
One Laptop Per Child launches XO tablet via Walmart - scholia
http://www.zdnet.com/one-laptop-per-child-launches-xo-tablet-via-walmart-7000018175/
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jessaustin
I purchased a laptop from OLPC years ago, as part of a buy-two-to-get-one
deal. I eventually gave it to my niece. She got it when she was three. She's
seven now, and still loves it and carries it around everywhere. Neither I nor
her parents really understand all of the things she does on it (actually the
interface seems quite confusing to me), but apparently it's a good design for
certain young children. (I hate to play favorites with other nieces and
nephews, but most of them would have destroyed this device long ago, like they
destroy every smartphone they can get their mitts on.)

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columbo
As someone working on a hardware project one of the biggest challenges we have
is finding a tablet that is cheap, mass-produceable, and rugged enough to
stand up for months/years of abuse. This _might_ do the trick.

Our only options so far has been very cheap knock-off tablets and the
questionable long term viability of the pengpod.

It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be
2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but have a touch-screen, metal body, usb ports,
screw placements for mounting, and easy to access replacable hardware.

~~~
Zigurd
> _It 's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might
> be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but..._

That's very difficult criteria. You might find cases engineered for industrial
environments, but there is only so much stuff you can put over the screen
before the touch sensor stops working. And if that is the "weakest link"
what's the value of having a back panel you can use to drive nails?

~~~
columbo
Yeah the touch-screen has been a problem - especially when trying to give
something out to the general unwashed public. No amount of protective cover
would have helped us when some guy or gal decided to punch one of the screens
in a few months back. Meh.

By 2" thick I was talking more about a box with the touch-screen in the front
with a simple plastic protective layer and a hinge you can flip open to reveal
the internals. That way replacing the screen is just a dispatch-call. Or
something to that effect.

Basically something that can be mounted semi-permanently, the same way as a
television screen, and with the most common parts (the screen) accessible by a
technician so they can be replaced when broken.

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Zigurd
If it's a public kiosk-like environment, especially if Google Play and related
apps are not important, I would suggest using an inexpensive Android
compatible "dev" board and spec'ing the display separately. You need to be
careful about driver support. If 2" is really acceptable, you should be able
to find stuff that will be fist-proof.

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future_grad
Specifications([http://one.laptop.org/about/xo-
tablet](http://one.laptop.org/about/xo-tablet)):

    
    
        1.6 GHz Dual-Core Processor
        1 GB RAM
        8 GB Storage
        7" 1024x600 screen
        Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
        1.3 MP Front & 2.0 MP Rear cameras
        Headset, MicroSD, Micro USB, and Mini HDMI I/O ports
        Android 4.1 operating system
        Built-in parental controls

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limmeau
According to [http://xo-learning.org/family-oriented-xo-tablet-debuts-
at-w...](http://xo-learning.org/family-oriented-xo-tablet-debuts-at-walmart-
for-149/) , this is essentially a 7" Android tablet with a separate
educational UI with teaching programs. I wonder if that separate UI could be
bundled as an app, eliminating the need for special XO hardware?

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simonh
Well, supporting a single target hardware device means you can hugely
streamline your development and testing processes. You can also guarantee
peripheral specifications and availability to applications (camera,
microphone, speakers, motion sensors, etc). All of that leads to significantly
reduced costs, which are a big deal to an ambitious shoestring project like
this. I'm sure it would be possible, with sufficient effort, but what would
their motivation be?

This project funds itself by selling the hardware. Releasing the software as a
free app would kill their revenue stream, and hence take away the project's
air supply. Releasing it as a paid app would present all sorts of logistical
problems regarding distribution and payment collection given the intended user
base in the third world.

It's important that they have a lean development process, but it's equally
important that they have a lean and robust revenue and deployment model.

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chromaton
Maybe I missed something. I thought this project was supposed to be all open
source. That way kids could learn about the tablet itself, all the way down to
the source code and hardware specification level.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
> I thought this project was supposed to be all open source.

Ancient history.

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Shivetya
I have been on their site, [http://xo-learning.org/sample-
page/tablet-2/](http://xo-learning.org/sample-page/tablet-2/) , but I am
finding difficulty in determining the suggested ages of the children whom will
use it?

I have quite a few relatives in the six to twelve year age range and I am
pretty sure elementary age kids would be fine with it, not so sure about
middle school.

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jellicle
The Nexus 7 is already a great, durable, child-friendly tablet, and it has
been available to anyone for years. It's exactly the right size for small
hands and arms. Install anything you like on it.

For a more learning-oriented kidputer, the Leappad is available. Kind of
expensive with every app/game costing $20 extra, but oh well.

OLPC's products have never been available for consumer sale - this is the
first one. They've been around for eight years. And they've finally launched
their first product, which is going to be sold exclusively through Walmart, a
company people should have philosophical objections to buying from, and which
is known for squeezing their suppliers to death. I don't see any mention of
the specs which means to me that "underpowered" is the right word to use.

If you want to buy an underpowered, crappy, no-updates Android tablet, you can
get one nearly for free from DealExtreme. They'll sell you one for $60 with
free shipping. I'm not even making that up.

I had such high hopes for OLPC when it was first started. But they've lost the
track, gone off the rails, whatever metaphor you want to use.

~~~
jdboyd
"The Nexus 7 is already a great, durable, child-friendly tablet, and it has
been available to anyone for years. "

Actually, the release date was July 13, 2012.

~~~
aptwebapps
Well, slightly more than one year, anyway. Or maybe that was in tech-years.

~~~
scholia
Unfortunately, the Nexus 7 bricks itself if you don't keep it charged.

I've tried several unbricking ideas from the web, but none of them has
worked....

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mhurron
Isn't $150 a little high for the intended use of the One Laptop per Child aim?

If I had a kid, I have a feeling they would be beyond the target ages for this
before I would give them a $150 device.

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robg
What would you give them instead? $150 is certainly better than an iPad and
even better than an iTouch, even at used prices.

~~~
venomsnake
Just today I bought 7 inch android tablet Prestigio with dual core cpu @
1.5GHz and 1024x600 resolution for 120$ ... with 20% VAT and 5% customs tax
included in that price. I bought it for my girlfriend's kid. So 150 looks
steep indeed.

On a side note - does anyone knows of a good educational suite for 6yo - basic
math, basic english, etc?

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salgernon
You should check out the software include in the XO tablet. I suspect it might
suit your needs.

~~~
venomsnake
My googlefu may be rusty but it seems it is either not released yet or bundled
only with the tablet.

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jamii
The software is open source and can be found at
[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Downloads](http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Downloads)

[EDIT] Retracted. This tablet is using entirely different software from the
original sugar suite.

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wrath
I've been tempted to buy a nexus 7 for my kids for a while, but at the same
time I've been reluctant for several reasons. Since the XO seems to come
installed with many productivity apps I may look at it instead. Not to mention
that it looks a bit more durable compared to the nexus.

All that said, I wonder how quickly it will be available outside the US.
Walmart.com doesn't ship to canada on many items.

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nutmeg
A friend's daughter has a Kurio Android tablet, which seems very similar to
this.

[http://www.kurioworld.com/us/features.php#techspecs](http://www.kurioworld.com/us/features.php#techspecs)

I'd really like to see any technical specs on this, but can't seem to find any
on [http://www.xotablet.com/](http://www.xotablet.com/) or
[http://www.vivitar.com/](http://www.vivitar.com/)

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samuel
What happened to the b&w-sunreadable screen?

~~~
H3g3m0n
I wonder if it still has the mesh networking too.

They also totally ditched their OS.

This just seems like a stock tablet with some apps preinstalled. The device is
a software/design project more than a hardware one now.

Also it seems like they are trying to push the content to the kids rather than
letting them explore themselves. The problem with the content push is now you
have to provide all the content. You have just created a replacement for a
text book. They can still fire up a webbrowser or dig through layers to what
they want but it's not the same.

Without a keyboard it is going to be massively less productive. Say goodbye to
teaching them programming skills. Kids learning to program on a tablet will
probably begin to hate the entire concept as they are fighting a sluggish
interface. I love reading comics on my tablet, but I still use a
keyboard/mouse device for browsing. A plug in keyboard might help but it isn't
enough since its a hassle (Also will they be providing keyboards to students?)

I don't think they are going to be able to fire up a copy of GCC (I remember
having a go at C++ when I was like 12, my main problem was getting a compiler
and tutorials since I had no internets, now days it should be easy). I learned
heaps with qbasic since that was just sitting on my system.

imho tablets are largely hype/marketing. They are a massive growth industry
right now because it's a new market and everyone is trying to grab the market
share but we aren't going to see desktops/laptops replaced, just augmented.
The tablet market will likely die back when it has reached saturation. They
have basically 'perfected' the tablet already. People won't really need to
upgrade their current generation devices, they already have fast, smooth web
browsing, gigs of ram, retina displays and so on. I don't see a new version of
Android being released over the next 5 years that will no longer be compatible
with the hardware out now (although manufactures might not release the updates
for those devices) other then a few gimick hardware features things like NFC
or that TV streaming stuff which will be desirable to some but not all. About
the only thing would be more storage space which will also reach a point when
its enough for most people. Then it will mainly be people replacing broken
devices or just needing the latest. Maybe we will see a glassed free 3D
display and then a retina version or it. Maybe they will make a transparent
one.

In any case the XO project isn't supposed to be about making a product to
sell. It seems like it's been taken over by designers.

Maybe for the XO-4, they will do something like a dockable tablet. With
Ubuntu's Mir based Android hybrid. You would get the productivity of a
keyboard and the power of a full desktop OS under the hood. They could also
bring back their Sugar stuff.

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protomyth
Are any of the original laptop's programming tools available for the tablet?

