OLPC XO-3 Will Become Reality By Years End

People downplay what OLPC have done for the world. While Intel, Asus and all others have used the netbook market to find a new way to extract money from consumers pockets, OLPC have stuck it through with helping developing countries get their Facebook on. That isn’t quite true. The OLPC is about education and equal opportunity.
There has also been one issue with the OLPC, and that is the price. Originally it was priced at under $100, but by the time it was released it was around the $200 price range. It was great that it actually came to market (instead of becoming vapor), but it was hard for reviewers to let go of the price promise. OLPC is attempting to change that with the upcoming XO-3 model, which will have better hardware under the hood, with an even less reachable price of $75!
The XO-3 which is expected to have its first working prototype by the end of the year, leaves the realm of netbook, and heads more towards the tablet market. This makes more sense, as it is one piece that has no moving or small parts to be easily broken and lost.
The device will be based on the Marvell Moby (10-inch, 1Ghz etc..) reference designs, and if you can think back a couple of weeks, Marvell themselves said they could pop the things out for under $100 each. Plus, it should be using the SmartQi screen we have all heard so much about, making it one of the most interesting devices coming out.
Now while skeptics may be doubting, I think this is possible. Maybe not for the $75, but close enough to that for people to simply be happy. Anything that helps the world get to a better place is always welcome in my books.

More info via [Engadget]

Marvell Does Android Tablet But Fast

Marvell have recently displayed their 10-inch take on the Android (and possibly other OS) tablet. The little guy runs an ultra fast Armada 610 processor (same 1ghz range as snapdragon) which is capable of 1080p video as well as other goodies (ultra low power).
The biggest plus on this device is that it is coming from Marvell themselves. Anyone who has used a Shivaplug will know that Marvell have got a great price to ability ratio. If they can hit the tablet market with a device that is fast enough to be usable at 10-inches with a price comparable to the, terribly made but ridiculous cheap, generic Chinese tablets, then it will be amazing. I know I would be interested at least.

Via [Engadget]

Plug Computing Goes 3.0

Marvell have recently announced the follow up to the hugely hacker friendly Shivaplug. Titled Marvell Plug Computer 3.0, it now contains such goodies as WiFi, Bluetooth and a blisteringly fast 2 GHz Armada 300 processor.  All this crammed inside  something that resembles a mobile phone charger.

This little device can run as a NAS, web server, media streamer, print server, bittorrent downloader and anything else you can imagine, while using very little power and being dead quiet. If they can keep the price around the $US99 of the original, I will be plugging one in soon.

Via [SlashGear]