Monthly Archive for December, 2010

INDIA: $35 Laptop a Revolution in University Learning?

Published on December 21, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Alya Mishra, in University World News

First-generation university student Shanti Chura had never used a computer until she went to college. The tribal girl who came top of the first ever intake for the commerce degree at Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is among the millions of students India’s education ministry wants to reach with its ‘$35 laptop’.

“This is part of the national initiative to take forward inclusive education. The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India,” said Education Minister Kapil Sibal unveiling the prototype of the low-cost laptop in July.

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Google revives ‘network computer’ with dual-OS assault on MS

Published on December 13, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Wireless Watch in The Register:

Google goes after Microsoft on two fronts, with cloudbook and Android tablet Microsoft denies slow start to sales of WP7 devices

One of the great ironies of this year is that Google and Oracle – now owner of Sun and Java – are locked in legal combat. The irony stems from the fact that, even as they bicker, the concept they did more than anyone else to create is back in the limelight. This is what we used to call the thin client, which then morphed into the netbook and now the cloudbook.

In previous iterations, the vision was stymied by the lack of reliable broadband connectivity everywhere, and effectively hijacked by Microsoft. Will the Windows giant, this time around, lose out to the approach conceived by Sun, Oracle and Google – a stripped-down device with long battery life and minimal local storage or apps, connecting for its data and services to the cloud (which we used to call the server)? Google pitched its latest definition of the thin client, with the launch of Chrome OS and a next generation netbook, just after Microsoft shipped its latest – and probably strongest – attempt at finally gaining a position in the mobile world, where the cloud will increasingly have its heart.

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