OLPC Update

2B1
The $100 laptop
OLPC
CM1 (Children's Machine 1)
2B1 laptop project has some news. For one, it has a new name: 2B1. The 2B1 promises to have a built in WiFi mesh network - i.e. you turn it on and it connects and extends any nearby networks. It has a high resolution (1200x900 pixel at 200 DPI) screen that is usable in sunlight (unlike a normal laptop). They've got it working with less than 2 watts of power (very impressive). It looks like they are going with Fedora Linux (I was kinda hoping for Ubuntu Linux).
What's very interesting is that a 640x480 video camera will also be standard. It sports both a built in microphone and built in speakers plus separate jacks for both earphones and an external microphone. The microphone jack also doubles as an analog input for science experiments (which is wonderful idea). It would be cool if they could double the headphone jack as 5 V output as well.
I'm glad so see that this project has exceeded their original plans, it looks like it'll be even better than we could have hoped for (although the price has gone up slightly).

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