The Ed Tech Project that started it all - A Look at Size, Price and Features Vic Jaras

The Ed Tech Project that started it all MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) announced plans to develop a $100 laptop around 2003 with a prototype released in Eventually these laptops were named XO computers and in 2007, 1 million units were distributed to developing nations. Netbook is the latest name for these mini- computers.

XO Computer Children from Mongolia, China.

Review of the XO

Innovations of the XO Use of FLASH drives to replace hard drives Built-in web cameras Linux Operating System Web Oriented Designed for Kids, not Adults New OPEN SOURCE Software

Innovations of the XO Dan Bricklin (who invented the spreadsheet) has developed a web-based spreadsheet called social-calc for the XO.

Children in Nepal

Innovations of the XO On May 21, 2008, at an OLPC Country Meeting, design studies of a next-generation XO-2 goals include: Dual 16x9 proportioned sunlight-readable touch screens Keyboard and touchpad both replaced by touch screens Physically smaller than XO-1; size and weight more like a book 1 watt power consumption Price of US $75 to large educational buyers

Children in Mongolia

Children in Haiti

HP Mini NOW, EVERYONE IS ON THE BANDWAGON..

Dell Mini 9

What you give up for smaller size: Missing a CDROM drive – How do you install your programs? Running Linux or Windows XP Minimum System Memory –Windows XP should have 1 gig of memory Small Amount of Physical Storage Smaller Screen (less than 14) Smaller Keyboard and Controls –Just reduced or ergonomically designed for kids?

ACER & ASUS

MSI & SYLVANIA

CTL & INTEL CLASSMATE The CTL and a few others are based on the INTEL CLASSMATE laptop which competes with the X0 Laptop

MPC TXT book

Review of 4 mini-notebooks

PC World –How to buy a Mini Computer 1. Know what you want to use it for and how much you're willing to spend. 2. Buy a netbook with an 8.9-inch screen or larger. –I tried out an Asus EEC PC with a 7-inch screen and the annoying part is not being able to see an entire Web page because the screen is too small. –Source: /how_to_buy_a_minilaptop.html /how_to_buy_a_minilaptop.html

ASUS EEC PC

PC World How to buy a Mini Computer 3. Make sure you get a 6-cell battery for your netbook, although you may have to pay $50 more and the device will weigh more. –Most companies are offering netbooks with 3-cell batteries as the standard, but that doesn't offer a whole lot of run time, just 2 to 3 hours. –A 6-cell battery doubles that, and in some devices designed around a 6-cell battery you can get up to 8 hours.

PC World How to buy a Mini Computer 4. Try out the keypad and make sure it's right for you. –Keys on the ClassMate PC's keyboard are raised and there is a lot of space between them, making them easy to find by touch. –By contrast, the EEE PCs, Wind and Elitegroup Computer Systems' designed their keypads with flat keys and little or no space between keys because, I was told it makes them look nice. The trouble is, it also makes typing more difficult. –I really liked the keypads on Acer's and Everex's CloudBook, but the best keypad was on Hewlett-Packard's.

Everex CloudBook

PC World How to buy a Mini Computer 5. Software: see what it comes with and consider trying the Linux OS. There are two lessons on software. –First, some vendors have skimped on including software in their netbooks on the pretense that users can download a lot of free software on the Internet. –Asustek included a lot of useful software on its Eee PCs 1000, 1000H and 901, as has Acer, which also added a nice opening screen that boots up in just 12 seconds.

PC World How to buy a Mini Computer Second, it may be time to the give the Linux OS a try. – Most of the netbooks I tested with Linux OSs booted up far faster than Windows XP or Windows Vista (I would not buy a netbook with Vista, it's just too slow). Vic Tip- if windows XP needs 1 gig of memory then Vista needs 2 gigs of system memory to perform well with average tasks.

PC World How to buy a Mini Computer 6. Price: if it costs more than $500, start looking at a regular notebook computer. –Companies have started promoting a wide range of netbooks at higher prices, but once you pass $500, netbooks start to compete with laptops. 7 Screen 15.4 Screen 512mb Memory 3 GB Memory CD ROM 1.3 to 3 MP camera.3 MP camera

The Gateway M series Laptop has 3gigs of system memory, built in camera, a newer, faster DUO CORE processor, large hard drive, CDROM drive, More usb ports, a digital camera reader, more software and has a great design –one of the view models that forces warm air out the side instead of the bottom. You can find it for as low as $499 on sale. Gateway M series

BEFORE YOU BUY: Develop a Planning Rubric of your needs! Small size may work for elementary and middle but high school kids may need a larger keyboard and more features. Keep in mind that limited memory and storage could be a problem 1-3 years down the road when some great software appears that you cannot run because of space and memory requirements.

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