar is licencing XO Learning to launch their first OLPC XO Tablet in all WalMart stores in the USA by the end of Spring 2013. The initial Vivitar OLPC XO tablet features a 1.6Ghz dual-core (my guess Rockchip RK3066), 1024×600 screen, and the price is going to be very competitive (perhaps $99?), the target for WalMart is to reach all the Children in the USA in the next few months with this OLPC XO Tablet.
Every child has dreams and XO Learning directs the child’s passion, creativity and energy for these dreams into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Such dreams include “I want to be” an artist, a musician and a scientist. Each dream features a rich learning experience and applications, books, games and videos that allow children ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams and learn at the same time.
“The challenge in computing and education is to use the technology to develop new ways for children to learn. The rich content of the dreams allows the child’s natural passion to be directed into learning experiences,” said Giulia D’Amico, the lead designer of XO Learning. OLPCA teamed with the legendary designer Yves Behar of Fuse Project and his team to create the XO Learning user interface and cover.
The content in XO Learning has been curated and selected for age-appropriateness and learning value by OLPCA, in collaboration with Common Sense Media, the leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media. Common Sense Media offers more than 18,000 media ratings and reviews based on both robust educational research and child development guidelines. XO Learning also offers a full range of parental controls and user IDs for up to three children, a dashboard where the child or the parent can review usage, types of content and the skills the child is developing. Press a single icon and XO Learning switches from English to Spanish with all new content depending on the language. Additional languages will be available in future releases.
Giulia D’Amico, OLPC Vice President of Business Development, unboxes and talks about the all-new XO-4 Touch One Laptop Per Child laptop, featuring the new Marvell Armada PXA2128 dual-core 1.2Ghz 40nm processor, Marvell 8787 WiFi chip and the Neonode IR Touch touchscreen technology. The OLPC XO-4 Touch now also features a HDMI output. Currently still running Fedora Linux based Sugar OS, the OLPC is thinking to port Sugar to Android to use on all OLPC Laptop/Tablet devices during 2013. Thus far, OLPC has shipped over 2.8 Million Laptops to children in schools worldwide. Australia is going to be the first country to deploy over 55 thousand OLPC XO-4 Touch laptop/tablets in the months to come.
Marvell shows off the new OLPC XO-4 powered by the Marvell PXA2128 dual-core 1.2Ghz, Marvell 8787, and uses Neonode IR touch screen technology to thus add touch functionality to the One Laptop Per Child XO-4 laptop. Performance is thus increased and battery life further improved by using this latest 40nm process node Marvell ARM Processor in the upgrade.
The XO 4.0 is powered by the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128. Optimized by ARM v7 high-performance mobile processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up to 1.2GHz, the PXA2128 reduces power consumption by roughly half and enables an extended battery life thanks to a low-power mobile (LPM) processor.
Features of the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128 include:
Marvell optimized ARM®v7 dual High-Performance Mobile (HPM) processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up 1.2GHz
Architecturally matched ARMv7 Low-Power Mobile (LPM) processor optimized with Hybrid-SMP technology for extended battery life
Dual-channel independent memory controllers (LPDDR2 or DDR3/DDR3L)
Multiple power islands, dynamic voltage/frequency scaling, clock and power gating and standby modes
Powerful hardware accelerators for 2D/3D graphics, 1080p video, HiFi audio codecs and camera ISP
Dedicated security engine with hardware keys, secure memory and ARM® TrustZone® for secure boot and cryptography
Marvell’s Avastar 88W8787 delivers the wireless performance and range that will make the XO 4.0 a connected learning experience. Designed for both simultaneous and independent operation of the following:
IEEE 802.11a/g/b and 802.11n payload data rates for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed (HS) (also compliant with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR)
FM transmit and receive (digital encoder/decoder FM radio with RDS/RBDS)
The device supports the 802.11i security standard through implementation of the AES/CCMP, WEP with TKIP, AES/CMAC, and WLAN WAPI security mechanisms
Yves Behar talks about wearable computing, the Ouya project on Kickstarter, the upcoming OLPC XO Tablet and more. Design has the power to educate, inform, change society and create new opportunities where none existed. And in an environment of connectivity, design has another aim: It wants to be free. Hear why from the designer that brought you the Jawbone headset, the open-source game console Ouya, and many other groundbreaking product designs.
You can also watch his discussion with Om Malik at Gigaom Roadmap here:
The One Laptop Per Child project is going to release the Marvell Armada PXA2128 ARM Powered Laptop in Q1 2013, thus with Marvell’s new tri-core processor and touch screen support.
Neonode announced today a licencing agreement with the One Laptop Per Child project, turning a new version of the OLPC XO 1.75 Marvell Armada 600 ARM Powered Laptop into a tablet. Keeping the exact same form factor, keeping the exact same readability, keeping the same screen bezel form factor but adding in there the cheap Neonode IR based touch-screen technology. One Laptop Per Child thus far have shipped over 2.5 million Pixel Qi Laptops to Children in about 50 mostly developing countries worldwide. OLPC is still the biggest deployment of Pixel Qi screens worldwide, until someone as Google, Amazon or Apple comes in and gets it mass manufactured for commercial Tablet use. To keep the best possible readability, the least possible reflections in sunlight, using Neonode’s IR touch screen technology may be the best idea for the future of Tablets and Smartphones instead of capacitive.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – July 26, 2012 – Neonode Inc., (NASDAQ:NEON), the MultiSensing touch technology company, announced today a licensing agreement with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization that designs, manufactures, and distributes laptops to children worldwide, to embed Neonode’s MultiSensing™ touch technology into the next generation of OLPC’s XO-1.75 laptop, called the XO Touch. The innovative OLPC XO Touch 1.75 is a 7.5” combined laptop and tablet that has a Dual-Mode (sunlight-readable) TFT LCD display which rotates 180 degrees and folds flat over the keyboard for tablet/e-book or game mode.
Embedding the Neonode MultiSensing touch solution will allow OLPC to build a completely new type of rugged laptop-tablet that is extremely fast, cost efficient and energy saving, offering 100% visibility in bright sunlight. This is done without compromising the quality of the first-rate user experience, in full color, and with the highest resolution possible, i.e., 300 dpi. The Neonode MultiSensing technology consists of a state-of-the-art interactive touch user interface that includes gestures, multi-touch, and sweeps at an extraordinary scanning speed of 1000 Hz. Thanks to the energy efficient engineering, consuming just 2W, the XO Touch can be powered through alternative power generators like solar cells or even hand cranks. In addition, Neonode’s green engineering feature AlwaysON™, enables full gesture activated wake-up of the XO Touch when it is in sleep or off mode.
OLPC, created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab, sells the laptops in large quantities to governments and private institutions around the world, that in turn issue them to children or schools on a basis of one laptop per child.
“We are honored to be collaborating with OLPC to produce the XO Touch, a truly pioneering and sustainable device that shows the broad versatility of our technology. This market entry confirms that our MultiSensing technology makes it possible to create a top class product that is both affordable and extremely energy saving and still has a user interface that is radical enough to satisfy the uncompromising demands of knowledge and entertainment thirsty children” says Thomas Eriksson, CEO Neonode. “Our company philosophy is to contribute to a better and happier world, and we have the opportunity to do so by supporting OLPC’s mission”
“OLPC is proud to partner with an organization that shares its appreciation for innovative and transformative technology. Neonode’s expertise in engineering and design will turn the XO Touch, which combines the best features of laptop and tablet, into a next-level innovative machine.” said Rodrigo Arboleda Halaby Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at OLPC
See how awesome Neonode’s touch-screen technology looks outdoors in sunlight on a Pixel Qi tablet in this video I filmed in May 2011:
Here’s my video filmed with Neonode last February:
The One Laptop Per Child foundation presents the final design for the OLPC sub-$100 Tablet with a 8″ 1024×768 capacitive LCD touch screen, a touch screen optimized version of Sugar Linux. The thin screen protector doubles as a solar charger. Once countries order millions of these, the price can definitely be below $100.
Interview with Yves Behar, the designer of the OLPC XO-1, about design, about technology, business, non-profit, consumer electronics design philosophy.
Andy Frame is interviewing me on ARM’s official YouTube Channel about my ARM Powered devices used for video-blogging and live video streaming from consumer electronics trade-shows.
List of devices featured in this video:
– Headmounted Display: Kopin Golden-i, OMAP3530 based, provides SVGA screen at eye-level for real-time monitoring of an IRC chat for asking better questions
– Headmounted Logitech c910 Webcam connected to the ARM Powered One Laptop Per Child XO-1.75, Marvell Armada 618 based, live-streaming the webcam video feed to http://ustream.tv (an optimal Headmounted computer, maybe Motorola’s next version, can include the webcam and Android based software to live-stream the video to any live video streaming service built-in)
– Archos 101 G9, OMAP4430/OMAP4460 1Ghz to 1.5Ghz tablet, similar specs as in the Galaxy Nexus but in a 10.1″ tablet form factor. Starts $269 unlocked no contract for 8″. This is probably my favorite high-end tablet at the moment. I’ll post my full video-review of the Archos 101 G9 in the next few days.
– Archos 70 Internet Tablet, OMAP3630 1Ghz single core, released about 13 months ago. I use this tablet every day as 7″ tablets fit in any jacket pocket. Thus I mostly use this for checking emails, web browsing, watching video, playing games, using apps when I am outside. I am looking forward to upgrade this to a dual-core 7″ tablet.
– My $87 FG8 Android Smartphone, it’s my main smartphone for the past 7 months since I found it in Shenzhen China. It supports Dual-SIM cards (so I can use my home and foreign SIM numbers at the same time, or use voice SIM and data SIM at the same time), has a decent 3.5″ capacitive touch screen, uses the wildly popular in China Mediatek MTK6516 ARM9 processor. I’m looking forward upgrading this to a Galaxy Nexus (because I am eager to try Ice Cream Sandwich) or to a newer faster 3G-capable sub-$100 Android phone.
– ZTE MF61 T-Mobile USA 4G HSPA+ Hotspot, $50 for 3GB/month pre-paid, $141 for the device, no contract.
I got to play with the new Marvell Armada PXA618 powered One Laptop Per Child XO-1.75 laptop during the ARM Technology Conference. It seems to already be very stable and run very fast, although this is still a beta prototype, with beta software, OLPC, Red Hat, Marvell still have some work to do to optimize the software and complete the hardware so that it can be mass produced and shipped to children around the world starting early next year. Here in this video I walk around with it outdoors for a few minutes and show you some of how it looks like.
She’s the manager of Learning at One Laptop Per Child, she provides some insights into how the Laptops can be measured to be successfully deployed to children in schools around the world.
Daniel Drake is working on deploying OLPC all over the world. He provides technical support, training the local technical teams, how to repair laptops, how to setup the school servers and more.
Christoph Derndorfer is the managing editor at the unofficial http://olpcnews.com website and SJ Klein is the director of outreach, community content coordinator at One Laptop Per Child.
Craig Perue launched the OLPC Project in Jamaica, currently reaching two schools with about 95 laptops, but preparing to be able to bring all the Children of Jamaica access to this project if only they can find funding.
Nancie Severs started a small laptop deployment in a remote village in Vietnam. They currently are about to have 18 laptops in that village. Find more information at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Vietnam
David Cosimano presents the Lego for One Laptop Per Child project, it’s an app that works on the XO Laptop, that allows for the children to send commands to Lego motors and constructions to make those Lego’s do fun things, in some ways, this is a big like creating a Lego robot.
