"In a world where educational opportunities are often disproportionately allocated, it's exciting to think that today anyone with an Internet connection can download any of over one million free public domain books"
I've always thought the OLPC should have pursued a cheap e-reader for public works, rather than a general-purpose $100 ($200 in practice) laptop. You should be able to make an LCD-based e-reader for $50 [1] already. A $20 device doesn't seem far out either.
LCDs can also be bistable, so power is only used when the page changes: http://www.nemoptic.com/ . (They still won't look as good as EInk's electrophoretic displays, but the $ savings are non-trivial.)
I've always thought the OLPC should have pursued a cheap e-reader for public works, rather than a general-purpose $100 ($200 in practice) laptop. You should be able to make an LCD-based e-reader for $50 [1] already. A $20 device doesn't seem far out either.
LCDs can also be bistable, so power is only used when the page changes: http://www.nemoptic.com/ . (They still won't look as good as EInk's electrophoretic displays, but the $ savings are non-trivial.)
[1] E.g. datapoint: Coby's portable DVD player with 7" color LCD is $60: http://www.amazon.com/Coby-TFDVD7008-7-Inch-Portable-Player/...