Software
Sugar, the XO-Laptop's software is extremely innovative and reinvents the graphical user interface specifically for children.
- Sugar facilitates sharing and collaboration: Children can write documents or make music together with ease
- There are no files, folders or applications: What you do is an activity and that includes the application and all your data. You can resume any activity any time.
- You can hardly lose data: Everything is saved and automatically backed up
- You use a journal for accessing data: Its like a diary of stuff that you made
- Its all Open Source Software: You can even edit the Python source code of your current activity
The laptop also includes many interesting and valuable educational tools and games.
Sugar is also available for other hardware platforms and has the potential to completely change the way children can be educated (and educate themselves) with digital tools. Development work on the Sugar platform is currently done by the Sugar Labs-Foundation.
Hardware
The OLPC XO was developed specifically for the requirements of children in educational settings and rough outdoor environments. It has many unique attributes and features that you wouldn't expect to find in a regular laptop:
- It's screen is perfectly readable in full sunlight and complete darkness
- You can use the extra-wide trackpad with a stylus like a graphics tablet
- Its antennae have a huge wireless range of up to 1.5 kilometers
- The laptops automatically build a mesh network that distributes internet access without expensive WLAN-equipment or configuration
- The battery lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge
- You can charge the battery with your hands using a string generator
- The enclosure is sealed to withstand rain showers and dust
- The laptop frame is reinforced so that it can be dropped from a table without any problems
- It can survive extreme temperature variations
- The hard drive has been replaced with more robust flash memory
- The screen can be rotated into an ebook mode and the screen content can be rotated in 90° increments
- It features a built-in camera and microphone that can be used for taking pictures and fo video conferencing
While the XO-Laptop currently just costs $188 it is not "just a cheap laptop" but a great and versatile education tool.
Some technical details:
- CPU: AMD Geode LX-700 (433MHz @ 0.8W)
- RAM: 256 MB
- HDD: 1GB Flash
- I/O: 3 x USB, SD-card, Audio
- Other features: Wireless Mesh-network, camera, microphone
