"Disband the United Nations and start over again," the MIT professor and founder of the One Laptop per Child Association said in response to a question about how to secure consumer data in an increasingly globalized world.
Nicholas Negroponte: The Physical Book Is Dead In 5 Years
"Think about it. Turning pages. How ridiculous that is. It’s just unbelievably dumb," said Nicholas Negroponte, describing the benefits of reading in bed on a tablet, and getting a big laugh from the audience
It was Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who first wrote that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and while it would be churlish to put the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative in that category, it is nonetheless fair to say that the scheme has not been the huge success that it's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, so earnestly hoped it would be...
But as times, trends and technologies change, the OLPC initiative is changing as well, thanks to a US$5.6 million grant from the microchip manufacturer and OLPC evangelist, Marvell. The money will be used to fund the development of a tablet version of the XO.
This, the XO-3, so named because is the third OLPC device, will be based on Marvell's own "Moby" device that sells for $99.The XO is the original OLPC laptop while the XO-2 was an ambitious hybrid laptop cum electronic book that got no further than the design stage before being canned.
The XO-3 is a slate-type device with an 8.5 x 11 inch touchscreen, water-resistant casing and inductive charging system that will provide long battery life and integrated WiFi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity. The OLPC insists that the XO-3 will come in at under $100 per machine and the first working prototypes are expected to be demonstrated in a few months time, at the CES in Las Vegas in January 2011...