Woo Hoo again! The XO, a computer developed out of the MIT Media Lab )and intended for distribution to children in developing areas of the world), will be sold to the public by Amazon as part of an upcoming fundraising initiative. They were sold last year, but then the program was run by the developers themselves, and it didn't go well (it went ok, but not great I guess). I can't complain, though; ours was delivered, sans instructions or almost any documentation, on December 19 or 20. It's the coolest thing on the planet! It has a reader application so you can read e-books, it as a few (children's) games, with more available - free - on their site, it has several usb ports for use with other hardware, like iPods and a mouse, it has a video cam and speakers, and yes: WI-FI!!!! I've taken it on vacation several times and used it to access my email; what a great toy! Oh yeah, and the kids like it too.
Anyway, this was announced only today and for further information, you can look here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114103&intsrc=hm_list
or here:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150642/amazon_to_sell_olpc_xo_laptops_from_november.html
The way it worked last year was that you paid $400 and received one XO computer. Since the XO only costs $200, the other half of your payment is tax-deductible as it goes to send another computer to a child in a developing country. The one I gave last year is somewhere in Mongolia now. Cool, huh? And we got a tax deduction too! Rock on, gadget junkies!
No comments:
Post a Comment