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November 14, 2007, 01:46 PM ET
Low-Cost Laptop on Sale Now -- With Charitable Twist
The computer formerly known as the $100-laptop went on sale this week. The nonprofit group called One Laptop Per Child set out to revolutionize computer design and drastically cut costs, and it is now making a rugged, green-and-white device that costs about $200. For a limited time, gadget lovers and students in the United States and Canada can buy one of the devices, provided they also donate an additional $199 that will be used to give a laptop to a child in the developing world. The window for buying one of the machines is short — until November 26 — and the group’s Web site says organizers will do their best to ship in time for the holidays.
It’s not clear whether the computers are feature-rich enough for the college environment (they don’t have a hard drive, for instance). But at a time when so much of college life takes place online, the simple wireless devices might be all a student needs.
The One Laptop Per Child organization, founded by Nicholas Negroponte, former director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working to make the machines ubiquitous in schools across the developing world. The project is one of several trying to use technology to improve life in impoverished regions, as noted in a previous Chronicle story. —Jeffrey R. Young
Categories: Teaching
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