Index & Notes

XO Laptop

The iPod demonstrates the power of an idea. Everybody else has access to the same technology as Apple, generally - Apple just has an enviable track record of turning those possiblities into products that match needs. The EEE PC and some other product like it very likely owe their existence to an idea out of the MIT Media Lab, another very bright bunch that wake up in the morning thinking ergonomics, ergonomics, ergonomics. Nicholas Negroponte, their director, started pushing this idea a few years back: the XO laptop, for the "One Laptop Per Child" project, also nicknamed the "$100 laptop". It was a bad nickname since they were then crapped on for coming in at $188 for the first models. They should have called it the "under $200 laptop" for coverage - and because $200 is definitely a magic figure, as I will go on to discuss.

© Roy Brander, P.Eng 2007