The $100 Laptop! (Looks Good!)

[poy 0]

MIT made $100 laptops for poor countries, here is the specs:

 

The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3X the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. This is just great news to hear that other less fortunate countries will have a chance to have a computer and need no powersource to plug it in!

 

 

[abhiram 0]

Well... how useful it really will be leaves to be seen. I remember seeing a program on National Geographic (or was it Discovery?) about a guy who designed a radio which would run by winding it up. Once you wind it up, it powers a dynamo which generates electricity to keep the radio running. This was then mass-produced and was sold quite well in Africa. Maybe this is also meant to be the same. But, unfortunately, I think some amount of knowledge or training is required to use a computer. Besides, it's way easier to troubleshoot a radio for problems than a computer. Frankly, I don't see how useful a laptop is when people need food to eat and water to drink. If it's aimed at regular people, I doubt it's of any use at all.

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

If you think about it, with little training they could be invaluable to some regions. I mean, the sheer amount of education available through them would be much more cost effective then buying books. For example, instead of buying numerous old textbooks, obtain (pay or freely) some information and store it on a single computer with an HD and the others can simply access the information whenever they were at school or whatever. While they would still require an initial investment, over time it would be cheaper then buying books, penicls, text books, etc. and offer much more then those resources would. 1 computer and a student is set until it stops working.That having been said I'm still skeptical. The theory behind it is very sound. Computers for everyone...and I think that it is a worthy goal and could have some good impacts but whether or not it is a success remains to be seen,

[iGuest 3]

it looks like a play laptop, and looks like only one usb port

[justjoey 0]

the kids need health and food and drink and shelter before they can use a laptop, what use is a laptop to a starving kid! The debts ned to be lifted, these coutnrie need to be agiven room to breath and room to deveop. If this laptop was bought forward when they had health and money, ok cool. But this is just jumping the gun abit.

[RoKeR 0]

These guys could have built Desktops rather than Laptops. This would have cost them much less and they could design them with better specs... anyways.. it's their life.. their probs... they decide.!

[illini319 0]

While it is certainly a technological/economical feat to combine all these nice features in a 'somewhat' affordable computer... Do we really think that there is a starving third world child out there that is thinking, at this very moment,"Man, I'm hungry. I could really use a nice laptop right now." Let's not all forget what is most important. Let's deal with that first before attempting the luxuries of life.

[finaldesign1405241487 0]

I've read about this 100$ laptop in one magazine (can't remember name now), and I think it's a pretty good idea to build. I mean, purpose of this laptop is to aim on people that are not familiar with computers and technology too much. It will be like the calculator now - everyone have it, and it's a common and regular stuff to have.