Anje recently wrote about her travels and fieldwork in Peru, and presented the report to DIGETE, one of the administrators of the Peru’s OLPC program. She was kind enough to ensure that both Spanish and English versions of her work were available online. It is a balanced reflection on the program, with some insights to reward the patient reader. This is not her final report, and I hope to see more from her before she moves on.
Community-organized Haitian EduTech Dinner, Tuesday night 5PM SHARP: at OLPC HQ.
Please join! Best of all, Boston’s Haitian Coalition will
join our OLPC_Boston monthly community meeting to discuss certain very intriguing next-gen EduTech plans (OLPC, Sugar,http://open1to1.org etc) emerging in Somerville Massachusetts, as well as the 400 OLPC laptops shipping to Haiti shortly,
with Waveplace’s own Beth Santos flying in to Boston en route to Haiti.
And Marina’s blog (saigonolpc.wordpress.com) is just 1 of many now summarizing other incredible volunteering-is-NOT-a-spectator-sport work on Planet OLPC.
We dearly hope to see you Tuesday — with 9+ tangentially related trips in February alone, among some very connected AND deeply dedicated Friends education/tech thinkers and doers in Boston here, it’s clear there will be tons to discuss! Dinner is being prepared; optionally feel free to bring desserts/drinks if you can and RSVP.
Then join us taking the next step in this critical educational design challenge — 1 humble country at a time 
Nicholas talked about Schools without schools and children as agents of change at TEDx Brussels in 2010. Children can grow up with a wealth of learning and skills that we cannot imagine today.
Late last year, an XO-1 and XO-1.5 were run through a “Fast and Smart Challenge” and videotaped both engaged in some desktop-swapping youtube-playing adventures, on what seems to be a semi-intelligent mat with built-in timer.
They show side-by-side boot and activity launching, and note improved wireless experience on the new machines. The whole recording is a bit rocky but charming; the XOs had clearly been used and customized.
Pixel Qi confirmed last week that they are working on a 9.7″ screen for larger tablets, and blogged about their experience at CES. Charbax as usual has some great videos of both them and our own Ed McNierney. [for once he couldn't decide whether to post the latter interview on his ARM-Watch site or his OLPC TV site...]
And according to one observer, Pixel Qi’s demonstrations at CES were “all sorts of impressive, effectively cementing its reputation as an E-Ink alternative with all of the advantages and none of the setbacks “.
OLPC XO-1 users who are running software builds 650-656 (from 2007 and early 2008) are encountering keyboard/touchpad freezing this month. Some XOs became frozen thanks to a bug in an early version of the firmware. If you encountered this, your XO should start as usual, but with the keyboard and mouse not working.
Here is a quick fix to update your firmware: you’ll need another computer with Internet access, a USB thumb drive (memory stick), a charger and wall outlet, and 10 minutes. (Alternately, you can send your XO to a community repair center – see the comments.)
It is also strongly recommended that you
as the recent releases have many new activities and other improvements.
The XO-1.75 prototypes are currently under development, and the laptops will enter mass production this summer. Some touchscreen prototypes are being made as well, but the primary model will not have touch. Thanks to Armada 610 ARM processors and improved Pixel Qi screens, the 1.75 will draw roughly half the power of the 1.5, while keeping roughly the same form factor and most of the existing industrial design.
These will be our first models with ARM chips, which we plan to use in our tablet designs later this year. The 1.75 should be roughly $20 cheaper to manufacture, than the 1.5, but the real drop in cost will come for rural deployments, as a result of the lessened power requirements. Not quite in the human-powerable range yet, but getting there.
The XO-3 will have a larger 9.7″ screen when it comes out in 2012, and will shave off another significant fraction of power – up to another full Watt.
Happy new year to the OLPC community around the world! Thank you for your part in everything we have accomplished in 2010 – from our new initiatives in Gaza, Argentina, and Nicaragua to expansion of work in Peru, Uruguay, Rwanda, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Haiti.
Special thanks to everyone who has worked on the newest iterations of Sugar, and those who put on the grassroots events over the past year in the Virgin Islands, San Francisco, and Uruguay — all of which has helped connect some of our smaller projects and realize some of their educational dreams in new activities. We’ve launched our new website for the year, highlighting the stories from these and other deployments; this blog may merge into that site as well (and you can see blog posts appearing in its News section).
