Tuesday, May 20, 2008

OLPC unveils plans for XO laptop 2.0

By Mass High Tech

One Laptop per Child reports it is working on the next generation of its XO laptop, a smaller model with touchscreen controls. 
    
The new model is a touchscreen tablet that can be folded for use as a paper-book-mimicking e-book or a standard-shaped laptop with a touchscreen keyboard.

The XO-2.0 is planned to be available in 2010. XO-1.5 will be released in the spring of 2009 with the same design as the first generation but with fewer physical parts and at a lower cost than the first version. The display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded earlier this year by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of OLPC.

The new, smaller laptop, intended to run on 1 watt of electricity, also has a new target price: $75, according to the Cambridge-based nonprofit.

Last week, OLPC partnered with Microsoft Corp. to make Windows XP available on its XO laptop. The same day, former OLPC president Walter Bender announced he had founded a new nonprofit, Sugar Labs Foundation, to develop the XO’s original interface, called Sugar.