U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled the first working prototype of the $100 laptop last week at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia.U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled the first working prototype of the $100 laptop last week at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia.
The $100 laptop is a joint project of the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child association, which plan to distribute the computers to schoolchildren in underdeveloped nations.
Read more here about the $100 notebook project.
Due by early 2007, the Linux-based machine is so energy-efficient that a hand crank provides sufficient power to operate it, according to Media Lab officials.
It includes Wi-Fi support so that many children can gain access to a single Internet connection through a mesh network.
According to an FAQ list on the Media Labs Web site, creating a $100 laptop was a matter of using a cheap display and keeping software to a necessary minimum.
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