Sub-$100 Laptops Have Finally Arrived 437
Roman Phalanx writes "OLPC had promised that it would be possible to mass produce a sub-$100 laptop. The folks at OLPC tried to realize that dream by re-imagining what a laptop looks like. How large of screen and keyboard it has. What OS runs on the laptop. Now that OLPC has decided to super size their systems to run Windows XP, the $100 price point has slipped beyond their reach. A Chinese firm has realized that dream. Taking the best from both the OLPC and EeePC. They ditched x86 compatibility and switched to a MIPS architecture to further reduce production costs. HiVision has managed to create a UMPC that sells right now for $120.00. They say they have refined the manufacturing process and have learned from building this laptop how to mass produce a laptop that will sell for $98.00." (More below, including a link to a video of the device.)
"The new HiVision MiniNote is due out in October of 2008. TechVideoBlog has footage of one of these Mini Notes being shown off at a trade show in Germany. They have managed to borrow a unit overnight for a while and have done a quick review on it.
Overall it looks pretty good. MIPS based processor, WiFi, 1GB flash storage, it runs Linux, has 3 USB ports, Ethernet, SDHC card reader, audio in and out, multi-tabbed Firefox browser support and Abiword for word processing. Running a custom Chinese Linux distrubution named Xip.
Overall performance seems snappy and no problems connecting to WiFi. Other than the lack of a webcam and the Adobe Flash Player it seems perfect. For $98 it looks like quite a value."
First Post (Score:1, Funny)
Yea, this laptop is so good with WIFI I got first post!
A feature, not a bug (Score:5, Funny)
No flash? That's a feature, not a bug!
Re:Wake me when they ship (Score:5, Funny)
Color me unimpressed.
I too refuse to be satisfied until it comes with my happy meal.
Re:Flashlessness kills it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:heh.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Because the interweb is unreliable (Score:5, Funny)
The HiVision [hvsco.com] site is down (slashdotted)... Site must be hosted on a sub $100 server.
Re:MIPS will make it a hard sell (Score:5, Funny)
What are you talking about, 20,000 has 4 zeros in it!
Re:MIPS will make it a hard sell (Score:4, Funny)
True, but all it takes is a source repository, a cross compiler, and a huge botnet to turn things around.
Re:MIPS will make it a hard sell (Score:5, Funny)
And four zeros is more than (one) zero. I rest my case. :)
Re:heh.. (Score:3, Funny)
There, fixed it for Aldous and Shakespeare.
Let it be known that even the greatest writers in history are not beyond the arrogance of a Slashdot AC. Along with the dreadful and degrading words: 'There, fixed it for you.'
Sub-$100 (Score:5, Funny)
Which is even MORE amazing since the dollar is worth HALF what it was 5 years ago!!!
Re:Because the interweb is unreliable (Score:5, Funny)
"It has *real* Linux... looks like Linux, uhhh, some kind of Linux is here..."
Re:fp (Score:5, Funny)
Re:video resolution...bleh (Score:5, Funny)
Is that a "Too Many Pixels" error?
Sure, and when the battery dies... (Score:2, Funny)
... you don't recharge it, you buy a new one.
Re:heh.. (Score:5, Funny)
No offense, but please go die.
Re:video resolution...bleh (Score:3, Funny)
And 128MB ram is the new 2GB.. Actually it seems like it has either 128MB or 64MB, so guess what the cheap model will have...
Either way it's a massive amount of memory.
Re:Because the interweb is unreliable (Score:5, Funny)
"some kind of Linux is here..."
New slogan for /.? Or at least new annoying meme?