One Laptop Per Child shows off wind-up tablet

Now here is a new tablet device being developed for children in the third world. However, the technology would be extremely useful for anyone who finds themselves in a situation with out access to power.

The device is designed for outdoor use with a rugged green rubber case and can be powered by a hand-crank, built-in solar panel, or regular power adaptor. Six minutes of cranking should produce two watts of power, allowing the low-energy tablet to run for an hour. Some models will also be equipped with a Pixel Qi screen, which provides a low-power, e-ink style display that can easily be viewed in bright sunlight.

www.newscientist.com...

Sounds like a great idea and something maybe worth investing in for anyone who finds themselves with no power.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Great find S&F as of late there has been some interesting finds to add to my bug out bag. The main thing i am lacking tho is the cash to invest in these resources I think i am going to start a list of none expensive items for survival.

Maybe it's just me but unless these things are cheaper than books the usefulness of a crank-powered eReader seems pretty damn limited.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Are you kidding?
These are more than a simple book.
Why children in remote areas with no technology will now be able to sustanibly, for awhile, read, learn pc language, get stock quotes and play solitare!
These devices will allow kids to free themselves if they are that one in a billion, but chances are is, they will just complicate childrens lives and make them a target for the black market.
Rather than making cheap laptops, maybe we should learn how to make better people first.
Just my 2 cents is all.

reply to post by g146541


True, they might be able to play solitaire. Running e-ink displays though kill the refresh rate so no video of any kind will work.

Im not sure about the stock quotes. They can crank their little reader but can they crank up a wireless connection? They can crank until their arm falls off and it isnt going to expand the range of wifi or pay the cellular data plan bill.

These things in practice seem less useful than a simple pad and pen.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Then we will simply have to install starbucks and mcdonalds in the rain forest!
Tell me you don't think it could happen.

The only way I can see this as being any personal use at all, is if you had your selection of survival books already down loaded onto it. No internet nor wifi would be a major drawback.

It's a neat concept. But, if we are in a shtf situation....just more weight to carry around.

I am surprised by how quickly people are dismissing the importance of the OLPC tablet as both important to children in the developing world and for individuals in a SHTF situation.

The OLPC Foundation has distributed over 2 million of the original version to children throughout the world. A low cost open-source platform designed for the education of children and the ability for them to connect to the wider world is a goal that should be lauded.

Here is a video, that while it is a PR piece, shows the original XO in the field.



As for the above comments stating that the laptop (or the new tablet) doesn't possess wifi, this simply isn't true. In fact, the OS is designed in such a way that even if an internet connection is not available, the laptop can easily connect to other XOs by creating an ad hoc peer to peer network.

As for the use of the XO or the new XO tablet in a SHTF situation, I am currently drafting an article that I have tentatively titled "The Best TEOTWAWKI Computer?" wherein I am discussing my thoughts on IT technology in a SHTF situation both from a strategic and tactical standpoint. I discuss the XO both in the vanilla original version and the new tablet that should be in production within the next couple of months. Once I post it, you will see that I don't think it is necessarily the best for preppers but it also shouldn't be discounted entirely.

My primary reason for drafting this post (which I hope to have finished today or tomorrow) is that I have seen many many many articles on prepping for food, water, weapons, shelter, energy, etc., but almost no discussion on computers and other IT related issues.

More on topic, I have played around with a few XO and while it certainly fair to criticize some of the actions and unactions of the Foundation, their principals are in the right place and they are doing good work. There is no doubt that they have helped numerous kids.

reply to post by LordOfArcadia


The device being wifi capable doesnt change the fact that access points are relatively rare.

An ad-hoc network is good for........?

I can take a dozen laptops into the woods, connect them all, then...........what?

Maybe I'm jaded as I service legions of allegedly "educational" computers, tablets, laptops and mobiles and all I ever see them used for is facebook and porn.

Their hearts might be in the right place but those gizmos are being made from some horrible and toxic stuff that costs lives and slaves to mine and then their just dumped in third world landfills or "recycled" for their valuable metals through child labor and toxic chemical reduction.

So one village gets a few hundred machines that dont do much more than a pen and paper can do and a neighboring village gets to break them down for any metal they can sell a year later.

Sometimes I dont feel like these charities with their good causes and intentions really ever stop to take stock in what they're doing. Likewise maybe I'm not seeing the big picture either.

Maybe, looking at educational value, these kids can learn setting up networks and some rudimentary tech troubleshooting skills. Then what? Get jobs at the local Best Buy Geek Squad?

Good on them for working to forward something they believe in. I sincerely hope it changes many lives for the better. I'm just not going to hold my breath waiting for it.

ETA: Im looking in news services to see what sorts of things these machines are being used for, so far:
Rwanda kids make a movie
Ugandan kids make a map
Seniors steal 13 laptops

Even at this basic level they get to participate in the wonderful world of "tech hysteria" with fears of internet addiction and violent video games corrupting young minds: allafrica.com...

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Ignoring the risk of driving this thread way off topic, I think you are not recognizing the profound impact computers, and more specifically the internet, has had and will continue to have on humanity. This is my own personal conclusion, but I believe history will show (200 years or more from now) that the advent of the internet has transformed humanity more than any other innovation since the agricultural revolution. Within a relatively short period of time (anthropologically speaking) we are seeing the seeds of our species building communities in completely novel ways.

Even your personal anecdote of finding that most of the computers you service are primarily used for Facebook or porn is an example of the shift in how humans are interacting. A more localized example is ATS. There is no doubt that ATS fits the sociological definition of community.

Not only is the concept of a community a "construct" (model), it is a "sociological construct." It is a set of interactions, human behaviours that have meaning and expectations between its members.

50 years ago, this construct was almost exclusively restricted by geographic proximity. Today, I would be willing to wager that not a insignificant number of ATS members would identify more with the ATS community than with the people living in their subdivision. What the internet has done is completely transform the way individuals CAN form communities. I am not going to argue the merits of whether this is a transformation for the better or worse, but it is a transformative change.

In an attempt to bring this idea back on topic, what the OLPC is attempting to do is help bridge the gap between those areas that are falling further and further behind the 1st world when it comes to this sociological change. The world is speeding up. While my gut usually says talk of the Singularity reeks of nothing more than a "Nerd Rapture" the facts remain that Kurzweil and others have been mostly right so far in their predictions.

To paraphrase Bachmann Turner Overdrive, "We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet."


P.S. There must be some kind of repulsive reaction to the ideas I am presenting since I am the only person that hasn't received a star in this thread. It doesn't bother me but I must admit that I find it surprising. Maybe there is a subconscious resistance to the creep of technological change to our society? Just an interesting observation.

Amazing idea.

Who's going to pay for the 3G data plan tho?

i think the detractor are missing the point the laptops are loaded with hundreds of books its like a village having a library with thousands of books for the people i guess ur saying library's are worthless also.

Originally posted by pez1975
i think the detractor are missing the point the laptops are loaded with hundreds of books its like a village having a library with thousands of books for the people i guess ur saying library's are worthless also.

edit on 11-1-2012 by pez1975 because: (no reason given)

Even better than the books pre-loaded on the XO are the 36000 books available for free through Project Gutenberg. Which information pales in comparison to the troves found on the internet at large.

I don't understand you guys who are saying these would be of no use! You can fit a whole freaking library of SD cards in a little pouch, that can hold a HUGE library of books for entertainment and reference.

If you really don't think having medical books, survival books, wild edibles databases, etc all in the palm of your hand would be useful...I'm not sure why.

I think this would be great, if for no other reason than the search feature. If someone is dying in front of you, do you want to be flipping through a giant brick-thick book for answers, or typing symptoms into a search bar and instantly going to the relevant pages?