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New England Patriots QB Tom Brady has announced he is teaming up with the One Laptop Per Child project and buying 1,500 of them to send to children in Uganda.  They will be shipped to his sister Nancy who works with the Infectious Diseases Institute there.  Continued after the break.

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Just a few months back, we saw Peru become the first country in the world to begin a Windows XP based XO laptop pilot program, and now Columbia will be joining them.  The announcement, which comes courtesy of Microsoft, is calling for the program to initially take place in Quetame and Chia, but will also be expanded in the future. 

As one would expect, the “pilot programs are an effort to introduce more technology into schools and prepare kids for high tech jobs in the future.“  Unfortunately, nothing was mentioned as to how many XP-based XO laptops were being deployed.  That may not sound all that important; however, it was reported that the Peru deployment included only 50 laptops.

This Colombian Windows XP-based pilot program comes in addition to another recent announcement from OLPC.  Just last month, it was reported that schools in Bogota Columbia would be getting 20,000 XO laptops, and that an additional 90,000 would be sent to Cartagena courtesy of Colombian foundations and private donors.  Of course, these will not be running Windows XP.

Read [NetworkWorld]  Via [OLPC News]

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Despite some earlier reports that Amazon would begin sales of the next XO laptop Give One Get One program on November 1, it looks like that date was off by a few weeks.  The latest information, along with confirmation from the OLPC foundation is that sales will begin on November 17.  That’s a bit longer to wait than we originally expected, but on the bright side that just gives us a little longer to put some money aside.

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The One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC), Microsoft, and Peru’s Education Minister José Antonio Chang Escobedo have recently announced that Peru will be the first in the world to get Windows XP-based XO Laptops.

The new laptops will be part of a nine-month pilot that is intended to “integrate educational software, low-cost computing, and technology training into classrooms throughout Peru.“ The XO Laptops will be made available to the students 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and will (as previously mentioned) be running Windows XP Pro. In addition, they will also feature the Student Innovation Suite which includes programs such as Office 2003 Standard and Learning Essentials 1.0.

While the pilot has been designated for nine-months, there has not been any mention of when it will begin, or how many of the XO Laptops will be made available for the students. As of now, this is the first and only XP-based XO announcement, and if you remember the laptops that will be available in the upcoming Give One Get One program will remain with just the original Sugar Linux installed.

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

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After the recent popularity of the initial news that the ‘Give One Get One’ program would be returning this November with sales being handled through Amazon, the OLPC’s Product Manager Kim Quirk posted a message on wiki.laptop.org further confirming the news, but also added an extra detail that will possibly disappoint some that were a little hopeful.

While the program is still set for “late 2008” Quirk has also made it clear that these XO laptops will be the Sugar Linux based versions and not the dual boot models with Windows XP. In addition he also went on to clarify the reasoning behind the sales through Amazon. Of course most people would have guessed the reason was due to the shipping issues, but according to Quirk; “Selling the laptops on Amazon.com will provide us with the resources to process and ship the laptops globally in a timely fashion.“ Sounds like a winning plan to me, now its time to start putting a few bucks away while waiting for November.

Read [wiki.laptop.org] Via [OLPC News]

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It turns out the earlier reports were indeed accurate, and the ‘Give One Get One’ program will be making a return later this year, and it will be handled by none other than Amazon.com.

This information comes courtesy of Matt Keller who is the director of Europe, Middle East and Africa at OLPC and he has confirmed that Amazon will begin selling the XO laptop in late November with sales running through the end of December. Keller also went on to clarify their reasoning behind Amazon handling the sales, stating that they are just “a small group of people,“ which hopefully will put an end to the shipping issue complaints that we saw last year.

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Windows XP coming to the OLPC XO Laptop certainly comes as little surprise, its been hinted at, and even shown off in the past, but what does come as news is that it should be available by this September.

Microsoft has recently released a version of Windows XP to manufacturing and according to James Utzschneider, the General Manager of Marketing and Communications, Unlimited Potential Group “it is on track for availability in these types of national educational PC deals in September.“

As I am sure you can imagine, the version of Windows XP that will be running is going to be highly tweaked and customized, but sadly it will not be made available for current XO owners.

So it looks like those who purchased through last years “Give 1 Get 1” program will have to make yet another purchase if its Windows XP they want to run, that is until it somehow gets leaked. While I certainly cannot endorse that, its hard to imagine it will not happen.

Read [ZDNet]

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During the “Give 1 Get 1” sale for the OLPC XO laptop, T-Mobile had been offering a free year of T-Mobile Hotspot access with any G1G1 purchase. Well, it seems that there was a time limit on just when you could activate your account and begin your free year of service and today, June 30 is the last day to take advantage of that offer. So if you were amongst that group and for some reason have not activated your T-Mobile service or were just holding off for some reason, you better act quick or risk loosing that perk.

In addition, it looks like the “Give 1 Get 1” program will be making a come back as expected later in this year. A recent update to the laptop.org wiki states to check the “website for more information after September 1.“ Hopefully the sales will begin on, if not shortly after September 1, that way we can see some holiday time deliveries without much worry of a late delivery. The G1G1 is being worked on for “the US, Canada, and several other countries.“

Via [OLPC News]

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While the original XO Laptop in green is nice enough looking, there is always something that makes it sound special when its labeled as a limited edition. In this case the latest limited edition is a red model of the XO Laptop. There are reported to only be 100 of these special models made and they are all slated for the developers that are working on the dual boot Windows XP and Sugar Linux systems.

Aside from the red coloring, the models also offer 2GB of flash memory, which is the minimum required for Windows XP to run. No plans have been announced for a future release of this coloring, so chances are you will never see one in the wild, that is unless a developer goes against the path and decides to drop theirs on eBay, but I would not count on that happening. Keep reading to check out a few more images of the red XO…

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Just a month after distribution began, the OLPC organization has been hit by theft. Armed robbers in Peru stole 66 XO laptops from a school in the settlement of San Pedro. The motive for the theft is unknown but in poor areas thieves tend to steal anything they believe has resale, and the XO has tremendous value, just check out eBay to see for yourself. Sadly, MIT Media Lab co-founder doesn’t seem to get it. He had this to say when asked about the theft potential of the XO:

“There are thousands of cars in the United States stolen each day, but not one single post office truck has been stolen in the history of the United States. The reason is that there is no secondary market for post office trucks because they look like post office trucks.“

His analogy suggests there is no secondary market for the XO, due to the distinctive looks the unit has, but he is mistaken. The theft in Peru and the listings of XO laptops for sale on eBay are proof of that. See someone other than a child using an XO? Be suspicious.

Read [OLPC News]

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