

$10 Laptop is Huge Disappointment ($30 and not a laptop) - Retric
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/India-10-laptop-launch,6961.html

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radu_floricica
Hehehe, I had forgot completely about the Z80 computers. Let's put it this
way: _every_ home has a TV. Add mesh networking and you can actually wire-up
whole cities with 20 bucks devices. This is soo cool.

Ok, I'm not saying this is what it does. For what we know, it could be
completely crap. But, just imagine:

\- You have 30 dollar box - so you can put about as much brain-power in it as
a router.

\- For really poor countries, LCD screens are a waste when you have TV. So,
you just throw in a TV-out, which was cheap 20 years ago.

\- From my experience in wiring relatively "wild" places, if you have boxes
plugged in a power socket, the people will put the actual wire the place
themselves. That's if you don't have OLPC's mesh networking.

This stupid-looking white box could do most for developing countries then
anything else in the last 10 years. Except of course mobile phones.

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pavel_lishin
I wonder how many families in India have a TV.

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ramchip
I'm in Canada and I don't. I'll admit it's not the majority, though.

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cstejerean
I bet you have a computer though. I also didn't have a TV for about 6 months,
I never bothered to buy a new one after my last one broke. But I would guess
that anyone that doesn't have a computer already is VERY likely to own a TV.

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old-gregg
I don't understand why is it a _huge_ disappointment. My fascination with
computers started with an old programmable calculator my dad brought home
once. And its price was more than $10 which was still OK for Russia in early
90s.

I could have died of happiness back then if I could put my hands on a $30
worth of 2009 hardware in that little plastic box.

~~~
Retric
When I first heard about this I wondered what a 10$ laptop could be. I
pictured a TI-86 graphing calculator with network access, and a VGA or TV out.
Thinking back on what I did with my graphing calculator in high school I
pictured a whole new generation of software hackers vs code monkeys that might
start coming out of India and other developing nations.

The problem is from the picture it's missing the keys. So it's hard to think
of someone hacking a way on the thing when there is no way to input new data
while waiting for a bus. If we are thinking about a cheep computer then a
commodore 64 for 10$ could be easy to build but that's not what they are
doing.

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jodrellblank
Skeptics argued that it can't be $10, as even a screen would cost more than
that.

I wonder why a $10 laptop can't be, essentially, a wristwatch or a calculator
instead of an iPhone or a netbook?

Linux will run on almost anything, a membrane keyboard (even a mobile phone
12-key pad using SMS text style input), and a small amount of memory... could
you get enough hardware to run linux and have some kind of UI for ten bucks?

~~~
10ren
Digital photo keyrings are around $10: eg
[http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/2023270/art/vtec/digital-
pho...](http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/2023270/art/vtec/digital-photo-frame-
keyri.html)

One guy hacked one (different model), and found its CPU was a 6502 (same as
Apple 2e). I don't think linux runs on that, as no memory protection.
[http://spritesmods.com/?art=picframe&page=1](http://spritesmods.com/?art=picframe&page=1)

<http://picframe.spritesserver.nl/wiki/index.php/Main_Page>

Getting cheaper all the time - how long til it disrupts PC/windows/intel?

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cmars232
KFC has a cheap laptop too. I think its $4.

<http://kids.kfc.com/>

