One Laptop Per Child launches XO tablet via Walmart | Hacker News Reader

One Laptop Per Child launches XO tablet via Walmart

zdnet.com

49 pointsscholia44 comments

I purchased a laptop from OLPC years ago, as part of a buy-two-to-get-one deal. I eventually gave it to my niece. She got it when she was three. She's seven now, and still loves it and carries it around everywhere. Neither I nor her parents really understand all of the things she does on it (actually the interface seems quite confusing to me), but apparently it's a good design for certain young children. (I hate to play favorites with other nieces and nephews, but most of them would have destroyed this device long ago, like they destroy every smartphone they can get their mitts on.)

As someone working on a hardware project one of the biggest challenges we have is finding a tablet that is cheap, mass-produceable, and rugged enough to stand up for months/years of abuse. This might do the trick.

Our only options so far has been very cheap knock-off tablets and the questionable long term viability of the pengpod.

It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but have a touch-screen, metal body, usb ports, screw placements for mounting, and easy to access replacable hardware.

> It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but...

That's very difficult criteria. You might find cases engineered for industrial environments, but there is only so much stuff you can put over the screen before the touch sensor stops working. And if that is the "weakest link" what's the value of having a back panel you can use to drive nails?

Yeah the touch-screen has been a problem - especially when trying to give something out to the general unwashed public. No amount of protective cover would have helped us when some guy or gal decided to punch one of the screens in a few months back. Meh.

By 2" thick I was talking more about a box with the touch-screen in the front with a simple plastic protective layer and a hinge you can flip open to reveal the internals. That way replacing the screen is just a dispatch-call. Or something to that effect.

Basically something that can be mounted semi-permanently, the same way as a television screen, and with the most common parts (the screen) accessible by a technician so they can be replaced when broken.

If it's a public kiosk-like environment, especially if Google Play and related apps are not important, I would suggest using an inexpensive Android compatible "dev" board and spec'ing the display separately. You need to be careful about driver support. If 2" is really acceptable, you should be able to find stuff that will be fist-proof.

If you don't strictly need multi-touch, maybe you could forgo capacitive for a hardier resistive screen? Or for a IR-based touchscreen (such as on e-readers)?

There was an article on Hacker News a few months back about somebody who visited hardware manufacturers in China,and apparently you can buy a fully functional Android tablet for as low as $39 there. At that price I imagine it's not necessary to have a super-rugged device for 10x the price if you can just replace it so cheaply.

That is the price range that you can find on aliexpress.com right now, and you can buy them in large lots. However, I have no idea whether they would work when they arrived or not.

'cheap' and 'metal body' don't go well together. Metalwork is expensive.

> It's too bad nobody has made a 'cheap-hacker-tablet' something that might be 2" thick and weigh 4-6lbs but have a touch-screen, metal body, usb ports, screw placements for mounting, and easy to access replacable hardware.

Contact me off-list to discuss some options.

Specifications(http://one.laptop.org/about/xo-tablet):

    1.6 GHz Dual-Core Processor
    1 GB RAM
    8 GB Storage
    7" 1024x600 screen
    Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
    1.3 MP Front & 2.0 MP Rear cameras
    Headset, MicroSD, Micro USB, and Mini HDMI I/O ports
    Android 4.1 operating system
    Built-in parental controls

According to http://xo-learning.org/family-oriented-xo-tablet-debuts-at-w... , this is essentially a 7" Android tablet with a separate educational UI with teaching programs. I wonder if that separate UI could be bundled as an app, eliminating the need for special XO hardware?

Well, supporting a single target hardware device means you can hugely streamline your development and testing processes. You can also guarantee peripheral specifications and availability to applications (camera, microphone, speakers, motion sensors, etc). All of that leads to significantly reduced costs, which are a big deal to an ambitious shoestring project like this. I'm sure it would be possible, with sufficient effort, but what would their motivation be?

This project funds itself by selling the hardware. Releasing the software as a free app would kill their revenue stream, and hence take away the project's air supply. Releasing it as a paid app would present all sorts of logistical problems regarding distribution and payment collection given the intended user base in the third world.

It's important that they have a lean development process, but it's equally important that they have a lean and robust revenue and deployment model.

Maybe I missed something. I thought this project was supposed to be all open source. That way kids could learn about the tablet itself, all the way down to the source code and hardware specification level.

> I thought this project was supposed to be all open source.

Ancient history.

Open source means you provide the source. It doesn't mean you're under any obligation to support the hardware, software, packaging, testing and distribution needs of anyone other than yourself. The OLPC project doesn't need to support different hardware designs, packaging and distribution forms that would be nice for other people or projects to have, and don't have the resources to do so, so they don't.

If they are smart that's exactly how you should be able to get the OLPC software suite. Nearly all elements of all the "skinned" Androids could be repackaged as a software suite and don't need to be baked in to the Android system, probably this one included. $150 isn't an exceptionally low price for an Android tablet, so there's nothing magical about the hardware.

That would be a good move. I'm not sure how much last is in these tablets, but they don't tend to get as much use/abuse as smartphones.

If they're still nice to use 2-4 years after purchase, there will be second will be a lot of android tablets looking for a second life in a few years. iPads are already piling up

It seems like olpc is constantly being outrun by devices.

I have been on their site, http://xo-learning.org/sample-page/tablet-2/ , but I am finding difficulty in determining the suggested ages of the children whom will use it?

I have quite a few relatives in the six to twelve year age range and I am pretty sure elementary age kids would be fine with it, not so sure about middle school.

The Nexus 7 is already a great, durable, child-friendly tablet, and it has been available to anyone for years. It's exactly the right size for small hands and arms. Install anything you like on it.

For a more learning-oriented kidputer, the Leappad is available. Kind of expensive with every app/game costing $20 extra, but oh well.

OLPC's products have never been available for consumer sale - this is the first one. They've been around for eight years. And they've finally launched their first product, which is going to be sold exclusively through Walmart, a company people should have philosophical objections to buying from, and which is known for squeezing their suppliers to death. I don't see any mention of the specs which means to me that "underpowered" is the right word to use.

If you want to buy an underpowered, crappy, no-updates Android tablet, you can get one nearly for free from DealExtreme. They'll sell you one for $60 with free shipping. I'm not even making that up.

I had such high hopes for OLPC when it was first started. But they've lost the track, gone off the rails, whatever metaphor you want to use.

"The Nexus 7 is already a great, durable, child-friendly tablet, and it has been available to anyone for years. "

Actually, the release date was July 13, 2012.

Well, slightly more than one year, anyway. Or maybe that was in tech-years.

Unfortunately, the Nexus 7 bricks itself if you don't keep it charged.

I've tried several unbricking ideas from the web, but none of them has worked....

Isn't $150 a little high for the intended use of the One Laptop per Child aim?

If I had a kid, I have a feeling they would be beyond the target ages for this before I would give them a $150 device.

What would you give them instead? $150 is certainly better than an iPad and even better than an iTouch, even at used prices.

Just today I bought 7 inch android tablet Prestigio with dual core cpu @ 1.5GHz and 1024x600 resolution for 120$ ... with 20% VAT and 5% customs tax included in that price. I bought it for my girlfriend's kid. So 150 looks steep indeed.

On a side note - does anyone knows of a good educational suite for 6yo - basic math, basic english, etc?

You should check out the software include in the XO tablet. I suspect it might suit your needs.

My googlefu may be rusty but it seems it is either not released yet or bundled only with the tablet.

The software is open source and can be found at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Downloads

[EDIT] Retracted. This tablet is using entirely different software from the original sugar suite.

We don't make traditional suite like this... But we try to incorporate that stuff in our apps.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Kidoteca

What would I give a kid? Nothing. They can use the families shared devices.

iirc, one of the original ideas for OLPC was a "Buy two, get one" deal; you bought one for $100, which was, especially at the time, still considered cheap for a laptop, but it was enough to actually buy two devices, one which would be handed out for free to schools in poorer countries.

The first device was supposed to be $100 each, so you paid $200 for yours and someone else also got one. But it was never actually that cheap.

Definitely not, at least for us, $150 to introduce them to tech early on and get them familiar with everything that is now common place is a great move.

Sure, they may break it, but they also almost break everything everyday.

It additionally has the benefit of replacing all the poorly made, single function Leap/Step devices and toys. We gave our 3 year old a Fire and it's been fantastic for development and writing. Slap a sturdy case on it and we've been good so far.

My concern wasn't price, my concern is what ages is the education software applicable too.

Now, as to the price point. Most here will spend that one fifty in two or three months on just their cell plan with data, or perhaps cable, the choices go on.

No consider than many parents buy their YOUNG children Nintendo or similar game devices, these XO tablets are not much more expensive than some and cheaper than others. So if you can trust your/a kid with a hundred dollar game machine then this is a no brainer.

If you had a kid, you might very well give them a $150 Android device! I've seen days where I would've given my kids $150 in cash just to keep them busy/quiet for an hour or two, if I thought that would work. There is already the fairly popular Nabi (~ $150), which is customized for kids. We've definitely handed over the $400-ish phones, and readers.

You're subsidizing the ones that get distributed at low or no cost in other countries.

Or you are subsidizing the new yacht of Wallmart's CEO.

While I don't shop at Walmart (I feel that Costco treats their people far better), I do have to admit that having access to Walmarts supply chain could be a net positive for OLPC.

General order of business for Walmart is to demand ever lower prices of their suppliers. Since OLPC doesn't actually make the devices themselves (I think a Chinese ODM does it), and the volume is low, OLPC doesn't have the ability to apply much pressure to the suppliers. However, distribution via Walmart could get the volume up to where they're now buying components in the "500k-1m" column, with significant cost savings. And the OLPC people could get a Walmart junior VP on the phone and he'd apply some pressure to the suppliers.

So far as subsidizing a new yacht -- sure, Walmart is going to take a cut. But I expect it's a pretty small one, as they get a lot of positive publicity for supporting the OLPC project. So for them, much of the carrying cost of this device is a marketing/publicity expense, not like they were selling a refrigerator or something.

I've been tempted to buy a nexus 7 for my kids for a while, but at the same time I've been reluctant for several reasons. Since the XO seems to come installed with many productivity apps I may look at it instead. Not to mention that it looks a bit more durable compared to the nexus.

All that said, I wonder how quickly it will be available outside the US. Walmart.com doesn't ship to canada on many items.

A friend's daughter has a Kurio Android tablet, which seems very similar to this.

http://www.kurioworld.com/us/features.php#techspecs

I'd really like to see any technical specs on this, but can't seem to find any on http://www.xotablet.com/ or http://www.vivitar.com/

What happened to the b&w-sunreadable screen?

I wonder if it still has the mesh networking too.

They also totally ditched their OS.

This just seems like a stock tablet with some apps preinstalled. The device is a software/design project more than a hardware one now.

Also it seems like they are trying to push the content to the kids rather than letting them explore themselves. The problem with the content push is now you have to provide all the content. You have just created a replacement for a text book. They can still fire up a webbrowser or dig through layers to what they want but it's not the same.

Without a keyboard it is going to be massively less productive. Say goodbye to teaching them programming skills. Kids learning to program on a tablet will probably begin to hate the entire concept as they are fighting a sluggish interface. I love reading comics on my tablet, but I still use a keyboard/mouse device for browsing. A plug in keyboard might help but it isn't enough since its a hassle (Also will they be providing keyboards to students?)

I don't think they are going to be able to fire up a copy of GCC (I remember having a go at C++ when I was like 12, my main problem was getting a compiler and tutorials since I had no internets, now days it should be easy). I learned heaps with qbasic since that was just sitting on my system.

imho tablets are largely hype/marketing. They are a massive growth industry right now because it's a new market and everyone is trying to grab the market share but we aren't going to see desktops/laptops replaced, just augmented. The tablet market will likely die back when it has reached saturation. They have basically 'perfected' the tablet already. People won't really need to upgrade their current generation devices, they already have fast, smooth web browsing, gigs of ram, retina displays and so on. I don't see a new version of Android being released over the next 5 years that will no longer be compatible with the hardware out now (although manufactures might not release the updates for those devices) other then a few gimick hardware features things like NFC or that TV streaming stuff which will be desirable to some but not all. About the only thing would be more storage space which will also reach a point when its enough for most people. Then it will mainly be people replacing broken devices or just needing the latest. Maybe we will see a glassed free 3D display and then a retina version or it. Maybe they will make a transparent one.

In any case the XO project isn't supposed to be about making a product to sell. It seems like it's been taken over by designers.

Maybe for the XO-4, they will do something like a dockable tablet. With Ubuntu's Mir based Android hybrid. You would get the productivity of a keyboard and the power of a full desktop OS under the hood. They could also bring back their Sugar stuff.

Are any of the original laptop's programming tools available for the tablet?

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