The new XO tablet from OLPC. Image: OLPC
Designed by Yves Behar and Fuseproject, it's OLPC's first Android-powered device. Image: OLPC
Starting next week, it'll be available at Walmart for $150. Image: OLPC
And in some ways, it's an acknowledgement that a good kids' tablet is just...a good tablet. Image: OLPC
It runs Android 4.2, has decent guts, and comes with front and rear facing cameras.
Founded in 2005, the non-profit One Laptop Per Child staked out an ambitious goal early on: building a usable laptop for kids of developing nations at an aggressively low price point. Since then, they?ve distributed some 2.5 million computers in over 60 countries. A few years back they changed their focus to tablets. Now, OLPC?s first consumer-facing device, the Yves Behar-designed, Android-powered XO tablet, is available at WalMart for $150.
It?s proof that sometimes, even the most quixotic dreams demand a slow and steady grind. In its 8 year existence, OLPC has weathered criticism about its hardware, its prices, its implementation and more. As the group has found, building a robust laptop for $100 ain?t easy. But the latest version of their device shows that even in the noblest projects, iteration yields results.
The XO shows that a decent tablet for kids looks a lot like, well, a decent tablet.
The new tablet, designed by Yves Behar and his team at Fuseproject and manufactured by Vivitar, is still very much a kids? affair. Its 7? touchscreen is ensconced in a slime-green case, complete with a handy carrying ring on one corner. By default, it boots into a kid-friendly user interface that organizes digital activities around the idea of ?dreams? rather than applications. Given the prompt of ?I want to be a?,? kids start their sessions by tapping icons for ?doctor,? ?astronaut,? ?writer? and the like. As Behar explains: ?What is unique about this version is how we crafted the user interface and the industrial design simultaneously. We wanted to make sure that together they would deliver a cohesive experience while stimulating discovery and offering a few surprises.?
This time, though, that custom-UI runs on top of Android 4.2, instead of OLPC?s open-source Sugar OS, so you can boot into the real thing if your kid is sick of thinking about her career and just wants to play Cut the Rope. And that?s important. In some ways, you can see the XO as an acknowledgement that a decent tablet for kids looks a lot like, well, a decent tablet. Slip off that neon green cover, opt-out of the dreams-based interface, and you?ve got a run of the mill Android slab?one that comes with over a hundred pre-loaded apps, games, books and other bits of content. It?s got a decent 1.4 GHz processor, 4GB of storage, and front- and rear-facing cameras. It is, OLPC boasts, the only bilingual (Spanish and English) and Google-certified tablet for kids on the market. And proof that you can have a tablet that makes sense in schools in South America and on Walmart shelves?both places you?ll soon be able to find the XO.
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