Friday, January 11, 2008

Ebook Reader - Not a Kindle, Not a Sony - It's An XO Laptop Reader!

Here are a couple of links for those who would like to see what others are saying about this:
The first one is from O'Reilly radar, by Mike Hendrickson and titled "OLPC and the Kindle." The other post titled "XO Laptop as PDF Ebook Reader: A First Look" compares the XO laptop ebook reader with the Kindle, Sony, and iPhone readers.

Below is my latest YouTube video showing off my very own XO laptop ebook reader. If you aren't familiar with the XO laptop or the One Laptop Per Child Education Project responsible for the XO, then please check my other posts on this topic including the New York Times video review of the XO by David Pogue.

Lastly, I'm an academic librarian and would be interested in any thoughts regarding the XO Laptop and higher education. Most will agree this machine, and others being produced based on the XO, will help provide an education to children in developing nations and thereby help close the gap in the digital divide. As a librarian interested in Web 2.0 technologies, I can easily see the value of the mesh network. I would love to see this technology on college and university campuses; it seems a perfect fit. Any other thoughts?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I am former student from Germany, a graduated some weeks before.

When I have seen your review on the xo-laptop, I wished I had this computer with me during my studies. This would have had a tremendous positive impact!

Lots of material was published on the internet and all students had to go to the library to download and to print out all the papers. Over and over again, all students were queuing and then had to check the print-account if there is enough online-money on it before starting the print-out. Every day I lost at least over 30 minutes just doing this. With this useful gadget I would have saved so much time.

Moreover this would habe been a perfect platform to organize all meetings with buddies and friends on the campus. I had to do this by cell phone (phone calls or SMS). That cost me hundreds of euros during my study time. The XO-laptop offers now much more comfort and convenience at no cost, because everybody can connect to each other directly to the XO-laptops.

I am very impressed by this high-tech machine. If this machine would be available in Germany I would order at least one machine, although I am not a student anymore!

At Mr. Negroponte: Please start a "Give 1 Get 1" program in Europe!

Anonymous said...

Can you use the ebook reader without the backlight?

Robin Ashford said...

You can absolutely use the ebook reader without the back light. You can read a book in direct sunlight and it looks great. I may do this later in the week, and if I do I will upload another video to YouTube to show what it looks like.

Robin Ashford said...

The article link below is titled "OLPC Considering 'Give One, Get One' Offer in Europe."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141082-c,notebooks/article.html
I hope it happens.

Anonymous said...

Robin: As president of a registered non-profit in Arizona that is expanding nationwide promoting XO as a tool to assist in orchestrating more-affordable literacy programs....we would like to speak with you by phone. We have been enjoying your blog and your leadership in reviewing its applications. However we have a few ideas to speak with you about personally.

ASAP, Please call Richard Brincefield, the Chairman of Global Literacy Inc. at 623-934-3568 or myself Rod Weiss-President at 250-864-1424 or my toll free at Encore at 866-763-7196.

bestwish said...

Good option for buyers to look for.
http://portable-ebook-reader.blogspot.com

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