Hasta La Gadget!

The OLPC slate may actually get made after all. Nicholas Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child foundation has promised to get his XO-3 tablet computer into prototype form by December this year for a showing at CES in January 2011. The super-slim all-touch tablet will have a 9-inch screen and sell for just $75.

The problem is, we’ve been here before. Just last year, Nick was promising essentially the same thing. There have been a few changes, though. Speaking at MIT’s Media Lab Tuesday he said that the price point should be no problem because the whole device, screen and all, will be made from plastic. The prototypes, however, will stick with heavy, fragile glass, presumably because the technology to extrude a whole computer (Negroponte’s plan) from a machine is not yet here.

The XO-3 doesn’t seem quite as ridiculous as it once did, though. Apple has managed to deliver the iPad for just $500, and the simple tablet form with no moving parts seems ideal for the rugged outdoors that is the intended home of the OLPC slate. In fact, there’s something the computer will have that I wish were in the iPad. The XO-3 will have the same dual-mode screen as the original XO, which will be backlit indoors but use the light of the sun when outside so it can be read in bright light. Outdoor use is one place where the iPad fails.

Whether the final result is like the machine shown in the mockup pictures or not, we’re pretty sure to see something similar, even if it does take a few more year. The original OLPC had a long and difficult gestation, but Nick Negroponte is stubborn enough to pull it off.

OLPC’s Negroponte Says XO-3 Prototype Tablet Coming in 2010 [PC World]

See Also:

• Negroponte: OLPC Machine Will Be $50 in 2011, Electronics Are …
• XO-3 Concept: A Crazy-Thin Tablet OLPC for Just $75
• OLPC Designer Turns to Spectacles
• XO-3 Concept: A Crazy-Thin Tablet OLPC for Just $75

It’s all just noise right now, but the United States Justice Department is purportedly having a “very preliminary conversation” with Apple regarding the company’s music business, wondering in particular if anything it’s doing (or has done) would violate antitrust legislation. According to unnamed sources familiar with the situation, DoJ staff seem most interested in whether or not Apple’s dominance in the market enabled it to unfairly prevent Amazon’s music service from exclusively debuting new songs. Beyond that, details of the investigation are few and far between, but it’s coincidentally coming down on Cupertino when its iTunes numbers are on the up and up. The latest NPD research figures show that over a quarter of the music purchased within the US is now procured through iTunes — 28 percent, if you’re looking for specifics, which is up 4 percentage points from Q1 2009. Meanwhile, Amazon has pulled into a tie with Walmart for second place, which may or may not coerce Wally World to ditch its morals and finally start stocking that uncensored version of My World 2.0.

DoJ making preliminary inquiries into Apple’s music endeavors while iTunes dominance continues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The peripherals maker is out with its new Fantasy Collection, a series of mice, keyboards, Webcams, and more in various colors and designs.

Acer is planning to have an Android tablet in our hands in the fourth quarter of this year. The specs are still secret, but the prototype is most definitely real. Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci pulled one out of his pocket during a presentation in Beijing today.

So what does this 7-inch, touch-screened, probably-3G tablet look like? Like a color-screened Kindle. Acer has decided to differentiate itself from the trend of touch-only devices in favor of an almost square screen and a tiny chiclet keyboard. In shape, then, it is just like a Kindle, although a lot sleeker.

But the Android part is what has us interested. At the rate Google is going, Android will likely have gotten several updates by the fall, and is already shaping up to make a compelling tablet OS. Combine that with Acer’s huge European popularity and low prices and this could be a big hit. One thing though, Acer. In the next half a year that you’re still working on this thing, lose the keyboard already, ‘kay?

Acer CEO shows off 7-inch Android tablet [Shufflegazine via Engadget]

Image: Shufflegazine used with permission. Thanks, Magnus!

Users just have to drop the remote, with or without the jacket, onto either of the two docks to get started. As a bonus, there are two overhead USB ports for other gadgets.