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Researchers unveil $100 laptop for schoolkids

 

The laptop, powered with a crank, is intended for students. Researchers unveiled a $100, hand-cranked laptop computer and said they hoped to place them in the hands of millions of schoolchildren around the globe.

About the size of a textbook, the lime-green machines can set up their own wireless networks and operate in areas without a reliable electricity supply, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers said at a United Nations technology summit.

"These robust, versatile machines will enable children to become more active in their own learning," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a press conference where the machine was unveiled.

The goal is to provide the machines free of charge to children in poor countries who cannot afford computers of their own, said MIT Media Lab chairman Nicholas Negroponte.

Governments or charitable donors will pay for the machines but children will own them, he said.

"Ownership of the laptops is absolutely critical," he said. "Have you ever washed a rented car?"

Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria are candidates to receive the first wave of laptops starting in February or March, and each will buy at least 1 million units, he said.

The laptop is not yet in production but one company has offered to build it for $110 and four others are considering bids as well, he said.

The computers operate at 500 MHz, about half the processor speed of commercial laptops, and will run on Linux or some other open-source operating system, he said.

Source: AP

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