Strange, isn't it? The OLPC laptop is in beta and could be great hardware for e-book reading in U.S. schools and libraries, but so far I don't hear any talk from the feds about, ugh, encouraging Nicholas Negroponte to launch a domestic effort---ideally without fixating so much on telling teachers how to teach. CC-licensed photo is from library automation expert Casey Bisson. Thanks to Wayan at OLPC News for the pointer. ...

FBReader is a world-class e-reader with a GTK+-based UI running on a Linux handheld (the Nokia 770) with an 800x480 screen. PepperPad is a handheld with an 800x600 screen, with a GTK+-based Linux OS. Maybe these two are fated to meet. Is there someone who could introduce them please?...

TeleBlog contributor Casey Bisson has just received a Pepper Pad for review. He says: "The Pepper Pad, I believe, is the type of device we need to drive information services into the mainstream." Casey hopes the device will help foster "Internet access well beyond the 100 million US subscribers who have at-home internet access today and start approaching the nearly 200 million US subscribers who carry cell phones. That's why I'm interested in their applications in libraries, and that's why I'm looking at [a] demo unit...." Related: More on MIT's $100 linux laptop for the Third World, via CNET....

The recent talk about DRM in Windows Vista has finally got people thinking about the matter in competitive terms. While Digital Rights Management does little to prevent real piracy, it largely eliminates the legal me2me fair use that we've taken for granted. Publishers and manufacturers are pushing DRM instead as a mechanism to 'lock-in' customers. Don Marti, one of a growing number of people arguing this, says in Copyfight: Isn't it time to drop the polite fiction that MSFT and other incumbent IT and CE [CE = consumer electronics--Casey] vendors are only doing DRM because of big, bad Hollywood?...

A new Pepper Pad owner was unhappy--but it looks as if the company is very much open to suggestions. Check out a note from Jon Melamut, VP of sales and biz developent. No e-book software is running on the Pepper now, but that's expected in the fall, at which time Pepper's Mark Metzger hopes to send me a review unit. I myself suggested I wait until then. Meanwhile, if the planets are in the right orbits, TeleBlog contributor Casey Bisson should be receiving an eval Pepper before then. Related: Pepper Pad writeup in NoSheep....

TeleRead received its first reports of the Pepper Pad in the wild yesterday, and it kicked off some good conversation. I had replied to the post with a comment saying: The difficulty Pepper, or anybody entering this space, will face is expectations management. If people start to think about this as a "computer," rather than a toaster, then the jig is up. Sure, there are some experienced users who will use the Pepper Pad for all its linux goodness, but most users don't complain about getting root on their TV remotes or microwaves.David's response was right on when he asked for...