TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ Category

By Chris Meadows

Just a couple days ago I wrote about an article wondering if the iPad had “preemptively killed the US tablet market”. It would seem at least one person believes the answer is no, because CNet is running a brief piece by Brooke Crothers predicting that a lot of media pads are on the way, and listing some of the features they might have.

What I take from all this is that prognostication is really anybody’s guess.

And speaking of prognostication, fresh from offering his $100 tablet expertise to the makers of India’s announced $35 tablet, Nicholas Negroponte has confidently predicted the death of the paper book within five years.

“People will say ‘no, no, no’ — of course you like your libraries,” Negroponte said. But he cited the report that sales of books for the Kindle recently surpassed sales of hardcover books.

Oh, well, if he says it, then it must be true.

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By Chris Meadows

Good Gear Guide posts an IDG News Service report that Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, has sent a note congratulating the Indian government on the $35 tablet it announced a few days ago, and has also offered India full access to OLPC hardware and software technology to help in manufacturing it.

I can certainly understand why Negroponte made the offer. The goal of furthering world-wide education with cheap computers works whether we’re talking about a $100 XO tablet, or a $35 device from India.

Still, I can’t help finding it a little amusing that the manufacturers of a (still possibly vaporous) $35 device are being offered help and assistance from someone who hasn’t been able to meet any of his own pricing goals over the last few years, and whose cheapest effort to date will end up costing three times as much.

(Found via Slashdot.)

By Chris Meadows

A couple of days ago, Paul mentioned the skeptical reaction that a new $35 tablet device from India is getting within India, but as far as I can tell we never actually went into any detail about the device itself.

According to a post from our sister blog Gadgetell (linking an article at The Guardian), the device will be Linux powered and come with 2 GB of memory, video conferencing capability, and a USB port. It can run on solar panel, battery, or AC power.

PC World also has an article looking at the device, and an editorial pointing out that even if it doesn’t run apps for iPad or Windows, the increasing importance of the cloud means that it will still be quite useful even with just a web browser.

Something that I’ve not seen mentioned in most of the other sources I’ve seen reporting this story (though Wired does mention it briefly) is that this is hardly the first super-low-budget laptop computer planned to come out of India—and if it materializes, it will be the first actually to do so.

Back in 2007, in reaction to the $100 OLPC XO-1 project (which they felt still cost too much), an Indian government ministry announced plans to make a laptop for the unbelievable price of $10 (though total costs were estimated at $47 at that point). In 2008, it was announced that it would start at $100, instead. In January 2009, they announced that it would definitely be $10 again (though at that point it was costing them $20)…then in April, 2009, India ordered 250,000 of those “too expensive” XO-1s instead.

It is not clear whether the $35 tablet is being developed by the same people responsible for the “$10 laptop”. Either way, if they are actually able to deliver something more than vapor at that price point, it could still teach the OLPC group and its $99 Marvell Moby tablet a thing or two.

By Chris Meadows

Mike Lee at OLPC News has a photo and video comparison of the 4-year-old OLPC XO-1’s display, and the new Pixel Qi display based on the same technology.

Lee said that he bought the $275 10.1” display panel when MakerShed had them available (they sold out fast) and put it in the Acer Aspire One netbook he had bought the month before for $199. (It seems a bit odd to me to pay more for a screen than for the netbook you swap it into, but on the other hand it does have some advantages.)

Although the new display shows “better contrast, darker blacks, and a cooler tone” than the OLPC’s display:

The XO’s dual mode screen still rules in terms of pixel resolution at 1200 x 900 vs. the Acer’s 1024 x 600. It was amazing to see Windows 7, Amazon Kindle software, the New York Times web site and a QuickTime video in direct sunlight. Shades of gray and some color tints are visible. Besides the XOs and e-ink based Kindle ereaders, no other color screen device I own can be seen as clearly in sunlight. Not even the famed iPad. In the video, you can see that at a certain angle where line of sight and sun are aligned, the new Pixel Qi screen glows as if backlit!

I have to admit, it would be nice to be able to read and use my laptop in direct sunlight like that. I wonder when netbooks and laptops will begin coming with this screen as standard, rather than an aftermarket replacement?

(Found via Slashdot. Video below the jump.)

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By Chris Meadows

And speaking of school libraries, NPR reported a few days ago that they are increasingly becoming seen as a luxury where school budgets are concerned. Since there are few laws mandating that schools must have libraries, they are beginning to go by the wayside as budgets dwindle.

But librarians do far more than just check out books. They help students with research and information technology, such as the Internet—or even e-books. Students, especially those from low-income families may not have access to the resources they need to do their schoolwork at home.

[Rosemarie Bernier, president of the California School Library Association and librarian at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles,] spoke of a student with a first period English class who came to her in tears because she didn’t have enough time to transfer and reformat the essay she had written on her cell phone. Since she doesn’t have a computer at home, the student’s cell phone is her only hope of completing assignments that need to be typed.

But increasingly, school libraries are being closed, or being staffed with people who only know how to check out books. This is especially worrying given how much more important Internet literacy is becoming as the world becomes ever more computerized.

One of the core principles behind the “Teleread” philosophy expressed by our founder, David Rothman, was the importance of using information technology to further education. But information technology by itself falls short without people who can help kids learn how to use it.

Thanks to the One Laptop Per Child program, kids in poorer parts of the world that had teachers are beginning to get the technology. How ironic it would be if kids in the USA keep the technology but lose the librarians who teach them how to use it.

By Chris Meadows

The New York Times has a brief article looking at the future of e-book devices, and their technological siblings the tablet computer.

It includes quotes from Nicholas Negroponte of One Laptop Per Child, and Nick Colaneri of Arizona State University whose Flexible Display Center is working with the military to develop flexible displays for battlefield use.

The group Mr. Negroponte heads, One Laptop Per Child, has developed a slate computer set to be released in 2012 that will cost less than $100. Plastic and, he said, unbreakable, the computer will resemble the iPad and will “use so little power you should be able to shake it or wind it up to give it power.”

Colaneri notes that there is more to making flexible displays than just making the screen bend, but expects designs to start to make it to market within three to five years.

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By Chris Meadows

 When I first reported on Marvell Semiconductor’s $99 10” “Moby” ARM tablet, I mentioned that ARMdevices.net saw a parallel between that and the OLPC group’s goal of creating a $75 tablet device for their next XO device.

It turns out that the OLPC group has seen that parallel as well. Ars Technica reports that OLPC and Marvell are partnering up to base the XO-3 design on the Moby.

"Today’s learning environments require robust platforms for computation, content creation and experimentation—and all that at a very low cost," [OLPC founder Nicholas] Negroponte said in a statement. "Through our partnership with Marvell, OLPC will continue our focus on designing computers that enable children in the developing world to learn through collaboration, as well as providing connectivity to the world’s body of knowledge."

The $99 price point is still a bit higher than the OLPC’s announced $75 goal, but then the XO-1 didn’t meet its $100 price point goal either.

It remains to be seen whether the Moby can be ruggedized to survive harsh field conditions the way the XO-1 was. There’s a bit of a difference in sturdiness between a laptop that can fold up, protecting its most critical components within a plastic shell, and a tablet that always has one glass face exposed.

By Chris Meadows

I found a link to this video yesterday in Jimbo Wales’s post surrendering his editing privileges. Wales said it “moved [him] deeply” and was why he felt so strongly about wanting Wikipedia to be above reproach.

I can’t speak to whether Wales’s actions were justified, but the 8-minute mini-documentary about a remote village in Peru is remarkably interesting. It includes some shots of students using green-and-white OLPC XO-1 laptops, and talking about how they learned to use them by exploring the applications.

The students said that if one of them discovered how to do something new, he would teach others how to do it, and they in turn would teach more. They also said that Wikipedia was an amazing resource, where they learned all sorts of new things.

See it after the jump.

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By Chris Meadows

A Publishing Perspectives article about a Nigerian publisher hints at the promise that e-books might eventually have in Africa. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Jeremy Weate, who founded Cassava Republic in 2006 to publish books by and for Nigerians and those in the surrounding region, see e-books as a way to avoid the problem of foreign-printed books being held up in Nigeria’s infamous customs system—if more Nigerians can get Internet access to buy them.

It might also help the company’s books become wider known, if the regional distribution rights problem can be solved.

“The challenge at present is the fact, that while Internet penetration is growing, it’s still small. Nigeria needs to get to that stage [where it will be better], which will definitely happen.” Until then, the market for their titles will likely remain in Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, Ghana. “There’s been a lot of demand for [our books] internationally, but because we only have Africa rights, we can’t do anything with that.” Bakare-Yusuf concedes that even in an Internet age, territorial boundaries still apply. “The Internet can only break the boundaries if you have world rights, then you can move across borders.”

The article does not mention the One Laptop Per Child program, but it seems to me that getting inexpensive computers into more African hands would be a big part of the answer—and having more local e-books to read on those computers might be a good way to help promote their use.

It is interesting to see that the regional rights problem is an issue in the developing world, too. Perhaps the more places that become aware of it, the sooner the problem can be solved.

By Chris Meadows

iTunes 9.1 has now launched, bringing with it the e-book-related matters I mentioned yesterday. I have not had a chance to take a look yet, but Gizmodo reports that all it does is keep track of e-books rather than read them. It does not seem there is a lot of point without an iPad. (Hopefully there will be an iPhone iBooks application as well, but since such a thing has not been mentioned, this is by no means assured.)

Pennsylvania-based Seton Hill University, enrollment 2,100, has announced that all enrolled students there will receive an iPad as part of a new technology program that begins with the forthcoming fall semester.

Of course, the iPad will not be “free”, strictly speaking, as the cost for it will be included in the college’s tuition (as with the 13” MacBook laptops they will also receive, and which will be replaced every two years). But the devices will belong to the students, meaning they can take them with them after graduation.

When Mary Lou Jepson developed the technology for the Pixel Qi screen, she was working at the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, so there was initially some confusion over who owned what intellectual property. However, the two organizations have resolved their differences by agreeing to cross-license all screen technology developed at either place—including the Pixel Qi dual-mode displays.

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By Chris Meadows

Worldreader.org is a nonprofit organization that is making Kindle e-book readers available to the developing world. (As TechFlash says, “Kind of like One Laptop Per Child, but with Kindles.”) It is beginning its first trial in Ghana this week.

Says Worldreader’s website:

Just as mobile phones have leapfrogged landlines in developing countries, e-readers can deliver books instantly and for far less: many e-books are less than one-third the price of a printed book, saving trees and reaching more minds.

Personally, I suspect that a netbook such as the OLPC might prove considerably more useful for about the same amount of money (though Amazon has donated a number of Kindles for the project’s use). At least a netbook can be used for communication, writing, and school work; a Kindle just downloads e-books.

It is hard to see the point of giving poor Africans e-book readers rather than a more useful device. It’s not as if they can afford to buy more e-books from Amazon. Still, maybe something useful will come out of it.

By Chris Meadows

You know the Pixel Qi screens that are one of the forthcoming “better-than-e-ink” display technologies? Gizmodo and the “What’s Happening at Pixel Qi” blog note that a DIY 10” screen replacement kit will be out in the second quarter of this year, bringing the ability to swap out your netbook’s 10” LCD screen for a transflective Pixel Qi model that can be read in direct sunlight.

Writes former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen in the Pixel Qi blog:

It’s only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbuld [sic]: it’s basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That’s it. It’s a 5 minute operation.

In the same entry, Jepsen writes about a group of girls in Nigeria in the One Laptop Per Child program who opened a “laptop hospital” to do repairs and screen-swaps themselves. Interesting to see that young geeks and tinkerers are the same the world over.

There is no word on what the price of the display kit will be. But given that screens are traditionally the most expensive part of the gizmos that include them, I wouldn’t bet it’s going to be all that cheap.

By Chris Meadows

As seen in Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog, Intel is coming out with a very familiar-looking tweak to the design of its Classmate PC educational netbooks. The Classmate already began as a response to the OLPC’s XO-1 project in terms of mission and approximate price level. Now it’s borrowing the XO-1’s twist-around-and-convert-to-tablet form factor, too.

The device has a 10.1” touchscreen display, Intel Atom processor, up to 160-gig hard drive, webcam, wireless, and a choice of Windows or Linux operating systems. It has a sturdy rubberized construction designed to resist rough handling, and is meant to be used as part of a kid’s overall school experience.

Though Intel didn’t give Wired the price, they guess it will probably be higher than the current, non-convertible version which sells for $200-$400. Intel hopes to launch the new Classmate in the second quarter.

And the device will work as an e-book reader, as well:

One of the features of the new Classmate PC that Intel’s especially keen to tout is is its e-reading software. The device supports EPUB and PDF formats so you can download books from the library or from Google’s cache of free books. The touchscreen allows you to do the familiar “flick to scroll” gesture, though the experience is not as smooth as it is with a capacitive touchscreen. There are also hardware buttons and software icons for turning pages.

There is no mention of whether it supports DRM and in what format—though given that they mention EPUB and PDF, it is probably Adobe Reader, which means ADEPT.

By Chris Meadows

Blogger X de Xavier posts to his blog (and is reposted in the OLPC blog) tips for using a One Laptop Per Child XO to read O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online. This is made possible in part by O’Reilly making a link available that lets non-mobile devices access the mobile version of the content (Safari Books userID and password still required).

It is a very thorough and well-explained writeup, complete with remappings of the gamepad controls to make them more useful in this reading mode, and may be useful to TeleReaders who own XOs.

By Evan Leibovitch

In geek circles and indeed here at TeleRead, the big news these days is all coming from the CES show in Las Vegas. As far as the e-book world is concerned everyone seems to be following tablet devices—those being announced at the show and even those not being announced. But for those who are on the lookout for future technology that might actually change the way the world looks at e-readers, one of the more interesting stories seems to have overlooked completely because it’s not at the show.

Apparently the folks at the One Laptop Per Child program refuse to be discouraged by lacklustre sales of its original neon green tablet-cum-laptop aimed at developing countries. They’ve announced an ambitious plan to deliver a $75 tablet PC with an 8.5"x11 colour screen. Now, according to plans, the XO-3 won’t deliver until 2012. But most of the stuff announced at CES isn’t exactly shipping this week, either.

What’s interesting, especially from an ebook point of view, is  the new system the OLPC project has committed itself to produce. Unlike a conventional e-book reader, it would be a full multi-purpose PC, meaning that along with displaying eBooks it could also surf the net, play videos and games, be a VOIP phone or run a word processor.

And unlike the Slate or iTablet or whatever is being announced or embargoed at CES, the XO-3 is planned to sell for $75—less than one-tenth the cost of a typical tablet. That could be a killer mass-market reading device if they can pull it off, and far more significant to the e-book world than anything that showed up in Vegas this week.

Here’s wishing the OLPC project some luck. They’ll need it.

Related: Previous XO-3 mentions in the TeleBlog.

By David Rothman

Enjoying your new Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader? Good for you. But, whether it’s the need for improved e-book standards or an end to DRM abuse of consumers, we need to look ahead.

And the XO-3, from One Laptop Per Child, would be good to include in your view or at least consider as a possibility. Check out Forbes and Computerworld for the details. How does the XO-3 compare to the discarded XO-2 design?

What do you think of the XO-3 image to the left, gang? Notice the touch interface? Plus, the XO-3 is a lot more than just an e-book reader alone—a whole computer. My big concern would be the planned virtual keyboard. I’m not certain about the wear-and-tear on fingers and wrists. Apple apparently has been striving to address the tactile feedback issues, but I haven’t any idea if the ergonomics will work out, or how sharing Steve Job and others will be with their tech.

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