Now who doesn't remember the first Eduwise? Intel's "Classmate PC" may have been visually akin to that of a kid's educational computer you could get at Toys 'R Us, but inside that 7-incher was a capable beast. The semiconductor giant wasn't about finished with it's "World Ahead" program, so it rolled out the next Classmate PC in line. Check out the spankin' new specs that could give ASUS Eee PC a run for its money - that is, when you hit the full story.

Whatever you've been up to with your Eee PC, we're pretty sure it wasn't just limited to typing and surfing the web. If you're a power user, you might have tested the full potential of the Eee PC in games and similarly demanding software. But sometimes you wished you could do more than just up clocks and mess with configurations, and we hear you. Apparently, ASUS heard you, too, and they've just released official SDK for the Eee PC.

Here's an interesting update on One Laptop Per Child (OLPC): Nicholas Negroponte has just announced that they will be running the Windows operating system for their XO laptop.

With their developments on-going, Negroponte added that they should be able to make the OS run in 60 days or less. Find out the details in the full article.

OLPC's former founding chief technology officer Dr. Mary Lou Jensen went ahead and made her own company, Pixel Qi, with one lofty aim: to provide ultra-affordable US$ 75 laptops to consumers. Sounds too good to be true? Check out the full article for details.

One Laptop Per Child's charitable program has come to a close with the coming of 2008, even though it's life was prolonged due to certain circumstances. With this, LAPTOP Magazine was able to interview the founder and chairman of the charitable institution, Nicholas Negroponte.

He gave his thoughts regarding the program. Details on the interview after the jump.

This time it's not a delay, but a deadline extension: in order to give people more time to participate in their Give One Get One Program, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC), has decided to extend their Give One Get One program up to December 31.

OLPC chairman and founder Nicholas Negroponte explained why OLPC decided to extend the original two-week deadline. Read more about this after the jump.

Well, all work and no play makes for a dull boy, so Electronic Arts is donating the original SimCity to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project - for each laptop for um... each child. The laptops themselves will begin shipping to the first batch of countries by the end of this year.

Mary Lou Jepson, Chief Technology Officer for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit organization, reported that an unforeseen delay in production would spell a shortage in the amount of laptop computers they would be giving away as part of their holiday program. Ms. Jepson said that last minute bugs were responsible for the delay, though she also mentioned that the bugs have already been resolved.

While production of OLPC's XO laptop was originally supposed to have begun last October, production has now been moved to November 12 instead. The result, Ms. Jepson said, is that OLPC's original plan to get laptops to South American kids by December may prove difficult. Nevertheless, Ms. Jepson expressed confidence that OLPC would still be able to produce 100,000 laptops this year, hardly a surprise when they have both Intel and Microsoft backing them up.

Incidentally, One Laptop Per Child is offering a Give 1 Get 1 promo that provides buyers with both a laptop of their own and another one for a poor child overseas. If you're interested in playing Santa to a less fortunate child somewhere, then go to OLPC website as indicated at the bottom of the source article. The OLPC foundation will begin accepting orders starting November 12.

After much hullabaloo and criticism for the One Laptop Per Child Project, production has finally started and the earliest batch should be ready by this October.

 

For those unfamiliar with the OLPC, it's a non-profit organization set out to revolutionize the standards and methods of education for children the world over. It particularly targets regions that can't afford the luxuries of a decent education. The project is just about what it's named after: to provide a laptop for each child. The laptop, dubbed XO, currently costs US$ 176 but is aimed to be sold for the initial goal of US $100.

Let's look at what it actually offers for the US$ 100:

• It's tough, set to survive in harsh conditions. It's case is waterproof and guess how they test it? They put the laptops in ovens at 50 degrees.
• It can be manually powered. That's right, it can be powered through solar energy, by a foot-pump or even by pull-string. You don't have a lot of sockets available in Nigeria.
  
• It has 1GB of memory using open-source software. You can't use it to make your office presentations, but think how many books you can fit in there.
• It has WiFi and a camera.

That's pretty good, and kids would certainly benefit from it greatly. The idea has been widely criticized, much for the goal that seems like an idealist's dream and for the seeming impossibility of such an undertaking. However, the dream has been realized and even Kofi Annan, ex-secretary general of the United Nations, commends the laptop as an "expression of global solidarity."

Finally having made peace with each other after allegations of Intel sabotaging One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation's efforts in providing very affordable laptops to the developing world, the major silicon chip mogul joined forces with the non-profit organization in its mission to make children in developing countries computer-literate.

Intel's Will Swope said that both Intel and OLPC have come to terms with what transpired in the past. He explained:

What happened in the past has happened. But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have a better impact for what we are both very eager to do, which is help kids around the world.

Indeed, with Intel being one of the leaders in computing technology backing up OLPC in its quest to give children easier access to laptops, people all over the world can be assured that their noble mission will be a success. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, says that, "Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children."

Intel now joins 11 other companies working for the One Laptop Per Child cause, which include Google and Red Hat, among others. The first line of laptops manufactured by OLPC, called the XO, are powered with another OLPC Foundation member and Intel's rival chip-maker AMD.

There are plans to use Intel chips in future laptop models, however. "I think we will end up with a family of products that run across a wide variety of needs," Walter Bender, head of software development for OLPC, said. "Intel will be part of that mix." They also plan to use software that will be compatible on both OLPC's XO laptops and Intel's Classmate series.

The XO laptops were sold to participating countries at US$ 176, but OLC will bring down the price to US$ 100 as previously intended. On the other hand, Intel expects that the US$ 200 price tag for their classmate will go down as well.