OLPC first impressions (from someone clearly not a child)
I’ve been following the One Laptop Per Child program since its inception. And the moment I heard that the Yves Behar designed hardware would be made available to the public, I’ve been drooling over it, getting sneak peeks and wishing that they would create the thing as soon as possible. Now that I have the thing in my hands, here’s my first impressions of the device, its software and possible uses when it gets into the hands of children.
Hardware
The machine itself has been relatively unchanged since the initial designs were leaked. It’s a small device, with wi-fi ears and a pivoting screen. The display itself is of a higher resolution than you can find on most commercially available laptops, and it also has the ability to go into a sunlight mode (TFT?) which is a black and white display completely legible even in full sun. The rotating screen, coupled with the high-contrast display, gets the thing very close to being on par with an e-ink display. Yes, it’s that high of a resolution.
The keyboard, which I’m typing on now is another matter. It’s clearly made for the tiniest of fingers, which makes it fairly difficult for adults to use. Not that I’ve had the machine in my hands for a few days, I’m averaging about what I can do on a Blackberry. Which isn’t bad, but isn’t exactly touch typing either. The keyboard is sealed, meaning you could spill a drink on it and still be OK, but the keys don’t have the kind of “click” that I’m used to. They feel like little rubber slugs under my fingers.
The machine also features 3 USB ports and an SD card reader, all of which work fantastically. The touch pad is a little “touchy” and with a software update will support the use of a stylus.
The outside has a nice rough gripping texture and the buttons on the screen have some unused functionality, and supposedly can act like game pad keys.
Battery life isn’t too fantastic at the moment. With no fans and no hard drive, the machine should be able to eek out a little more than three hours from one charge, but that’s about all I’m getting at the moment. They say that in TFT mode while not using the wi-fi, that you should be able to get as much as 13 hours, but I don’t have the patience to test such a thing at the moment.
The only possible weak point I see on the hardware design is the hinge which can rotate the screen. It takes some effort to turn the screen into e-reader/game pad mode, and it only goes in one direction (clockwise), which I can imagine will put a little bit of uneccessary strain on the machine. But that’s a minor complaint for a device that can do what this thing can do.
In fact, the whole thing is so amazingly designed, that I can’t imagine that some of this technology does not quickly leak into more conventional laptops.
Next time: software, interface and a new metaphor for an operating system.