[esocialaction] Fwd: Open Source Handheld Console and computer

[Leonie Ramondt]

from my lab colleagues

I am very tempted by a GP2X!  

http://liksang.com/info.php?category=126&products_id=7728
http://www.gbax.com/indexgp2x.html

This console is open source and comes with a free GCC/Linux/Windows SDK
(no doubt we could make the SDK work on OS X) allowing you to develop your
own games/apps/extra features for the console. For the price its a very
well specced device and emulates most handhelds and old consoles to boot!


and the $100 laptop getting ready to roll....

The chairman of a top technology firm is putting the finishing touches to
a prototype desktop PC that will sell for about £50. Nicholas Negroponte,
who is chair and founding member of MIT Media Labs, says his low-cost
computer will target people in the developing world, where it can be used
as a portable education tool. 

Negroponte said the device would have a 14-inch screen, AMD chips and run
on the Linux operating system. With support from a group of technology
giants such as Google and Motorola, he hopes that the PC costing $100
(£53) could eventually become as popular as mobile phones. 
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

The technology chairman acknowledges his own optimism, but said it was
possible to begin mass selling in the near future. 'Nokia make 200 million
cell phones a year, so for us to claim we're going to make 200 million
laptops is a big number, but we're not talking about doing it in three or
five years, we're talking about months,' he said. 

It is understood while sales of the desktop would only be acceptable on a
minimum rate of 1 million or more units; the venture is entirely
not-for-profit, apart from for the manufacturers of the system components.
The laptops are due to be shipped to education ministries in countries
such as China and Cambodia, but there is a plan to send them as a kit of
parts to reduce costs. 

Negroponte told the BBC there is a need to get the computer display down
to below $20, and therefore plans to 'rear project the image rather than
using an ordinary flat panel. The second trick is to get rid of the fat,'
he said of the prototype machine. 'If you can skinny it down you can gain
speed and ability to use smaller processors and slower memory.' 

The tech chairman already has experience in Cambodia, one of the expected
locations, where he set up two schools and equipped local children with
laptop PCs. He said that despite the wide and vigorous use of the
computers as a textbook, games machines or even a TV- only one model is
reported broken since their deployment three years ago. 

Negroponte, who is author of the bestselling tech guide 'Being Digital,'
said that in the past the locals who receive laptops tend to cherish them,
which benefit education as well as helping develop local neighbourhoods
and villages. 


ULTRALAB
www.ultralab.net

+44 (0)1245 252009
+44 (0)7970 571375
leonie at ultralab.net


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