After years in the making, via a joint venture between Marvell and OLPC, the new XO 3.0 tablet is set to be revealed at next weeks CES show. The tablet features a Marvel chip combined with a ARM-based CPU running at 1GHZ. It’ll be stocked with 512MB of on-board memory and measures in at 8 inches, about a quarter of an inch thick, and is said to be waterproof and durable. The tablet device is predicted to cost less then $100.
With its target audience being children in developing countries, the tablets optional solar panel and crank charging units, plus its Pixel Qi power saving screen are a perfect fit. On full charge, the tablet will provide around eight to 10 hours of battery life. It is predicted that the device will run on Google’s Android OS
The tablet will also contain a reading platform that records audio and adapts lessons to those of the children who operate it. Project founder, Nicholas Negroponte, hopes to collect reading data from youths in India, Tanzania and Sierra Leone, monitoring how they react to and use the tablet.
Mr Negroponte commented; “In the reading experiment, where we ask can a child learn to read on his or her own, we imagine many hours of use per day, as many as six or eight. Frankly, the reading experiment may be the most important thing I have ever done….if it works,”
Chief Technology Officer of One Laptop per Child, Edward McNierney comments that the XO 3.0 is a “natural successor” to its current laptops in the hands of over 2.4 million children in 42 countries.
It looks as though the tablet will not be available for individual sales and OLPC will only sell in bulk to governments, although we will of course be looking out for news of its availability in shops.
Via Slash Gear and via Computer World
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