OLPC XO-3 wordt een Android tablet

Het basisidee van One Laptop per Child (OLPC) was een nobel streven: alle kind­er­en ond­er­wijs gun­nen dank­zij een eigen laptop. Om te functioneren op zelfs de meeste barre locaties als jungles en woestijnen moest die laptop speciale hardware meekrijgen. De prijs mocht ook niet boven $100 komen.

Dat was 2006. Ondertussen is de eerste versie van OLPC geflopt, ligt de prijs nog steeds boven $200 en denkt men na over een tabletversie van XO-3 met lanceerdatum ergens in 2012.

Not only is OLPC is bringing the XO 3.0 to CES this week, it’s also getting ready to put the slate into production. It’s been designed by Yves Behar, has a rugged case, and can be charged via a hand crank or solar panel. In fact, OLPC’s CEO Ed McNierney told us that the two-watt tablet can get 10 minutes of runtime from one minute of cranking.

In terms of raw specs, the XO 3.0 has an 8-inch, 1024 x 768-resolution PixelQi display, which can be read indoors and out, a Marvell Armada PXA618 processor, 512MB of RAM, and will be configurable with either Android or Sugar operating systems. Sugar is OLPC’s own Linux operating system, which was designed specifically for kids.

OLPC will sell the tablets in bulk to countries who want to ensure their children have computers, and won’t produce units until orders come in.

Bron: OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children