ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

HAVE BEEN following news on the MIT $100 laptop project with interest over the past few months. Latest news, thanks to ZDNET and John Brecht, who manages the g1to1 list:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates on Wednesday mocked a $100 laptop computer for developing countries being developed with the backing of rival Google Inc. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The $100 laptop project seeks to provide inexpensive computers to people in developing countries. The computers lack many features found on a typical personal computer, such as a hard disk and software.

“The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk … and with a tiny little screen,” Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.

Reminds me of one of those famous last words (negative predictions on ultimately successful technologies). As one of the list members, Yisahy Mor, put it, “Thinking of technologies Gates went to the trouble of playing down. Some examples that come to mind: Mac, Linux, Internet standards…”

Microsoft’s Ultimate Mobile PC” (UMPC, or code-named “Origami”) looks like a smaller, lighter and easier to use tablet PC; OR a PC-version of PlayStation Portable.

Hardware Specs: Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 OS, approximately seven-inch (17.78 cm) touch panel, minimum 800 x 480 resolution, approximately two pounds (0.972 kg), WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled.

Software: Apparently, all Windows XP software are still supported. Instead of a cryptic Start button, the “friendlier” program launcher now has these functions on the desktop by default: Connect, Communicate, View, Listen, Play, More Programs and Tools.

LEARNT BELATEDLY after bible class last Sat how to put Avantgo channels into my Tungsten E. My ‘teacher’ was an old man who called himself GMGW (general manager – general worker) and who taught himself all kinds of things — including how to transfer daily updates from the Web into his PDA. Read the rest of this entry »