Nicholas Negroponte the founder of One Laptop Per Child Foundation yesterday unveiled the design of their upcoming XO Laptop. Dubbed to be the world’s cheapest laptop ever it is expected to retail about 75$. The designs that were unveiled totally blow the current market, as the design is simply amazing, and looks very user friendly. The only catch is that it will take them till 2010 to bring this design from the artist’s canvas to a real functional device.

The laptop to be called XO-2 will have dual touch screens and to keep the costs low they plan to use the same kind of screens that we find in DVD Players these days. The design showcases a lot of flexibility, for example when held vertically the laptop is more like a book with pages to the left and right, and while it is held horizontally it adds up as a hinged laptop or a tablet computer.

Here’s a excerpt from the official press release :

“The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry with them to and from school or wherever they go. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors that allow children to personalize the laptop as their own possession.” 

Here are some more images on what the XO-2 will end up looking like. Pretty futuristic and great looking if you’d ask me!!

Since we will all have to wait until 2010 to see this design in the form of a real functional device, I’m holding back my thoughts if this can be a success, because someone else can come and make a better cheaper laptop by then. Apart from that with the launch of iPhone, Touchscreens have evoked mixed responses, a lot of people seem to asking for Tactile feedback. Considering that these laptops will primarily be used by kids, tactile feedback could make quite a difference.

At the moment, XO-2 is the coolest looking laptop in town, yes even better than any of the laptops made by Cupertino based Apple. Fingers Crossed until 2010!! But Nonetheless I want to have one of these even if I don’t live in a third world country..

One last question, why wasn’t Amazon Kindle made into something like this?

Via Gizmodo

Initial reactions of the Macbook Air, were all ooh’s and aah’s when Uncle Steve unveiled it to a packed Audience in MacWorld 2008. While half the blogosphere was singing in praises of the Thinnovation that Apple came up with, the other half naturally took up to bashing the Macbook Air, for everything that it was missing.

You might ask me, to which half I belong? Well my answer is somewhere in between, because I believe this is what the Macbook Air deserves. And this is the reason why I held myself from hitting the publish button on this post, so that I could update my thoughts continuously.

Well my verdict is pretty clear, Apple clearly has a winner at its hands, but its not quite complete right now. There is more that can be added to the Macbook Air, that would make it a hot selling cake just like the iPhone.

Apple has once again showed its tremendous design and engineering skills with the Air. Macbook Air feels great, and has the sex appeal to turn heads, where ever you take it. Apart from that Macbook Air is a clever piece of engineering, packing so many features in such a small factor.

But as I said, I believe that Steve Jobs hurried through with the launch of Macbook Air. I believe that it still is an unfinished product.  Surely if Apple had enough time, we would have Macbook Air with much better specs.

Well here are a few places where the Macbook Air falls behind…

• 80GB hard disk isn’t enough these days. A 120GB or a 160GB would be more ideal.
• One USB port, seriously guys is Apple kidding us. Atleast 2 USB ports like the Macbook would be great.
• A FireWire port is missing. I’d love to see one on the Macbook Air. Maybe Apple wanted everyone to use the Wireless Time Capsule.
• The Audio Output currently is Mono, it would be nice if it was Stereo.

Having Said that Macbook Air, is going to improve lots down the lane, say about 9-12 months from now. I’d expect, the prices to significantly drop, and SSD drives become a lot more cheaper than they are now.

The Macbook Air, was built with portability, sleekness and style in mind, to solve most people’s mobile needs, with much better wireless capabilities than other laptop in the market. Enough said, I believe everyone was expecting little too much from Apple on this one.

Will I Buy it? Well not now atleast simply because I don’t have that kind of money to throw on the Macbook Air.. But maybe in the future, when the Macbook Air becomes more stronger and better.

Until then I’d love to see Apple to work on more thinner and lighter versions of the Macbook and Macbook Pro. That would surely give a big boost to Mac Sales.. Who doesn’t like Style? But the price and features should satisfy it, and right now the Macbook Air doesn’t do its price justice.

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, have a look at this Macbook vs Macbook Air

What do you think about Macbook Air? Sound off your views in comments.

Yay! MacWorld 2008 is here. Like we all expected, Apple came out with the ultra portable notebook which calls itself as the "World’s thinnest notebook".

If you’ve been a regular on this blog, then you’ll probably know that Karthik is a stick-in-the-mud fan of all things Apple. He has been eagerly waiting for this day, but unfortunately MacWorld 2008 coincided with his vacation.

Instead of simply rewriting everything about MacWorld 2008, I’ll just forward you to my blog where I have published a recap of all the announcements.

Link: MacWorld 2008 Recap

Hopefully, Karthik will update this article with his views once he is back from vacation. Keep an eye on this page.

Update : Check my views on the Macbook Air over here