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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]

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]

A truly one of a kind XO Laptop is currently up for auction with all the proceeds going back to OLPC. The XO Laptop was signed by a collection of geeks and internet celebrities as they wandered around the recent ROFLCon event. The XO has been dubbed the “One ROFLaptop Per Child.” Some of the highlights include Kyle the One Red Paperclip guy, the Tron Guy, Firefox, the JibJab guys, iJustine, the Average Homeboy, Scott Beale from Laughing Squid and many, many more. As of this writing the XO currently has just about 2 days left and is sitting at just over $500. Keep reading to check out another image along with a video showing off some of the signatures.

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OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte has announced the upcoming release of the next-generation XO laptop, effectively referred to as the either the XOXO or the XO-2. Taking the announcement of the XO-2 in a new direction, Negroponte has stated that they choose to show off and announce some details about the design early in hopes that others will copy it.

Unfortunately the details that were announced were not complete, however what was mentioned sounds great. The XO-2 will feature dual-displays that will be able to be viewed even in sunlight. Each display will be touchscreen based and one can be used as a keyboard with touchpad. You can also use both as a display for games or turn the laptop to the side and use it as a dual-screened e-book. The plan is to have the XO-2 ready by 2010, while we certainly want to see this come available, this release time frame is something that we will have to see to believe.

Also in addition to the XO-2 announcement, Negroponte also stated that the ‘Give 1 Get 1’ program will come back around August or September of this year.

Keep reading for a few more images of the XO-2…

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Microsoft and OLPC have issued the official word that the XO laptop will begin to become available with Windows XP, while we have heard the rumors, its now official. Currently the XO laptops running Windows XP are scheduled to begin their trial stage in June, however they are anticipated to be released as early as September.

Windows XP will not be replacing the original Sugar Linux, they will both be available, and there is even some talk of a model that is dual booting with both Sugar Linux and Windows XP.

Similar to the original release of the XO, these new XP-based models will be headed to developing nations and not the retail market. Keep reading to check out a nice vide demonstration…

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Maybe it was the pressure of wanting to release their product as early as possible, but the makers of the OLPC XO-1 laptop sure have a lot of explaining to do regarding the recent news about widespread keyboard failure on their computers. Apparently, a lot of users are finding that most of the keys on their keyboard have been acting a bit funny lately, with some having keys getting activated by presses on nearby keys, as well as a few that keep getting stuck after being hit one. Which is definitely bad news, especially for the intended target market of non-techies and first time computer users. 

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In a case of pure irony, Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Delaney bought an OLPC XO Laptop for his kids, thinking it would be a good for them to learn to be creative on a computer. Well, turns out, the kids don’t seem to care about creativity. They reverted back to their five-year old desktop because it was “easier to play simple games and watch videos on the Web.”

“Generally, we limit the kids to one or two hours on the computer on weekend days. And at first, they were eager to spend that time on the XO. But they soon became less and less interested in the laptop. Once Jack packed it up in a briefcase when he was playing at being a grown-up—but he didn’t actually turn it on.”

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Back in early December, Birmingham, Alabama had become the first school district in the U.S. to purchase the XO laptops from the OLPC project. It now seems they may not have put as much thought into having these actually work as they did when placing and negotiating the order.

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After the recent bad news regarding Intel for the OLPC project it is good to see that they have set up offices in the US and are looking to expand through state governments and get the XO laptop into the hands of the poorest kids in the US.

The XO laptop costs $188 which is almost double the initial target of $100, and with $10,000 spent per annum on each primary school child in the US compared to $20 in Bangladesh it is likely that the project is looking to boost sales of the XO in the US to help support the sales in the poorer nations, but as the poorest kids in the US benefit at the same time it seems like a win-win situation to me.

Via [BBC]