Intel Corp’s low-cost laptop initiative was set to get a boost yesterday from Portugal’s government, which is pledging to provide elementary school students with 500,000 computers based on the chipmaker’s Classmate PC design.
The announcement brings Intel’s rivalry with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization into the spotlight once again.
In May, the nonprofit OLPC group said its green-and-white XO laptop computers would work with Microsoft Corp’s Windows in addition to a homegrown Linux-based operating system.
The move was seen as a way to make the so-called US$100 laptop, which actually costs approximately US$188, more palatable to education ministers primarily in developing countries who might have balked at an open-source system.
But in a single deal for half a million PCs, Intel nearly matched OLPC’s total orders to date — 600,000 units as of May — calling into question whether OLPC’s adoption of Windows has made much difference.
Representatives for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based One Laptop Per Child did not immediately return calls or e-mails seeking comment and an updated order total.
As part of its biggest deal for the Classmate PC to date, Intel said it would serve as technology adviser to Portugal’s Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications, which is coordinating the laptop program.
Intel spokeswoman Agnes Kwan said parents of young school children would be able to choose between computers running Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and ones with an open-source Linux operating system.
She added that the government would distribute the new machines to Portugal’s elementary school students over the course of the school year starting this fall.
As of the middle of this year, “hundreds of thousands” of the Classmate PCs had already shipped to customers in more than 30 countries, Kwan said.
The spokeswoman declined to disclose how much the laptops will cost parents or other financial terms of the deal. She said Portugal’s Ministry of Education is working out pricing details.
Classmate PCs are based on Intel’s design and include its processors, but the machines are built by other manufacturers and sold under a variety of brand names.
The first generation went on sale in March last year; a heftier version with a faster processor and a bigger screen hit the market in April.
Intel’s Classmate PC and OLPC’s XO are just two of a growing field of small, low-cost computers aimed at the millions of students in developing countries who are just gaining access to technology and the Internet.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique