It’s time to take the old meme of $100 computing seriously.

There has been a steady rise in honest-to-goodness $100 computers over the past year, starting with the 7″ Cherrypal Africa (which does indeed exist and can be yours for $100 — we bought 2 which arrived in our Cambridge office, and happily tested them out) and Marvell’s Moby (projected at $99, but the design may change), and 5 new Android devices VIA expects to see come out for between $100 and $150 next year.

At some point, smartphone manufacturers will sit up and take notice — hardware manufacturing is becoming extremely cheap, and it’s worth consolidating further on a few really good designs and interchangeable parts.

What is your favorite sub-$100 piece of technology, present or future? For education in particular: what do you wish you had with you at home or in the class?