Thumb-drive-sized Computer fits in your pocket.

mind-bomb:

Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25








(everything set up and running)

Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has a HDMI port in one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into a HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25.

this is really neat, and the idea/inspiration behind it is super rad, but as a friend of mine has pointed out, once you include the price of a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and maybe even network peripherals (since there doesn’t appear to be a wired connection, and wireless is doubtful), you’re basically at the price of an OLPC. =

This is a great idea, but I disagree with the premise that, once you add in peripherals and a monitor, this is basically the same price as an OLPC.  I have an OLPC XO-1 and while I think it’s a great little device, it’s not durable enough nor is it as versatile as this thumb-drive-sized PC. Not that the XO was supposed to be versatile. It was really just supposed to be a simple, low-power, low-powered computer that could help Third-World kids learn.

The cool thing with this thumb-drive computer is its versatility.  You can plug it into anything with an HDMI port—a monitor or a TV.  Then you can plug in a $10 keyboard and mouse or whatever you have laying around.  You could stick this thing in your pocket, go to someplace with very limited resources and use whatever was there to get things done.  Or you could use one of those floppy keyboards and a mini-mouse.

Again, the point is: versatility.

Comparing it to the XO also suggests the built-in mismanagement that slowed the XO’s adoption around the world.

India One-Ups OLPC, Beats their $200 XO and their $99 tablet with a $35 iPad lookalike for 2011

A $35 Tablet? India Is On The Case

03:49 pm July 23, 2010 by Joshua Brockman AP

 

Kapil Sibal, India’s human resource development minister, displays the low-cost tablet that it hopes to put into production by next year.

Can you imagine a tablet computer priced less than the cost of a textbook?

It may soon be a reality. The Indian government unveiled a $35 prototype of a touch-screen tablet for students that could be a game changer in the consumer electronics world. That’s because it would be the world’s cheapest if it goes into production, according to the Guardian.

…

India’s human resource development minister, Kapil Sibal, said on Friday that the government is already in discussions with manufacturers to produce the device by 2011. He called the device India’s “answer to MIT’s $100 computer.”

via npr.org

Hm… this is an interesting development.

While it’d be great to get my hands on such a cheap tablet, one of the commenters on the NPR post makes a good point:

liam stockwell (liamaniac) wrote:

I can’t help but think it has the same, extremely detrimental draw-backs of every other sub-priced…anything. “Who is getting taken advantage of in order to produce this?”

Sat Jul 24 11:44:10 2010

I don’t mind spending a couple hundred on something like this as long as it’s got the same (or similar) specs as the iPad AND poor people in 3rd world countries aren’t exploited to death to bring me the damn device.

And I’ve heard/read a bit about what India is like and it worries me when I see electronics with this tiny-ass price point.  But hey, if they can produce it morally, I’d be happy to pick one up.  Maybe I can run Sugar on it! ;)